October 2022 by Jordan Faulkner
DISCLAIMER: This review is based on my educated opinion as a student and consumer of the artists listed below. I am in no way trying to be disrespectful to any of the owners of this store, I am just attempting to bring awareness to a massive issue in the streetwear/fashion industry of counterfeiting. This is just my criticism based on my experience, and I highly advise the potential customers of this store to form their own opinion based on their unique experience.Let me preface this by saying that Sneaker Streetwear Shop is another one of these 3rd party streetwear shops you see starting to pop up That carry brands such as Supreme, Yeezy, Off-White, etc...My first (and last) experience with Sneaker Streetwear Shop was back in 2020, when the store first opened in Rockingham Mall. I walked into the store and noticed they had a quite sizeable quantity of YEEZY 350 SPLY model sneakers. This was strange to me because not only was the stock sizeable for a non official Yeezy retailer, but the quality of the shoes were visually brand new. I asked one of the workers at the front counter if the store was an official Yeezy brand retailer, and I did not receive an answer from him. I then asked another worker, and he claimed that the store obtained the sneaker selection from consignment and secondhand deals. This was not a problem for me, but what was a major red flag was the price they were selling the YEEZY 350 SPLY's for was 250$. The only way that the store would be able to make money at this selling price is if they were official retailers for Yeezy, but the store is not. I immediately knew that this sneaker selection was most likely counterfeit.After coming to that conclusion on the sneaker selection, I then moved on to checking out the Supreme brand clothing and collectibles they have in-store. Once again, I asked how they obtained their Supreme collection, and this time I was told that the Supreme in this store is all brand new, straight from the original website drops, and was never purchased secondhand. This is a red flag for me as well, because it is nearly impossible for anyone who shops online during supreme drops to get to checkout without one or two things in their cart being sold out in seconds. This store claims they some how managed to get the entire Supreme beach chair collection in each color, the entire supreme x Honda collection, and Supreme x North Face collection brand new from drop. ANOTHER RED FLAG.The final red flag, and the "straw that broke the camels back" for me was the Bathing Ape selection at this store. As a fan of BAPE since 2006, and a frequenter of the official BAPE and official AAPE stores in Shibuya, Tokyo, JP, I was appalled at the blatant counterfeit, specifically the Bathing Ape hoodies at this store. For example, everyone who has worn official BAPE knows that when you buy a BAPE hoodie, the varsity lettering on the hood is hand stitched on, and it is a high quality letter, like on a letterman's jacket you would get in High School. The problem is that the hoodies in this store have them screen printed on the hood, basically giving away that it is a counterfeit hoodie.The major reason that I have decided to dedicate so much time to this review is because this type of counterfeiting is just simply offensive. Not only are they ripping off the customers who shop at this store, but they are doing a disservice to the great designers and artists who design these pieces with such detail and quality. When you buy counterfeit goods you are receiving a cheap quality shell with the authentic high quality artists name on it. So when the counterfeit pieces fall apart, the customer will think that designer is no good, when in fact it is not the designers fault, it is the counterfeiters fault for using that designers intellectual property and name.I would STRONGLY recommend being cautious when shopping here.
