Designer Knockoffs are Not Vegan September 16, 2008

…no matter how fake the leather/fur/wool/silk might be.

If anyone knows what it’s like to have haute-couture taste on a Salvation Army budget, it’s me. And I wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl Balenciaga copy from Santee Alley on my arm (even if the “It Bag” phenomenon weren’t dead, which it pretty much is).

This is not about label mania, snobbery, or greed. This is about human rights and standards of decent behavior.

What do human rights have to do with knockoffs? Read and learn.

In the old days, most people who knocked off designer goods were relatively ordinary, if somewhat unscrupulous, people just looking to capitalize on someone else’s creative work. This only harmed struggling designers with poor cash flow and anyone tricked into buying a fake who was subsequently mocked for it. Some American department stores were allowed to reproduce European designers’ goods and sell them, but they were charged fees for the privilege.

In recent years, most knockoff goods have been made in shady conditions (read: sweatshops), often by child workers. In Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Dana Thomas describes an account of Thai children whose legs were broken to keep them from going outside to play while they were supposed to be making fake handbags.

The knockoff trade is mainly run by organized crime syndicates (probably because the cops are more likely to bust someone for money laundering than for copying the Vuitton logo) and even terrorist groups. Thomas also mentions al-Qaeda and Hezbollah’s ostensible forays into South American sales of knockoff t-shirts to fund, among other awful things, the 9/11 attacks.

These groups are, of course, also actively involved in the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and humans, to say nothing of terrorism and gang links. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.

Being vegan is about reducing suffering. When you buy fakes, you are giving your money to people who are actively making the world worse. Don’t believe it? Talk to someone who has worked in a sweatshop for 72 hours straight, having been fed amphetamines to stay awake and meet the production quota. Talk to someone who lost a friend or relative on 9/11. Talk to someone who has struggled with drug addiction for years or seen their once-respectable neighborhood overrun by a large street gang.

Buying knockoff goods cannot legitimately be called a victimless crime. Please don’t support those despicable criminals.