this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Bayen basked in this image in front of his thousands of followers on social networks: He repeatedly attacked the fast-fashion industry and the masses' desire for ever-new discount goods. "Every item of clothing we offer does not have to be produced from scratch," he wrote on one of his company websites. "In this way, we save valuable resources in production and break the vicious cycle of the fast fashion industry." Sweaters and hoodies from Adidas and Nike are in demand The growth of the market is being driven primarily by Generation Z's love of vintage. The only problem for the industry is that the growing demand is being met by a limited number of available pieces. Currently, most second-hand goods are from the 90s or early 2000s, says vintage expert Philip Rohde, and brands such as Adidas and Nike are particularly popular for sweaters and hoodies; sought-after items are sometimes hard to come by and come at a price: "You can expect prices ranging from 50 euros to 120 euros." Rohde has been observing the industry for a long time.
But since around mid-2021, he has noticed that something is changing: He kept noticing that many new stores were advertising vintage knock-offs, he says: "They actively advertised with pieces that were fake because they could attract more customers that way."
Shortly before his company went out of business, Bayen even openly admitted in a clip on Instagram at the end of January that Strike was probably also selling counterfeit goods: He was therefore even, he said then himself, facing a court case for violating trademark law. The fact that counterfeits are found among his goods is unavoidable: When he buys second-hand in large quantities, he knows "that there will probably be counterfeits, and that is inevitable with second-hand clothing and has become even more so recently". He was therefore liable to prosecution simply by importing the goods. The Krefeld district court confirms the proceedings and Bayen informs us that he has been convicted. It is clear from his email that he feels he has been treated unfairly: the problem is the market, not his company. "In the meantime, I have realized that I can be prosecuted for every container of used clothing," he writes: "Every time I import a used item of clothing that is counterfeit, I am committing a criminal offence."
For a number of years, business at Strike was excellent, and at times Bayen was considered one of the most successful retailers on the market - even during the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the 19-year-old entrepreneur opened his first store in Krefeld. While retailers up and down the country are struggling with closures and social distancing regulations, customers are queuing in long lines at Strike's store openings, such as in Halle or Düsseldorf. According to his own figures, he currently has 92 employees and a turnover of 2.9 million euros.
Mystery boxes: "Looks like a lousy rip-off" Bayen has also had great success with so-called mystery boxes. The buyer pays a certain price and receives randomly selected content. Well-known influencers, some with hundreds of thousands of followers, advertise the boxes. However, some customers have noticed that the clothes look better on Instagram and Tiktok than in reality: "They advertise brand-name clothes and they are almost all no-name clothes and of absolutely poor quality," writes one user on Trustpilot: "Looks like a really bad rip-off to me." The story of Strike is therefore also a social media story: Bayen's company mainly offered highly sought-after hoodies, tracksuits from the 80s and 90s, shirts from the NFL football league and sweaters with lettering from American universities. The entrepreneur used social media to bring his goods to the people; he used influencers, advertising posts and marketing campaigns to promote "well-chosen pieces", as he himself called it in an interview.
Second hand, brand new and made in Pakistan Mughal Brothers was also happy to show what it has to offer online: The retailer wants to market its range with videos from the factory in Sialkot. This provides a deep insight into their business - and that of Strike: until a few days ago, you could see loads of textiles that looked like vintage on Mughal Brothers' Instagram page. At the same time, Tiktok clips showed the workers in the factory making clothes with a vintage look - "second hand" made in Pakistan. When asked by CORRECTIV, the retailer said that Mughal Brothers does not produce new goods and does not counterfeit branded clothing. When confronted with the photos of the counterfeits from his company's social media profiles, he writes: If such items were ordered, he would get them. He blames the buyers: "Daniel Bayen was the first person to ask us for new clothes," he says: "It was entirely his idea." He then had the idea to sell these products to others: "Everyone wants to do more business."
Bayen presents it more as if it was the Pakistani who was offering fake goods. In the chat with his potential new customer, the retailer appears to be very proactive in promoting the goods: he sends videos via direct message showing vintage clothing, brand new and made in Sialkot. "As for making new goods, I've already sent you proof that we do this for our customers," he writes. The German interested party asks further: "Can we see the new stuff? Like the stuff from Strike?" - "Okay I have some in stock for Strike," but not much more, just "around 500 pieces" He gives examples: "Nike skinny jacket, Adidas jacket, t-shirts, also some sweatshirts." But these have to be "vintage". - "These are all vintage designs. Strike doesn't make anything that isn't vintage. I sent you the pictures above."
The company Mughal Brothers Vintage openly admits to producing "vintage fashion" itself in factories, apparently also for Strike. Dozens of pieces in this look can be found on Strike's Instagram channels. The signal red Nascar jacket is also increasingly appearing on social media channels. CORRECTIV sent expert Philip Rohde pictures of the jacket from Mughal Brothers' Tiktok account and the Strike channels: "It is immediately noticeable that the sponsor logos on the jacket are not so meticulously embroidered. The spacing and proportions aren't as good either," he says. In addition, he has never seen the arrangement of logos shown in the original like this before.
"Fuck fast fashion" A number of items also appear on the Strike channels that look very similar to the apparently fake branded sweaters from the videos by wholesaler Mughal - some of them in colors that were probably never actually on sale. Even logo sweaters with Strike lettering can be identified in the clips from the factory in Pakistan. At the time, Strike claimed that its own employees embroidered second-hand sweaters themselves. On other items, Strike added a slogan to his company name: "Fuck Fast Fashion". Bayen writes: "He actually had sweaters embroidered in Pakistan. For other collections, Strike embroidered used sweaters himself. What the retailer is offering the prospective buyer here is called "undervaluation" in technical jargon, constitutes customs fraud and is punishable by law. As the chat transcript shows, Mughal Brothers doesn't seem to be shy about offering fake vintage. And that's not all. If what he writes is true, customs fraud could also be part of his company's service: In a message to the prospective buyer, he candidly reveals, "We have a different route that we use for other customers. Customers buy new and old goods. We mix them well and declare them as used clothing." With this method, the shipping fees are not as high.
Customs fraud causes billions in damage What the retailer describes so succinctly is called "undervaluation" in technical jargon - and it is a criminal offense. Fraudsters use false documents to trick customs authorities into believing that the value of goods in containers is lower so that they have to pay less customs duty. This works so well because customs cannot keep up with inspections - and the member states apparently look the other way, as CORRECTIV researched last year. In July 2023, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) estimated the damage in the cases it was currently investigating to be at least one billion euros. When asked by CORRECTIV, the trader in Pakistan again referred to his customers: His company follows the instructions of the buyers when shipping; it is their responsibility "to know the laws of their country." Bayen, however, writes of a common practice: "Every wholesaler of second-hand goods that I have had the pleasure of getting to know better avoids import VAT and most likely imports counterfeit goods." He bought one large and two small containers from Mughal Brothers.
Former Strike stores are now closed
On January 18, 2024, insolvency proceedings were opened for Strike at the Krefeld district court. Bayen now posts photos on Instagram showing him in Thailand. On another account, under the username dan.the.fckn.man, he posts videos of himself ice swimming and gives nutrition and workout tips. He says in one clip that his company failed because of the taxes and bureaucracy in Germany. The Strike stores, including one in Berlin's Ringcenter, are now closed. You can see through the shop windows that the racks inside are still full of shirts, jackets and sweaters.
The company Mughal Brothers Vintage Wholesale, now under its new name, continues to post photos and videos from its warehouses on Instagram, shots of ever new, huge mountains of clothing, globally marketed goods sorted, packed and piled onto trucks by men with tired eyes. The boom in vintage fashion continues.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)