Counterfeit Vinted: How to Avoid Counterfeit Brand Shoes and Sneakers on Vinted, etc.

Sneaker resale is increasingly resembling a gold rush. Obviously, such a growing market both in the first and second-hand sector – where prices for collectible models can easily exceed thousands of euros – attracts wishes… including those of counterfeiters.

The latter are also working to create counterfeit sneakers for the general public, which they resell on popular peer-to-peer fashion resale sites like Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, LeBonCoin, and Depop. While Nike Dunk Lows (especially the Dunk Low Sail Coast), Nike x Patta, Jordan 4s, and Waffle One Crater are particularly popular among sneakerheads, How to prevent the risk of scams and buying fake sneakers inadvertently?

How to avoid buying counterfeit sneakers on second-hand sites?

The following advice is only a suggestion, a recommendation to better inform yourself and clarify possible transactions, and not a guarantee to be followed to the letter to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Stay realistic and vigilant when faced with overly tempting prices.

When you look for second-hand things, you can of course expect low prices and even negotiate them.

However – and this may seem obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to remember: an abnormally low price should alert youespecially if it comes from a profile with a strange name, and from a purely descriptive ad worthy of a copy and paste from the original brand eshop without any added personal value!

But Even credible prices can raise questionsbecause some counterfeiters offer sneakers at unreasonable prices, as most ordinary people do: 123 euros instead of 130 or 120 euros for example. Because this can be symptomatic of a business run smoothly at an international level, where taking into account the conversion rates based on currencies leads to setting this type of prices that want to follow the laws of the market a little too closely…

Study the dealer’s profile

A good indicator of reliability is that check if the person has a credible profile.

Better than a trustworthy face in a profile picture (because it is so easy to take the face of someone with a friendly and good character on Google Images), it is above all the number of ratings, comments and transactions we can trust.

If the person has only been selling sneakers in different sizes for two weeks and has no ratings or comments, even if they have a cute profile picture that reminds you of your best friend from elementary school, it’s best to move on.

If they don’t have a profile picture, but they sell sneakers that are mostly the same size, and have been doing so for years, with lots of transactions and positive reviews, that’s a good sign.

If you are considering a very expensive pair, you can also ask the retailer privately on very public platforms like Vinted, Depop or LeBonCoin if they have also posted an ad on Vestiaire Collective, which has a authentication serviceand the connection to it.

Even if you do not complete the transaction on this platform where the fees are significant, it is also a good indicator of reliability to simply know that this ad exists on a site capable of authenticating coins (but, I repeat, counterfeits are always better made, we are never completely safe).

Request privately photos of the proof of purchase and packaging

If you are looking for trendy sneakers on resale sites, chances are you are dealing with people who are passionate about sneakers, who want to take care of them, because they appreciate them but also because they can be induced to resell them according to their needs. their collecting desires.

Accustomed to resale, these sneakerhead as they are called in fashion jargon, therefore know that it is in their interest to keep the proof of purchase and the original packaging of their shoes. You can therefore ask privately for photos of the receipt, brand labels and shoe box.

Counterfeiters are creating ever more meticulous and realistic counterfeits. But what they often overlook is the packaging!

Be careful the quality of the shoebox cardboard (is it too irregular, ribbed, to be from an industrial giant like Nike or Adidas, for example?). Even the label attached to the box indicating the dimensional correspondences can betray that we are dealing with a counterfeit: it may seem poor quality, lack of brilliance, with printing ink colors too lightFor example.

Perform reverse searches for attractive ad photos

If it happens that the dealers simply take the photos displayed on the brands’ e-shops to illustrate their particular ad, this is clearly unreliable. You can request photos of the item in question.

And when faced with photos of a particularly expensive tempting object, you can do it Run a reverse image search to see if the images have been stolen from another ad elsewhere on the web…There are several free online tools, such as Google Images, TinEye or ReverseSearch.

Review and count key details to avoid scams

If you have really good eyes, you can do that too. compare the photos in the advert with those in the eshop to identify a possible scam.

For example, you can count the number of perforations at the level of the finger box (the part of the sneaker that accommodates the toes, simply called the toe cap) or the space between the brand letters at the heel counter (that is, the part against the Achilles heel). Irregular spacing of the letters or poor quality embroidery can alert you that you are dealing with a fake. The quality of the size label inside the sneaker can also leave something to be desired.

You can spot a fake sneaker when you have it in your hands.

To go further, the sneakerhead show They are a beautiful couple produced by Mouv’ also gives advice on how to spot a counterfeit on Vinted, but is mostly interested in the product once received (and not the ad, unlike the advice above).

Photo credits from Une: screenshot by Vinted.