Imagine spending $1,000 on a pair of rare, valuable, collectible sneakers. It's thrilling, but then the nagging doubt sets in. Are they authentic? A knockoff? Who's to know? This is the exact dilemma faced by collectors all over the world.
Innovator Validir is first to market with a powerful solution to give collectors, designers, manufacturers, and everyday consumers the confidence that the assets they are buying or selling will retain their value.
Today, counterfeit products compete with authentic ones in sales volume, and they are bad for business. These operations cost brands billions in sales each year. The fashion industry alone lost over $50 billion in 2020, and projections are up to $81 billion by 2026. Overall, an estimated $500 billion worth of counterfeit products are sold globally each year, according to the International Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Modern counterfeiting is well-funded, technologically sophisticated, and industrial in scale. It is no longer back alley sweatshops and street hustlers, making it incredibly difficult to distinguish an authentic name-brand collectible from a knockoff. The top-tier counterfeiters can compete with original manufacturers in terms of quality. Even lesser counterfeiters are producing products that the average consumer cannot distinguish from the real thing.
According to experts, one of the countries leading the world in manufacturing "continues to be guilty of flagrant intellectual property theft (IPT), forced technology transfers, and trademark and intellectual patent infringement (IPI)." Depending on perspective, they are either making cheap alternatives or genuine replicas. In some industries, counterfeits have infiltrated the market so thoroughly that it is nearly impossible to determine who the culprit is. It is unfair to target retailers because they are often duped as well. Even some large wholesalers have been exposed; when their supplier was confronted, the response was, "We just provide logistics, packing and shipping." The result was a sprawling international investigation to determine how replicas were packaged with authentic products. In one mind-bending case, the brand label owner also owned the factory where the counterfeits were made. Some speculate that he made more selling counterfeits of his own brand than from the brand itself.
Currently, efforts to combat counterfeiting come at a high cost and are marginally effective. There are well-publicized reports of people buying products from a "certified authentic" marketplace only to be told that the product is fake when trying to resell it on the same platform.
The founders of Validir have a way out of this quagmire. By integrating unclonable, tamperproof Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, each individual product can be uniquely identified by the electronic equivalent of a fingerprint. Consumers can use a mobile phone's chip reader device to scan a product's embedded verifiable NFC chip. Validir then verifies the chip's code using state-of-the-art, military-grade encryption, and authentication algorithms to confirm that the product is authentic.
Additionally, the verified products are supported by a corresponding NFT in the backend. The combination of digital assets backed by verified products has the potential to unlock one of the world's largest asset classes. The blockchain can be used to track the provenance of collectible transfers, further ensuring authenticity. Validir seeks to establish itself in the marketplace and exchange for verified assets.
According to co-founder Luvisia Molenje, "There are a lot of exciting developments in this space. In 2026, digital passports will be required for some products to support sustainability. We see this as the next step in RFID tagging." Digital passports allow manufacturers to digitally sign a manifest that is attached to their product. The digital signature ensures that the document was signed by the manufacturer, which is known as non-repudiation. However, this does not protect against cloning. Optical tags like QR codes and signal broadcasts like RFIDs can be cloned. Some systems employ a rudimentary counter that can be used to detect the existence of a clone, but it can't tell which one the clone is or prevent the cloning in the first place.
Co-founder Carson Chung asserts, "Our solution is unparalleled in the industry. Competitors offer basic product registration or certification services, but they lack a real-time mobile solution for consumers. The Validir app will revolutionize how people shop for high-end goods."
The luxury goods authentication service market is largely dysfunctional, providing Validir with a significant opportunity for growth. Existing exchange markets have struggled to combat counterfeits and have left their clients disappointed.
Other solutions that utilize QR codes, blockchain, and supply chain validation also face issues like cloning, complexity problems, high costs, and coordination challenges, making them less effective and accessible. Additionally, these methods require significant consumer education and trust, which can be challenging to achieve and maintain. Validir's solution, on the other hand, goes a step further by providing mutual authentication. This means that not only is the information on the chip verified, but the chip itself is authenticated, adding an extra layer of security and preserving each product's unique identity.
The concept of Validir emerged from conversations between Molenje and Chung. Luvisia's background as a consultant with the Department of Homeland Security consultancy working on encryption and authentication protocols and Chung's knowledge and experience in the collectibles market, particularly with sneakers, raised the need for an impactful authentication solution. Chung explains, "The surge of counterfeit products has eroded consumer trust and compromised the value and integrity of products, especially in the secondary resell market. Existing solutions lack a marketplace for authenticated items and have minimal sophistication in their authentication processes."
As counterfeiting continues to rise, brands are increasingly looking for solutions to prevent billions in lost revenue and protect their reputation. Validir has the solution to combat those nefarious characters with a secure ecosystem where both physical products and their digital representations are authenticated and traded. Molenje concludes, "Validir will make a difference. I was looking at where the EU digital passports initiative currently stands. Because of my time working with DHS Customs, I can see how these efforts will merge, and we will be at the forefront. The most effective way to combat counterfeiting is at ports of entry." As the market for authenticated collectibles grows, Validir will protect brand integrity and asset value. Molenje added, "The world is ready for this. We will change how people think about brand authenticity."
Don't miss the opportunity to learn more about Validir today.
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