“Counterfeit shirts are becoming a growing problem in football,” said Bruce. “It’s always kind of been there, but it’s starting to become such an issue now that we’re really feeling it as a football club.
“I think we need to take the positives that we’re a big enough club that the idea of someone going out of their way to make counterfeit products shows we’re a club in demand. But at the end of the day, it’s our job to protect the football club, and the intellectual property of the football club. It’s a core part of our business, and if we’re not able to attract people to put money into the football club, and sell against the football club, then it’s a problem.”
Increasingly, it is also an issue that is threatening to spiral out of control. In the past, the counterfeiting of football shirts might have conjured up images of a dodgy dealer shadily selling knock-off gear in the back room of a pub. To an extent, that still goes on. But counterfeit sportswear is now a billion-pound global industry, deeply embedded in organised crime, reliant on regulation-breaking sweatshops and with a finely-tuned and largely untraceable reach on social media and the dark web.
Sunderland estimate that one in 15 of the replica shirts worn at the Stadium of Light on a matchday is a fake. Analysis produced by Corsearch suggests that Premier League fans spent more than £180m buying fake shirts last season, a third of the genuine market, which is worth around £489m. Online searches for fake shirts rose by 518 per cent in the three years to 2024, and an estimated 16.2m fake shirts are produced annually every year.
“Anyone who is counterfeiting is doing three things we really struggle and have a problem with,” said Bruce. “The first is that anyone who is buying a counterfeit product is basically supporting organised crime. We know the people at the core of this are essentially criminals.
“Typically, the big players in this are operating out of the Far East. They’re creating these products, but ultimately, they’re connected to a wider network that ultimately has its core in the underground criminal world. That’s the first thing, and that obviously doesn’t sit very well with us.”
Then, there is the issue of lost revenue, a huge problem for a club like Sunderland, who reported an annual operating loss of £8.1m in their most recent accounts, which were published earlier this month.
READ MORE:
“No money from counterfeit sales comes back to the football club,” said Bruce. “We work really, really hard on ensuring our products are of as high a quality as possible because they’re representing the city and the fans.
“We’ve got a product range now we’re really excited about – stuff we’ve never had for years – and we spend a lot of time creating that. There’s a lot of time and money goes into creating that and manufacturing those products, and then to see inferior products come out and people buying them sits very awkwardly with the football club.
“Someone buying that product means there’s no money coming back to the club, and all the money that comes back to the football club is reinvested into the club, either on the playing side or on things that will improve the fan experience around the club. If that’s not coming back to us, then it’s lost money.”
And as well as costing Sunderland money, Bruce insists the counterfeit shirt market is also putting the club’s supporters at risk.
“The final thing, and we have to get this message across, is that it’s actually dangerous to the fans,” he said. “We spend a lot of time with our technical partners on ensuring the fabrics and materials that are used to make any of our products are all rigorously tested to the highest possible international and domestic standards.
“These counterfeit products are inferior products that haven’t been through any of that. We know there are examples where a lot of these products are flammable. People are giving them to kids, and if you’re close to a naked flame, that’s so dangerous. We’re very cognisant of making sure our fans have that message. We want them to be safe, and we know our products are safe and they aren’t.”
That safety assurance costs. Sunderland’s adult replica shirts retail for around £60. The price point for most Premier League clubs is slightly higher, at around £80. A cursory internet search quickly reveals fake replica shirts for both Sunderland and Newcastle United on sale for £10.
At a time when household costs are continually rising, and in a region where income levels are some of the lowest in the country, is it any wonder that families are turning to the counterfeit market in order to kit themselves out for football?
“I understand the cost pressures,” said Bruce. “As a club, we understand all the challenges people have financially. We’re mindful and respectful of that, and that’s part of the reason why we work so hard to try to keep the cost of our products as cheap as they possibly can be.
“If you look at pretty much every Premier League team, their adult replica shirts are somewhere about £80 and their on-the-pitch shirts are £110. We sell at £60, but there’s a lot of work and technical spec that goes into the design and manufacturing process and ultimately that has to be factored into the price.
“We try to keep that price as low as we can, and we have discount periods where fans can get them even cheaper. We believe, when we look around, that our products are very competitively priced. But they’re being completely undermined by the counterfeit goods that are out there.”
So, what can Sunderland do? Educating fans about the damage caused by counterfeit sales is important, but the Black Cats are also taking more forceful steps to try to stamp out the illegal trade networks that have become so embedded in the Wearside region in recent years.
“It’s kind of like whack-a-mole,” admitted Bruce. “When one of these operations is shut down, another tends to spring up straightaway, but there’s a couple of things we’re trying to do.
“We’re trying to educate the fans and make them understand that when they make that choice (to buy a fake shirt), what they’re ultimately doing. But there are also some other things that we’re doing to try to help our business.
“We have a global partner who is looking at what is going on at source. Where are these things coming from? Typically, it’s based in the Far East, so how can we stop that? We have a global group that is trying to help us figure that out.
“Then we’re also looking domestically at local sellers. We know there’s a lot of local sellers involved in the sale of these counterfeits. Delivery drivers, online sites, social media. It’s all tied up in it, and we’re going after those people.
“We’re issuing cease and desist orders, and we have local law enforcement working with us on that. We’re trying to shut it down wherever we can. We’ve had some success with that, there’s hundreds of shirts we’ve taken off the street.
“And then the EFL are taking this very seriously as well. It’s been an agenda item at meetings at a very high level for quite a while now.”
