One such store, located in Markham, does sell genuine equipment - but according to local archers who have been scammed, they have also been selling counterfeit archery equipment made in China.
The problem really is that the Toronto area only really has 3 good archery equipment stores, Bass Pro, Tent City, and Basically Bows. To get more selection you need to go to the Bow Shop in Waterloo or Archer's Nook in London.
The 4th GTA store in Markham, which shall go unnamed, sells mostly Olympic archery equipment, some of which is certainly genuine.
But depending on who you talk to there are some horror stories involving broken bow limbs and warranties that don't exist.
Imagine for a moment you purchase new bow limbs, Win & Win for example, which is a big brand name manufacturer of Olympic limbs. They are basically the Nike of bow limbs. And you go to the Toronto Archery Range, you begin practicing, and one or both of your limbs suddenly break, split, crack, or whatever.
Once they are broken what do you do?
Well you might take them back to the store, but they might simply respond that it is up to you to contact the manufacturer.
So you contact Win & Win, which is located in South Korea. And they tell you to ship the limbs to South Korea so they can inspect them in person to see if there was any manufacturing faults (but really they are just checking to see if they are counterfeits).
At which point you have to decide "Do I want to spend $60 on shipping this overseas in an effort to get them replaced?"
Most people would probably give up and just buy new limbs and hope the new limbs don't break.
But pretend for a moment you are determined and frustrated. Angry even. So you ship the limbs anyway, pay the shipping fees, and then wait for a reply.
Eventually Win & Win sends a response. The limbs were counterfeit. Most likely made in China. The warranty does not cover counterfeits.
A friend of mine had this happen to her and she was livid. Swearing like a sailor when she found out she had been duped into buying phony limbs. Note - I have decided to leave out her name, and the brand name of the bow has been changed, but it should be known that Win & Win and many other brands are frequently the target of counterfeiters.
Brands like:
Cartel
Carbon Express
Gold Tip
Sebastian Flute
Spin Wing
XS Wings
Win & Win
And the list goes on, because it isn't just counterfeit bows that are phony. There are counterfeit stabilizers, arrows, accessories and more.
With annual US sales of archery equipment expected to exceed $1.8 billion (all figures US) by 2020, the archery industry is growing at an amazing pace. In 2014 it had blossomed to $1.14 billion, but a an unknown chunk of that was sales of counterfeit equipment.
According to a report from Technavio, which you can read at http://www.technavio.com/report/archery-equipment-market-in-the-us-2015-2019, counterfeit archery equipment is a growing problem in the USA and in other countries.
"Counterfeit products and constant changes in consumer behaviour pose a serious threat to market growth," says the report.
A spokesperson for Technavio told SecuringIndustry.com that the product category most affected by counterfeiting is arrow shafts, mainly because the production is easier to make fake arrows than it is to make fake bows. But fake bows and bow limbs are still relatively easy to fake, because if they break the first time you use it then the counterfeiter has already made their money, and the consumer is left with broken bow limbs. Counterfeiters don't worry about customer satisfaction because it isn't their own brand name they are ruining.
Thus while arrows require lesser funds and resources for counterfeiters to manufacture and distribute their knock-off arrows, many other types of counterfeits are known to exist. So much so that the real manufacturers often change the look, name and design of their products every year so that they can try and distance themselves from counterfeiters.
"Many counterfeiters are using online retail channels along with brick and mortar stores to push these products in the market," said the spokesperson.
Stores like the one in Markham we mentioned above.
"There is no specific quantitative estimate shared by archery equipment manufacturers pertaining to revenue loss from counterfeit products. However, most manufacturers mention product counterfeit as a persistent challenge which they are trying to overcome."
So the next time you hear someone complaining about why companies keep changing their product every year, remember that it is a counter-measure used to bring the focus back to new products and hopefully prevent people from buying old counterfeits still floating around on the market.
What is clear is that despite various awareness measures by manufacturers, customers are unknowingly purchasing counterfeit products. As a result, manufacturers in the USA and abroad are hiring specific services to monitor counterfeit activities both online and offline. But combating counterfeiters only takes them so far, as they cannot recoup losses from companies operating overseas and smuggling in phony equipment.
"The primary driver for counterfeit products within this market is lack of awareness by consumers," says the spokesperson, although the task for all parties concerned is made much harder by the fact that counterfeit product manufacturers capture every detail of the genuine products - from typography to coloured packages that match original equipment. They make the product look legit and people cannot tell the difference.
"Counterfeit product manufacturing is rampant in few South East Asian countries, with various estimates suggest that over 60 per cent counterfeit products originate in China, closely followed by countries like India, Taiwan and Korea," said the spokesperson.
Other sources say the percentage of counterfeits coming from China might be as high as 70 to 80 per cent.
What is really unknown is how much archery equipment being sold in Canada is counterfeited. It is tricky to say how much.
What we do know is that in the USA only 0.62 per cent of products from China are being stopped at the ports for being suspicion of being counterfeited, and yet an estimated $1 trillion of counterfeit products were still sold in the USA in 2015.
That means that a good chunk of counterfeits are sneaking in to the USA. And sneaking in to Canada too, posing as real products.
An estimated 60% of the counterfeits is arrows. But that means the remaining 40% are bows and other accessories.
And if the allegations some archers are making about the store in Markham are true, then they are selling equipment on a regular basis to "suckers" who don't know any better.
A fool and his money are quickly parted, especially if the person orchestrating it is selling something the fool believes to be real. That is how the counterfeit industry works. Convince people they are buying the real thing, like an expensive brand name, and you can sell them anything. Including arrows, bows, sights, stabilizers, and more, and people may never notice the difference unless it breaks and they investigate WHY it broke.
And every time people don't investigate, the counterfeiters win.
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