Fake Labels, Real Need : Counterfeit Designer Clothes, Seized by Authorities, Are Given to Poor

The Calvin Klein jackets and Nike sweatshirts were all fake. But the wide eyes and smiles at the San Fernando Gardens housing project in Pacoima were definitely real.

Under an unusual arrangement Thursday, city officials donated hundreds of fake designer clothes to the housing project’s “Gift of Christmas” giveaway program, which distributes toys, necessities and other goods to low-income families over the winter holidays.

The clothes were seized earlier this year in a swap-meet counterfeiting sting in North Hollywood and bear fake labels of companies including Adidas, Mossimo and Guess.

Although the law normally requires that clothing knockoffs be destroyed, about two dozen firms agreed to allow the “Gift of Christmas” to distribute items illegally bearing their trademarks to poor children in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

“For some of the youngsters, the only presents they’ll get this year will be from the ‘Gift of Christmas,’ ” said Los Angeles City Atty. Jim Hahn.

“It will be better than last year when it was just toys,” said 8-year-old Adolpho Ramirez of Pacoima. “We get shirts and jackets and stuff this time. We don’t have many of them here.”

In all, 2,000 articles--including Disney “Toy Story” T-shirts, Chicago Bulls jackets and Nike sweatshirts--will be handed out at a December party at the San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center. Clothing also will be given out at the Pacoima Senior Center, Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima, Holy Family Mission Church in North Hollywood and the Neighborhood Empowerment and Economic Development facility in North Hills.

Of the 2,000 residents at San Fernando Gardens, about 60% are children, according to Mario Matute of the Los Angeles City Housing Authority.

Police working with private investigators from several major brand-name manufacturers discovered the counterfeiting activity at a North Hollywood swap meet last December, officials said.

After a two-month investigation, police arrested Bong Chul Lee, 41, of Van Nuys and Dong Kwan Kim, 42, of Los Angeles. Kim and Lee were ordered to forfeit their phony goods after each pleaded no contest to selling the counterfeit trademark clothing, Hahn said. Each man was also required to pay more than $1,000 in fines.

For mothers who watched their children play on the waist-high piles of clothing jumbled in the corner of the San Fernando Gardens Community Service Center, the clothes represented a rare opportunity to give presents to their youngsters.

“There’s so much bad here,” said Cecilia Sanchez, 22, who attended the ceremony with her young daughter. “This is good. It unifies the community.”