A quick glance around the sidewalks of New York and London reveals an outsized number of tote bags emblazoned with the Goyardine print. For a relatively unassuming company that does not advertise, does not sell its $1,500+ bags in an e-commerce capacity, and for which secondary market inventory is comparatively small, the numbers do not add up. The likely reality: Goyard has a problem with counterfeits.
In an industry that increasingly thrives on omni-channel marketing, influencer endorsements, and digital reach, Goyard is a deliberate outlier. The Paris-based brand – which was founded in 1853 and is still privately owned – has cultivated a reputation for quiet exclusivity by opting out of nearly every modern retail strategy. As one journalist succinctly put it, “Goyard is an anomaly in the realm of marketing – it does not advertise, has no paid endorsers, and rarely deigns to speak to the press.”
The brand’s official website offers little more than a philosophical nod to tradition. “Goyard does not engage in any form of e-commerce,” the site – which does not even provide pricing details for Goyard products – confirms.
For those looking to purchase a brand-new Saint Louis tote or a Goyardine wallet, that requires visiting one of the label’s few boutiques – only seven exist in the U.S. – or navigating the secondhand market where prices are still notably high (teetering on full retail prices in many cases) and inventory levels somewhat low.
Scarcity Breeds Demand & Counterfeits Fill the Gap
By design, Goyard produces limited quantities and offers minimal product information. This aura of inaccessibility has created enormous demand among consumers who equate silence with status, and a moat, of sorts, for the luxury brand. But it has also created an environment where counterfeiters thrive. As resale platforms grow and authentication protocols struggle to keep pace, Goyard has become one of the most heavily copied luxury brands on the market – despite having a far smaller footprint than peers like Louis Vuitton or Chanel.
On TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, where so-called “dupe culture” continues to spur counterfeit sales, users market copycat Goyard totes and cardholders sourced from DHGate and Weidian, e-commerce platforms that serve as global distribution points for counterfeit goods. Some fakes are sold openly with disclaimers; others arrive with counterfeit receipts, dust bags, and packaging, rendering them indistinguishable from the real thing in the eyes of the average consumer.
Even professional authenticators are facing challenges. The simplicity of Goyard’s design – coated canvas, minimal hardware, and screen-printed logos – means there may be fewer technical tells. And unlike Hermès or Louis Vuitton, which use microchipped bags or advanced date coding, Goyard’s authentication tools remain largely analog and undisclosed.
According to Graham Wetzbarger, former chief authenticator at The RealReal, Goyard is “up there with Chanel in terms of popularity. There’s not a lot of inventory. It sells extremely fast, which is why you can command prices close to retail.” That scarcity, paired with the brand’s refusal to expand access, has driven secondhand prices upward – often within a few hundred dollars of full retail, even for used bags – and a swiftly growing market of counterfeits.
The scope of the problem is quantifiable. According to the 2025 Entrupy State of Fake report, Goyard topped the list for “unidentified” product submissions, with 18.4 percent of St. Louis totes failing authentication – a signal not only of high counterfeit volume but of fakes so convincing that even AI-powered systems could not reach a definitive conclusion.
Reflecting on the state of the market, Flavio Cereda, the Investment Director for Luxury Brands Strategy at GAM Investments, recently wrote, “Relative to [the company’s] size, Goyard is the No. 1 most copied brand.” As for the severity of the issue? “It’s big.”
A Lag in Litigation
Despite being particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting, Goyard has lagged in enforcement action in the U.S. in recent years compared to many of its peers. The company filed approximately 28 counterfeiting/trademark infringement lawsuits in U.S. federal court between 2014 and June 30, 2025. (Of those cases, five were Schedule A litigation.) The company has targeted individual counterfeiters in a few cases, as well as the operators behind counterfeit-selling sites on domains like Goyardhandbag.com, cheapgoyardoutlet.com, and goyard-bags.co.uk.
Most recently, in what is its highest-profile filing to date, Goyard filed suit against the Shoe Surgeon and its founder for making authorized use of its iconic Goyardine canvas by incorporating the trademark-bearing canvas into custom sneaker designs. That case settled in February.
Another potential indicator of its lag in enforcement (or an indicator that its marks are not being targeted by parasitic trademark-filing parties in the same way as its peers), its near-dearth of trademark opposition proceedings. To date, Goyard appears to have lodged just two trademark opposition proceedings in the U.S., taking on Goya Foods over its GOYA mark in 2004 and Christian Georges Audigier over a stylized “CA” monogram mark in 2008.
Strategic Silence May Come at a Cost
The relative lack of litigation initiated by Goyard – which maintains an array of trademark rights and registrations in the U.S. – may be explained by a desire to remain out of the spotlight when it comes to fakes. To date, it has not been entirely uncommon for some European brands to focus more on European litigation and/or quiet take-down strategies when dealing with counterfeits in the U.S. with the aim of shielding themselves from the expense and publicity that comes with litigation and instead, focusing their resources on reinforcing the appeal of the brand and improving the customer experience.
But Goyard’s counterfeiting dilemma underscores an unavoidable tension in the luxury market: How long can a brand depend on mystique as its primary currency – and a deterrent for consumers against purchasing fakes – in a digitized, decentralized economy?
For now, Goyard appears unwilling to compromise its founding principles. There is no official partnership with resale platforms, no publicly disclosed (or otherwise apparent) anti-counterfeiting strategy, and little consumer education around authentication. That may preserve the brand’s rarefied image – but it also leaves buyers vulnerable, and the brand’s integrity increasingly at risk. In other words, what once set the brand apart – scarcity, silence, secrecy – may now make it a target.
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