So, recent time trial experience and talk of one-piece kit got me in a shopping mood. Unsurprisingly, selection is not as vast as it is for "normal" cycling gear, and the UK vendors' selections is particularly limited. But I did happen across one Hong Kong based vendor selling a bunch of "team" versions. Some of the most egregious examples of their knocked-off-ness were "Team Castelli" (a blatant copy of a current Castelli model that normally retails for four times as much) "Team BMC" with a great big Assos logo, and best/worst of all, "Team QLE" (evidently stemming from the same confusion that leads many to read "GIQOT" on current models of the TCR, Propel etc.).
Now, realizing that trademark infringement is only meaningful when it is misleading, I'm figuring some of them aren't as bad as the others. There's one design for FDJ (2011?) that looks pretty smart (mostly white top but dark blue bottom) and I don't think anyone would think for a minute that it was authentic anything, and I kind of like the one for Acqua & Sapone - a short-lived, now defunct team anyhow (I thought it was kind of neat that about the most notable achievements of members of that team were a couple national TT championships in places like Croatia and Belarus, the latter from a guy right about my own size).
They're dirt cheap, and I figure these particular examples are more like novelty t-shirts than counterfeits, so I'm thinking: for early morning training sessions and JRA with the gang, why not? Maybe because I don't want to support the same people who produce fake Castelli and Ale' gear? What say you? Fruit of an evil tree, or harmless novelty items?