What makes people buy counterfeit or fake products?
Some people just like the way things look. When I was younger I bought two separate fake LV bags that I carried everywhere, all the time, for years. I just loved the brown, subtle, but not over-the-top classic look of the bag. I moved in circles where nobody really cared about brands, or designer names so it wasn’t an issue. I think most people in that period of my life didn’t know who or what LV was.
I started making a lot more money, so now I worked with people who made more money. So they either cared about brand names, or knew what LV on a bag meant. Most people could not spot the fake (it was very well made), so they would ask questions about the bag itself (year of that design, etc). I wasn’t comfortable outright lying to people about something so inconsequential, so I just stopped carrying the bags altogether.
I can afford a real one now, but found others interested in the brand-name to be a conversation I wasn’t interested in having.