Get your knock-off logo here

Want a fake Prada purse? Cheap baseball jerseys? New luggage at a fraction of the price? Well, you can always head to Canal Street in New York City… or better yet… Shanghai. But as the August issue of Print Magazine points out, while you might be able to find such knock-off luxury brands in China, you won’t be able to find any phony merchandise with a particular brand—that of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“We cannot sell that,” explains a vendor of fake Nike and Adidas running socks. “The police say it will destroy the reputation of the Olympics.” And I’m not all too surprised by the response. If a country does not allow a young girl with crooked teeth to sing its anthem, what would make people think it would allow copies of t-shirts with the ancient script logo or its cuddly cartoon characters?

Where can you buy the merchandise? The article writes: For several years, it and the Fuwa have been for sale in their own right as part of a mass merchandising campaign unparalleled in modern Olympics history. There are at least three licensed Olympics merchandise shops within a block of each other on the busiest section of Wangfujing Dajie, Beijing’s pedestrian-only, 700-year-old shopping boulevard. T-shirts, caps, and stuffed versions of the five cuddly Fuwa are available at all of them. Those shoppers interested in higher-end items can visit the Beijing 2008 Olympic Flagship Store, a long, poorly lit space where customers file past cases stuffed with goods, and a giant inflated Fuwa stands guard over $1,000 bejeweled commemorative plates decorated with more of the cutesy creatures. It’s a little ironic that even though the Olympics include and embrace all spectators and athletes, the logo has an air of exclusivity to uphold.