Market for counterfeit Yeezy sneakers by Kanye West

Kanye West’s Yeezy sneakers have become so expensive and hard-to-find that they have necessitated a booming counterfeit market out of China.

Yeezys, which are made by Adidas and designed by rapper Kanye West, are produced in small batches and often sell out quickly. Generally, only 40,000 pairs of any given style are created. Resellers such as StockX and GOAT will then sell them at astronomically higher rates.

As such, prospective buyers who are either unwilling or unable to fork over more than $1,000 for a pair of the famous shoes worn by celebrities from the Kardashians to the Hadids have turned to the next best thing: counterfeit replicas. 

The shoes can be found on the Reddit forums, specifically Repsneakers, which has 56,000 subscribers, reports the Los Angeles Times. 

Redditer Spencelord told the Times: ‘The sneaker world in its current state is being controlled by people who [use] bots. These people aren’t buying to wear, they’re buying to make profit, which then drives the price up for people who genuinely want to buy to wear.’

Can you tell the difference? One Instagram user uploaded side-by-side comparisons of authentic and counterfeit Yeezy sneakers

Very few pairs of any given style of Yeezy sneaker are produced and resellers will buy them up and sell them at higher prices

People who want Yeezy sneakers without the high prices have turned to Reddit forums such as Repsneakers

One Redditer told the Los Angeles Times: ‘The sneaker world in its current state is being controlled by people who [use] bots. These people aren’t buying to wear, they’re buying to make profit, which then drives the price up for people who genuinely want to buy to wear’

On the forum, buyers will communicate with counterfeiters to help them get details right down to the length of a sock liner. 

With each successive batch, counterfeiters can create a shoe closer to the original, to the point that they become nearly indistinguishable. A truly indistinguishable shoe, called a 1:1, is the gold standard.

The shoes are sold via e-commerce and average around $100. They are shipped to buyers through discreet, legal means.

Reditters will also write reviews of shoes made by specific counterfeiters and offer advice on what to do if caught and ‘shamed’ for wearing a counterfeit shoe.

Many of the shoes come out of Putian, a city in southern China that anchors the country’s shoe manufacturing industry. 

One seller, a Singaporean national named Chan, told the Times that he sells up to 120 counterfeit pairs on any given day. 

Pictured is an unofficial store selling knockoffs in Wenzhou, China. The store is called Yeezy

In certain cases, the shoe designs are leaked from China’s two official Adidas factories to the numerous unofficial ones. 

 There is even an unofficial store, called Yeezy, that sells counterfeit and knockoff shoes in Wenzhou, China, reports Mashable.

In 2016, US Customs and Borders agents seized counterfeit property with a total value of $1.38bn. 

Adidas has worked with Kanye West on his Yeezy sneakers since 2015, after he stopped working with Nike. 

The Yeezy Waverunner 700 had a surprise release this past August. It was priced at $300, reports GQ.

Pictured is Kanye West wearing a pair of Yeezy sneakers in October 2015