Less than a week after France’s FIFA World Cup Final victory, counterfeit models of their World Champions shirt with two stars (representing their two World Cup wins in 1998 & 2018) were on sale in China, according to L’Equipe.

As reported by L’Equipe, the French team’s sponsor, Nike, announced on Monday 16th July that the official World Champions shirt would not be available in stores until the end of August. This didn’t stop hundreds of people queuing outside the Champs-Elysées store on Monday morning, only for the shop to never open its doors.

It didn’t take long for photos of the counterfeit shirts to circulate across social media and, by Tuesday morning, there were reports of the shirts being available online. On Wednesday morning, Le Parisien reported that the shirts were indeed available and believed to cost anything between 65 Yuan and 226 Yuan (£7 and £26; €8 and €29), this was far from the official retail price announced by Nike of £65 / €80.

Nike has assured people that it is working as hard as possible to produce the shirts as fast as it can, and is encouraging people not to entertain the counterfeits. However, the shirts are still not expected to be available online until the end of August according to Le Parisien, and there is currently no date announced by Nike for the shirt being available in stores.

A timely reminder to all brands of the dangers of counterfeits to your brand’s integrity and profits.