Industry leaders at Texworld USA will warn how counterfeits and “dupes” threaten safer chemistry, contaminate circular systems and raise fresh legal risks for clothing brands, platforms and recyclers
NEW YORK – Counterfeit fashion is emerging as a hidden fault line in the industry’s rush towards circularity, delegates at this summer’s Texworld USA in New York will hear.
At 3 pm on Wednesday 29th July, Ecotextile News news editor Haydn Davis will moderate a high‑level panel, “Fake fashion and circularity: how counterfeit derails product safety and raises legal risk,” at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
Speakers include Liz Richman, general counsel at US womenswear pioneer Eileen Fisher, Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), and Colin Browne, president of luxury jewellery brand David Yurman and former CEO of Cascale and Under Armour.
Drawing on fresh AAFA testing data and following on from a recent Ecotextile News podcast, the session will explore how counterfeit football shirts, fanwear and other fake apparel products are routinely failing basic safety tests – with elevated levels of phthalates, PFAS, heavy metals and formaldehyde – before leaking into donation, resale and recycling streams.
Once mixed with legitimate post‑consumer textiles, these “dirty” fibres can contaminate recycled yarns and circular collections, creating complex questions over liability for brands, platforms, recyclers and regulators.
The panel will also ask whether today’s RSLs, MRSLs, certification schemes and due‑diligence systems are remotely ready for circular models that depend on legacy feedstock, much of it produced under weaker historic regulations and in markets awash with counterfeit goods.
Other themes under discussion include EPR, Digital Product Passports and social media platform accountability – and how AI‑driven “dupe” culture is normalising unsafe fakes while undermining investments in safer chemistry and circular infrastructure.
Texworld USA, owned by Messe Frankfurt, runs from 29–31st July at the Javits Center in New York.
