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Amardeep Singh and his wife went shopping for a gift for their son last November: an authentic, Toronto Raptors basketball jersey.

Like millions of Canadians, they chose to buy online — through the website of a trusted sports retailer.

“We found Footlocker.ca,” said Singh, referring to the online portal of the U.S. based retail chain, which has a large presence in Canada. He had shopped through Foot Locker before.

They received the jersey in a few days and put it away. But before presenting the gift at Christmas, the Singhs washed the jersey and got a surprise. The letters on the front were peeling off — an oddity for a new item that cost more than $100.

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“We were very surprised,” said Singh, who complained to the company.

“[Foot Locker] said, ‘It’s after 30 days, you have to call Nike,'” Singh said he was told. Nike is the manufacturer of official NBA sports jerseys.

At Nike’s request, and at Singh’s expense, he shipped the jersey to Nike for inspection. Nike examined the jersey and wrote back that the item was “counterfeit.”

It’s not unusual to find counterfeit, lower-priced sports articles online or in many retail stores. But Singh said he was astounded that a fake jersey would be sold directly by Foot Locker.

Global News contacted Foot Locker’s head office in New York for an explanation.

“Foot Locker will fully investigate this matter. Customer satisfaction and quality product are of the utmost importance. Foot Locker prides itself on only selling the best, authentic products from authorized league partners,” said Sarah Houseknecht, Foot Locker’s director of public relations for North America.

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Singh is warning other Foot Locker customers to check their branded products.

“There could be potentially thousands out there who think they’ve got authentic when it’s not.” Tweet This