Its founder, Sean Talkington, has taken in no outside investment and only applied for his first credit card a few years ago because his bank told him he needed one to operate a retail store.

"We're a blip," Talkington said.

So it came as a shock one day to learn that Team Dream clothing was being counterfeited and sold on a major Chinese e-commerce site.

Piracy was a problem that befell big brands such as Nike and Adidas, Talkington thought, not upstarts like Team Dream, which has no advertising budget and got its start selling clothes out of a 1970 Volkswagen bus.

But there it was, a cheaper facsimile of Team Dream's U.S.-made $135 "Thin Stripe Long Sleeve" jersey for sale on Taobao, China's premier online shopping site owned by Alibaba, for about half the price.

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