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Money & Company

Lakers gear aplenty, mostly knockoff, along parade route

By Andrea Chang
 and Tiffany Hsu
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The Los Angeles Lakers’ 15th NBA championship has led to record-setting sales of official team merchandise. It’s also resulted in lots of happy bootleggers.

Swarms of vendors selling unlicensed Lakers T-shirts, caps, flags, horns, posters and other merchandise cashed in today as 150,000 fans came out to cheer on the ‘Lake Show’ during their victory parade from the Staples Center to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

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Many used the city’s sidewalks and public benches to hawk their wares.Others set up shop in retail parking lots, trying to attract the surging purple-and-gold-clad crowd.

Stan Davis of Long Beach was among the dozens peddling unauthorized Lakers items in Exposition Park -- a popular spot for bootleggers near the stadium today.

‘The Lakers have enough money to pay for half of this parade, I think they’re doing just fine,’ Davis said. ‘But I’ll do anything to make a buck in this economy.’

Davis sold T-shirts, at $10 a pop, featuring a graphic of Kobe Bryant on the front. Davis said he knew the merchandise he was selling wasn’t officially licensed.

‘I’m a delivery driver for a printing company and I got the shirts from a guy I know through that,’ he said. ‘This is my first time doing this.’

Despite a fairly heavy presence of police surrounding the Coliseum and parade route, Davis said law enforcement officials appeared to be leaving vendors alone.

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa estimated Tuesday that the parade would provide a $15-million economic benefit for the city.

-- Andrea Chang, Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Tiffany Hsu

Money & Company
Andrea Chang

Andrea Chang is a wealth reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She was previously a Column One editor, the deputy Food editor and an assistant Business editor, and has covered beats including technology and retail. Chang joined the paper in 2007 after graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She grew up in Cupertino, Calif.

Tiffany Hsu

Tiffany Hsu is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote about the California economy, fast food, restaurants, retail and alternative energy for the Business section. A Bay Area native, UC Berkeley graduate and eternal Nor-Cal fan, she once worked for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She also did a stint at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where she developed a passion for sweet tea. She still has faith that someday she’ll find two economists who agree.

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