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Nike Helps Police Catch Counterfeiter

Attention retailers, don’t F with Nike! If you try and play them dirty they’ll descend on you with the power of a 1000 nations—ok maybe 300 has been on Cinemax too much this month, but you get the point. Justin Coale found this out the hard way. He’s the owner of a store called Street Wear—he should be punished for that name and obnoxious “Now Open” banner alone—that was charged with selling fake Nikes. After the sneaker giant became aware of the artificial kicks it hired P.I.s who confirmed that the sneakers were not authentic. Police then went in with their own undercover unit. In all they seized over $10k worth of counterfeit Air Force 1s and Jordans that were allegedly bought in NYC—we’re guessing somewhere around Canal Street.

Despite officials seizing more than 114 pairs of counterfeit swoosh sneakers and the possibility of facing 41 years in prison, Coale claims his business is legit. Since not everything in his store isn’t fugazi he remains open, and he does make a point about the fact that he’s not peddling crack: ”What can I say? Honestly, I can be selling drugs to kids. I bought the shoes on the street. It’s not like I had a warehouse I went to.” He also sold bootleg CDs—at a discount rate of $5—to patrons, 81 of which were also seized.

[TheMorningCall]