Roberto Botticelli against imitation products

Roberto Botticelli, the owner of the company that bears his name, plans to take legal action against companies that copy his designs and sell fake designer shoes under the Roberto Botticelli brand name. He visited the flagship store in Amsterdam to explain. “Look!” said the Italian designer, holding up two of his limited edition sports shoes. “The have copied absolutely everything – the shape of the shoe, the sole, the accessories and all of the details. Our brand name is printed in the same lettering. They have also copied the box down to the last detail and have even included the address of the factory!” Roberto Botticelli points out the differences between the fake shoe and the real shoe. The fake products differ mainly in terms of the materials that have been used – the leather is inferior and there is even some plastic – and in terms of the technical aspects: the finish on the fake shoe is less refined and the shoe is not as robust as the real one.

In August Dutch customs officials at the Port of Rotterdam contacted Roberto Botticelli and informed him that a consignment of illegal imitations of his brand-name products had been imported into the Netherlands from China. There were 30,000 pairs of shoes and 10,000 t-shirts. Not all of the imitation products were traced, so many of them are now being sold on the European market.

The company estimates that these imitation products will mean a direct loss of 800,000 euros (717,300 pounds). But this is not Roberto Botticelli’s main concern. As he puts it: “Indirectly these fake products undermine our brand. The people who buy the fake shoes will believe that the quality of our shoes leaves a lot to be desired.”

All the more reason to take action against the imitation products. The first thing the company did was to appoint an investigative agency which will find out how the shoes are being distributed. A lawyer will then take the shops that sell the imitation products to court.