Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Brooklyn donates knockoffs to Haiti

The Brooklyn district attorney's office is helping in the Haiti earthquake relief effort by donating counterfeit knockoff clothing to the country. According to CNN:

Haiti's children will benefit from the new clothes
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Seven truckloads of confiscated counterfeit designer duds and shoes -- Ed Hardy, Nike and Diesel among the imitation brands -- are headed to earthquake victims in Haiti.

The 125,000 tons of clothing and shoes, valued at $10 million, were seized by New York police and would normally be destroyed, but in this case, the contraband will go to good use.

"Permission was obtained from manufacturers, including Nike, Timberland, Antik Denim Jeans, Black Label and Christian Audigier, to allow the knockoffs to be donated to charity," Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes told CNN affiliate WPIX.

Hynes' office came up the idea. It was decided the goods, warehoused for a while, would come to better use in Haiti.

The
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powerful January 12 earthquake rendered more than 1 million people homeless in the Caribbean nation. Many are eking out a meager existence, living in tents and underneath tarps.

The international charity World Vision has agreed to deliver the items donated by the Brooklyn authorities.

But there's one catch: All brand identifiers like labels and logos will be removed in order to avoid trademark issues.


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