Everscale Partner
In a market full of fakes, identifying the original is not easy. This is especially true of today’s fashion markets. Many people from the middle or lower class cannot afford to buy goods of large fashion brands such as Gucci and LV, and some do not even know about their existence.
Nevertheless, on the street today you can often meet people with Michael Kors handbags, in Gucci clothes or in Adidas shoes, who do not realize that they are just fakes. Among these fakes, there are perfect copies that are difficult to distinguish from the originals.
On the one hand, the availability of these copies made them so attractive to certain groups that they prefer to buy them, even knowing that this is not the original. On the other hand, in some countries, such as India, there is a class of people who are not aware of major brands or designers and who are not trying to understand what the difference is, so they end up wearing Abibas T-shirts or shoes that have two brands on it at the same time. . Many also face fraud when ordering the original, but receive a low-quality copy. But the question is, how does this affect brands and consumers?
The effect of fakes
Fakes create problems for both genuine brands and consumers. They not only deprive brands of sales by offering products at substantially lower prices, but also damage the reputation of brands by offering low-quality products that consumers accept as genuine. Poor quality harms consumer confidence in products, as well as business partners of the brand. Outraged consumers dissatisfied with the quality of the products they receive require genuine brands to return funds or exchange fakes, which leads to a chaotic situation. Ultimately, brands have to spend more on combating fakes.
How Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada Can Use Blockchain Technology
Comparison of real (left) and fake (right) bags of the Gucci brand.
This whole situation not only takes time and money from brands and consumers, but also deprives designers and brands of inspiration to focus on the development of their projects. This causes brands lasting damage.
Blockchain solution for brands
Blockchain seems to be the best solution to get rid of fakes. The use of distributed registry technology in the fashion industry can save genuine brands and designers from the intrusive attention of fake manufacturers. Many projects are now considering applying technology in the fashion industry to provide transparency, security, and authenticity to both designers and end users. One such project harnessing the potential of blockchain technology is Curate.
Curate was created with the intention of giving users easy access to exclusive and unique fashion products by small and large retailers and designers. This is a decentralized style finder app that rewards users for contributing to the platform with cryptocurrencies such as ETH, BTC and its own CUR8 token.
Brands and retailers such as LV, Zara, Gucci, Prada, and Amazon have become partners with Curate to take advantage of the blockchain technology used by the platform. The technology helps brands protect customers from fraud and the risk of buying a fake thanks to the integrated system of remote radio frequency identification (RFID).
Users can verify the authenticity and originality of purchased products by scanning RFID tags attached to the material. You can use the mobile phone’s camera to scan tags and get the history of the material. This unique option not only helps customers buy genuine brands, but also protects the reputation of brands from damage caused by fakes.
The history of the material also helps consumers who are reluctant to buy environmentally friendly clothing. The platform also helps designers, both small and large, gain recognition and fame based on user ratings and votes.
Blockchain has become a savior for both small designers and large brands. He is able to solve the problems of the fashion industry and protect consumers from fakes. Projects integrating blockchain into the fashion industry will be very useful in countries such as India, where counterfeit products account for most of the market.
The Curate team has demonstrated insight by realizing the problem and developing a non-trusted platform to solve it, while at the same time providing an improved user experience through the use of the social network concept. The project was launched on August 9, 2019.
