Napier Mongrel Mob man's warning to buyers of knock-off T-shirts

"Make our day, buy it," a senior Napier Mongrel Mob man says.

A veteran Napier Mongrel Mob member has slammed an internet website selling unauthorised Mob T-shirts, saying it could be putting its customers at risk.

Fred Ewart, whose history with the fraternity dates back to at least 1972, says he's doubts NZ buyers will ever get the T-shirts they've paid for, but if they did they wouldn't last long on their backs.

The low-quality tops are being sold through Chinese online retail service AliExpress for as little as NZ$16.

They promote iron-on embroidered patches as well as ready-made red T-shirts with the words "Mighty Mongrel Mob Aotearoa", bearing the mob's bulldog insignia.

Ewart said the only people allowed to wear the insignia were patched members, prospects or lifetime supporters of the gang.

"No one, not even a mob member, can sell them," he said.

"If someone is wearing them and not a Mongrel Mob member or supporter they will get it ripped off them.

"I've seen a guy wearing a Napier Mongrel Mob T-shirt in town, when a Mongrel Mob patched member ripped it off him.

"If you want it ripped off you in public, go ahead, make our day, buy it," he said.

A similar website had been around in the past and was fake, with people complaining they hadn't received items they'd paid for, Ewart said.

He suspected this particular website would also lead to disappointed customers.

Mob life member Harry Tam was reported this week to have said:

"I'm sure there would be people who would take extreme exception to it because it is a form of theft in terms of intellectual property rights."

An identical or near-identical bulldog appears on other T-shirts, for The Bulldog, an Amsterdam-based company that owns and operates a chain of cannabis coffee shops and a hotel in Canada.

Variations are also common in New Zealand in the merchandising of Sydney rugby league club Canterbury Bulldogs.