Effects of Pirate and Copy goods [179 Days]

In 2017 I have come across a few people (and shops) that have no scruples about selling counterfeit or complete rip-offs of original archery products, and frankly, it blows my mind…

I honestly do not understand how any person can be so shortsighted about the long term effects their decisions will have. I understand money talks (both greed, and simple cost of living) but archery is something we love and would like to do for a long long time, but we seem to be intent in shooting ourselves in the one foot and cutting off the other…

What happens when you buy counterfeit or copies?

First, you take a potshot at the company that developed the original. They took the time, money, effort and risk to develop this product for you. Sure, their motive is to make money in the end (everybody working in that shop wants to have food on the table, and put their kids through school, and two-ply toilet paper is also nice every now and again)

But realistically, when you don’t buy the original, it makes it more difficult for them to make another “original” or even improve on their first designs.

Secondly, you would hate your job being outsourced, wouldn’t you? Well, funny how you support it when it’s not your job? So the local guys, working local factory floors, now can’t be sustained, because we will rather buy the cheap copy, made in a factory from inferior (but cheaper) materials by a workforce with no minimum wage, and very little legal protection of any kind.

Thirdly, the brand trust gets destroyed. This is a side effect few people mention.

“I won’t shoot those, my buddy had a PERFECT SHOT on a deer/elk/hog/bear and it simply didn’t work… I will never shoot those”

Assuming the shot was perfect, the question now is… was that the real thing? The fact is that EVERYTHING has failures. There is not a product that doesn’t fail. Even bricks fail. But the genuine manufacturer will remove a lot of the failures at the QC inspection, and end up with a 1 in 1,000 failure rate (if that high) – A cheaper product can have a massive failure rate, and nobody cares because they saved money and theirs apparently ”worked flawlessly” (which it may as well have, because luckily you had one of the 100 that did work great…)

But when it fails, the fake product destroys the brand trust of the real product, because when it all goes pear shaped, who will admit that they bought a cheap knock-off to save a few bucks, and gets judged by everybody in the hunting group and social media. And the average Joe just scrolls through their Facebook feed and sees people complain about the product… and every time the brand trust and product trust gets chipped away.

Truth isn’t truth, Perception is Truth!

And then we get that special guy…

You know, The Guy that buys 12 fake broadheads for $16 and then sells them on Archery Talk or Craigslist as the real thing at $20 for three, claiming he switched to a heavier/lighter setup or some crap story and showing up under a different profile every few weeks. Lying through his nose… but making a sale! (Heck, can we at least get rid of that guy!?)

And Lastly… your local pro shop gets hammered. And not in a good way! Less legitimate sales, from both the knockoff sales as well as they guy selling the knockoffs “second-hand” out on the range. And then the actual products gets more difficult to stock in bulk, because it’s more expensive, and sales becomes fewer and fewer and so the effects roll on until its just not worth having a little pro shop out in the sticks…

…and the Result…

Every quality product now gets more expensive, and more difficult to sustain and protect. More and more companies close their doors, or downsize, or simply give up and sell out.

But hey! You bought a bargain, some greedy twit made a few bucks, and we get to complain at every chance that our sport has become really expensive…

…ok… rant over… regular programing will continue…

About Sean Nel 51 Articles
Sean Nel is a staff shooter for Archer's Edge South Africa, Beestinger, GoldTip, Sureloc and Health Matrix as well as an accredited Archery Instructor with the South African National Archery Association (SANAA)