Mexican apparel firms must spend heavily to roll out more exciting and fashionable apparel as they scramble to fight a soaring contraband and fakes trade in the country, a leading textiles consultant has said.

“Mexican manufacturers can’t bring the same design, colour, fashion, durability and excitement of the US brands so unless they work to change this, consumers will continue to buy US brands in the illegal markets,” said Miguel Angel Andreu of industry think tank Instituto Textil Nacional.

His comments come as Mexico’s textiles and apparel industry continues to battle a rising contraband and counterfeit trade which has increased to account for 60% of all all apparel sold in Mexico.

Mexican flea markets or “pulgas” sell knock-down fakes of popular US sport and aspirational brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Gap which the country’s huge middle and low-class consumers can fetch as low as US$.50 in some cases.

Apart from lobbying the government to strengthen customs and chase smugglers, brands must spend more to improve their offering to encourage consumers to buy more “made in Mexico” apparel.

Argeu said the industry should invest at least 30% of revenues in this transformation and send more executives to Europe and Asia to scoop out the latest trends.

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Around 5% of the industry has woken up to this fact, Argeu says, investing in higher-quality and more fashionable apparel but also opening their own specialised chains to woo new customers. Lokura, SXY Jeans and TT Blues are three notable examples, he adds.