Wednesday 15 July 2009

Genuine Lacoste?

Lacoste polo shirts are notoriously chosen by con-men and dishonest fraudsters to copy cheap fakes, churned out in Asia by the thousands. There used to be lots of them for sale on Ebay, though it has tightened up on this practice following complaints by innocent buyers.

Genuine Lacoste polo shirts are relatively expensive. I've been searching the web and the best prices are around £45-£50 here in the UK. If anyone knows of a genuine and reputable retailer who sells them for less than this (and has a decent selection), please let us all know.

This evening I have found an online retailer called 1UnderwearStore.com which appears to sell the complete range of Lacoste polo shirts. They advertize a price of $59.99, reduced from $79.99. Inserting a "My Voucher Code" of "5discount"; and including flat rate shipping to Europe of $9.95 amounts to a good deal for British consumers, so it seems.

If I bought two shirts, say a light blue and a dark green, the grand total would come to $113.98 including postage. That's about £69, or less than £35 each. I doubt if any UK retailer could compete with this, could they? I phoned Warnock's shop in Belfast and the best price they quoted me for one shirt was £50.

I wonder where they are manufactured? Has anyone heard of this company at all? According to Wikipedia, "after a two year search in the Central American region, Lacoste established production for its U.S. customers in the Miramar Free Trade Zone in El Salvador. El Salvador operations will be managed by a new the local subsidiary, Textil El Salvador (TRANS)."

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

Well I think you just saved a few pounds,not buying those shirts.Couse theyre very expensive fakes!!!!You can search for any site from China (Lacoste products from China),and all their sites look alike.From China you can buy very good counterfits for about 10$ a piece.If you buy more lets say 25-30, you get them for 7$.And theyre AAA quality.I know couse I got some.Theres no difference between those and the ones in the shops.So the conclusion is...You dont know really what you are paying in the shop for.They might be fakes too.And the shop owners are making very good money on people like us!!!!

Timothy Belmont said...

Hello Anon,

Many thanks for that.

I didn't go ahead in the end. For some reason, their system wouldn't accept my credit card! I have never had any problems with it and my bank assured me that everything was fine at my end.

So their non-acceptance of my card may have done me a favour!

Tim

Anonymous said...

Well theres only a few companys in China,accepting credit cards.But you have to be very careful,a mean very careful,couse there is a lot of scammers there.The best way to pay for the goods from China is Western Union,and the safe way also is Paypal. Tradekey.com is holding all those companys,but before you buy you should check out a site;china scam list.Anyway I would not be paying them with my credit card.It is too dangerous,to give your numbers to people you dont really know>

Anonymous said...

Genuine Lacoste products are sold at retailers listed on lacoste.com. I wouldn't trust anyone else when it comes to a very high end make like them. Must say I'm very surprised there isn't either a new boutique or section within the House of Fraser store at Victoria Centre Belfast

Timothy Belmont said...

I spoke to the chap at Gieves & Hawkes concession in H of F in Belfast and seemingly they are closing down.