Counterfeiters target Hurricane Sandy charity t-shirts

Counterfeiters have ripped off a t-shirt design created to raise money for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

New Jersey-based clothing retailer Ergo created the ‘Restore the Shore’ to raise money in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The t-shirts have now racked up sales of $700,000, but the success has attracted counterfeiters.

“There have been a couple major ones and then a bunch of instances where it was not too big of a deal,” Pete DiSpirito, Ergo co-founder, told NJ.com. A phone call from Ergo was enough to put a stop to some of the sales, while the shop’s Facebook community has also highlighted fakes.

In the latest case of counterfeiting, another local surf shop was caught selling t-shirts sourced from a neighbourhood screen printing business. The surf shop said it paid cash for 10 t-shirts, but DiSpirito doubts a four-colour screen print job was set up for such a small production run.