Posted on: Monday, February 14, 2005

Pro Bowl brings out bootlegs

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

HALAWA — Football fan Bryan Foley of San Diego, attending his sixth straight Pro Bowl here yesterday, said he saw two men hawking T-shirts near Aloha Stadium for $10 to $12, but didn't fall for the knockoffs.

"One was a tie-dye shirt, the other a regular shirt," Foley said. "You know they're knockoffs because they look cheap. You take 'em home, wash 'em and the large you bought is all of a sudden a medium. We try to get the real thing. You pay a little more but you come out ahead because cheap is cheap."

The Pro Bowl in Hawai'i not only attracts the National Football League's elite players, but also the best of the best of the merchandising bootleggers.

A special unit of five plainclothes Honolulu police officers yesterday arrested four people at the auxiliary parking lot next to Aloha Stadium in an investigation of felony trademark infringement violations regarding counterfeit NFL T-shirts and caps.

"It's a quarter- to half-million dollars just in Hawai'i," said Vincent Yim, Aloha Stadium's merchandising manager. But the Pro Bowl has developed a reputation of being a "tough spot" for bootleggers because of stepped-up enforcement here, he said.

Arrested yesterday were a 47-year-old man from Florida, a 47-year-old man from Seattle, a 36-year-old man from Pasadena, Calif., and a 36-year-old woman from New York state. Charges may be filed today, police said.

Yim said the bootleggers are Mainland-based professionals, and that the Pro Bowl is the last stop on a circuit for them that includes the major college bowl games and the Super Bowl.

"The Pro Bowl is their vacation," Yim said. "They run classified ads for a free vacation in Hawai'i. You come for the week of the Pro Bowl and sell x-number of dollars (worth of cheap shirts) to pay for the trip. They work on commission."

Yim estimates there are about 50 people selling shirts for $15 less than the NFL-licensed shirts. The bootleggers carry only a dozen shirts at a time and get their supplies from a roaming van outside the stadium. The shirts are defective blanks purchased for less than $1 and then silk-screened.

NFL Properties, which licenses legitimate league-branded products, goes after the bootleggers to protect its trademark and its reputation, Yim said.

"How would you like your name on defective cheap T-shirts?" Yim said of the reputation threat to NFL Properties.

Bootleggers today will be in Waikiki, along Kuhio Avenue and Lewers Street, Yim said, trying to unload their leftover Pro Bowl shirts.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8181.