You'll find them on the feet of millions in China, on olympians, at every summer games, and NBA stars like Klay Thompson, Anta shoes. Anta leads China in shoe sales and are making major gains elsewhere. But they're made in a part of the country where counterfeit shoe sellers continue to deceive buyers, thus giving the region a bad name. As CGTN's Mark Fontes found out, Anta is working to change that culture.

A stigma over fake and counterfeit shoes still haunts parts of China's Fujian province. Many world-renovated brands like Nike and Adidas are sold here, at least buyers think so. But in the city of Jinjiang, Anta has carved out a niche, which in recent years, has become a nationwide network. Anta has spent the last two years as China's number one shoe seller and experts say they intend to stay on top.

CHRISTINA LI VICE PRESIDENT, ANTA SHOES "Consumer is number one. It's the slogan, it's the management slogan for Anta the last two years."

And they pride themselves on being the real thing. Each Anta shoe goes through 40 inspection steps after being carefully stitched together by their footwear gurus. Lai Caigu has worked here for nine years and plays a major role in the daily production of 6,000 shoe pairs.

LAI CAIGU ANTA SHOE WORKER "Working here is great, it never gets boring, and it's fun to put the shoes together."

The shoes later undergo an extreme series of weather and temperature tests to make sure they'll last. A pair of their athletic sneakers retails for between 300 and 500 yuan, part of Anta's mission to remain an affordable brand.

CHRISTINA LI VICE PRESIDENT, ANTA SHOES "We don't make athletes products only for athletes. We transfer those technologies for the athletes to our original, you know, product design for each consumer."

With prices of rubber and canvas on the rise, Anta faces the same challenges other shoemakers do. They sold 50 million pairs of shoes in China in 2016, and are stepping up business both at home and overseas. But Anta's directors say their number one focus is the consumer, and aim to keep them happy with authentic, quality footwear for years to come.

CHRISTINA LI VICE PRESIDENT, ANTA SHOES "We want to make each of our shoes, each of our sportswear, counted for the consumer and with high quality, high tech, but with better prices."

MARK FONTES QUANZHOU While these shoes are authentic, experts say if you're keen enough to detect differences in the canvas or the rubber, that's one way to spot a knock off. Or if you're like most of us, one thing you can do is bring your smartphone, look at logos like Nike or Adidas, then look at the logos on the shoes, if you notice even the slightest, most subtle differences, you've likely got a counterfeit shoe, so just be careful. Mark Fontes, CGTN, Jinjiang.