Supremely Fake: An Italian's Job of selling "Legal Fakes"​.

"You can paint a flower, but not its smell."

- Italian Proverb

What could be better for an Italian Entrepreneur than building a Luxury clothing brand, well! counterfeiting somebody else's, albeit legally. In the World of "Legal Fakes" Supreme Italia's Founder Michele di Pierro is the Godfather. The 53-year-old Italian has Elevated Legally Selling Counterfeits into an art form.

Supreme Italia's (no relation to Supreme NYC) products first appeared in public during the January 2016 edition of Pitti Uomo, the biannual men's fashion event in Florence, Italy. When some men wearing Supreme branded clothing appeared at the event. Since then Di Pierro's brand which is based out of Barletta, Italy has been selling Supreme branded Hoodies, T-Shirts & Caps in Italy.

FAKING IT

"The two have Hijacked every facet of the company's identity and plagiarized it,".

Even if a brand is well known its Trademarks have to be registered in every country as the risk remains that someone else might claim it. Exploiting this Loophole in International Trademark Law Supreme Italia (also referred to as Supreme Barletta) filed trademark requests in various countries including Italy, Spain, and China where Chapter 4 Corp.(owner of Supreme New York) had not yet secured its registration. After applying for the trademark it started manufacturing these "legal fake" Supreme branded products in Italy. First Supreme Italia started selling these products online and then started selling them through smaller shops across Italy.

GOING GLOBAL

"Like ticks, they jumped from one company to another and one jurisdiction to another."

In 2017, Di Pierro expanded outside Italy by opening few shops in Spain. The one in Barcelona had the same interior as the original in New York.

In 2018, Samsung assuming Supreme Italia to be the original Supreme unknowingly partnered with it for the Shanghai launch of its new smartphone. After being ridiculed online Samsung backed out of the deal.

Alleging "parasitic competition" Chapter 4, the owners of Supreme NYC sued Di Pierro in Italian courts. Di Pierro's defense was that Supreme itself is a knockoff of New York artist Barbara Krugers posters. The aesthetics of her propaganda posters which consisted of black and white photographs with white Futura fonts on a red background are used by Supreme. Many of her works have predated Supreme NYC which was started in 1994 by a British-American designer James Jebbia.

Supreme Italia shut down its operations in Italy when Italian courts ordered the seizure of Supreme branded clothes from Supreme Italia's Stores and warehouses. His outlets in Spain and China stayed open, and he did not close the rest of his outlets until Chinese and Spanish regulators recognized Supreme NYC's ownership of the brand.

STEAL, SELL, REPEAT

"most brazen counterfeiting operation."

Before creating Supreme Italia, in the year 2012 Di Pierro had registered the ironically named Pyrex Original which was actually a knockoff of African American Designer Virgil Abloh's brand Pyrex Vision.

In 2020, after registering the Vision Street Wear brand in San Marino Di Pierro returned to Pitti Uomo in Florence to promote it. The original Vision Street Wear is owned by Authentic Brands Group LLC, and like supreme it is also a skater-oriented label.

EPILOGUE

On 25th June 2021, a London court sentenced Michele Di Pierro and his son Marcello Di Pierro to serve 8 years and 3 years respectively. Judge Martin Beddoe called it the most brazen counterfeiting operation he had ever seen. In his Judgement, he said that "The two have Hijacked every facet of the company's identity and plagiarized it,". He also said that "Like ticks, they jumped from one company to another and one jurisdiction to another." The court also fined Michele's UK-based company International Brand Firm Ltd. 7.5 Million pounds which is unlikely to be recovered.