How to avoid fake sneakers and fake brand sneakers on Vinted, etc.

The resale of sneakers seems more and more like a gold rush. Inevitably, such a growing market on the second-hand and second-hand side – where the prices of collectible models can easily rise beyond the thousands of euros – attracts lusts … including those of counterfeiters.

The latter are also working to create counterfeit sneakers for the general public, which they resell on popular fashion resale sites such as Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, LeBonCoin or even Depop. While the Nike Dunk Low (especially the Dunk Low Sail Coast), the Nike x Patta, the Jordan 4 or the Waffle One Crater are particularly trendy among sneaker fans, how to prevent the risk of buying fake sneakers in spite of yourself?

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

The following tips are only clues, tips for better information and to clarify possible transactions, and not guarantees to be followed to the letter to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Remain realistic and vigilant in the face of overly attractive prices

When looking for second-hand items, you can of course expect low prices and even bargain for them.

However, and this may seem obvious, it doesn’t hurt to remember: an abnormally low price should warn youespecially if it comes from a profile with a weird name, and a purely descriptive ad worthy of a copy-paste from the original brand eshop with no added personal value!

But even credible prices can raise doubts, because some counterfeiters offer sneakers at non-round prices, as most ordinary people do: 123 € instead of 130 or 120 for example. Because this can be symptomatic of a smoothly running business internationally, where taking into account conversion rates based on currencies leads to setting these types of prices that want to follow the laws of the market a little too closely …

Study the reseller profile

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

Better than a confidence-inspiring head in a profile photo (because it’s so easy to take the face of anyone with a good-natured good-natured on Google Images), it’s most of all the number of ratings, comments and transactions you can trust.

If the person has only been selling sneakers of different sizes for two weeks and has no ratings and reviews, even if they have a nice profile picture that reminds you of your best friend from elementary school, better pass.

If he doesn’t have a profile photo, but sells sneakers almost always the same size, and has been doing so for years, with lots of transactions and positive reviews at the counter, that’s a good sign.

If you’re considering a really expensive pair, you can also ask the retailer privately on very mainstream platforms like Vinted, Depop or LeBonCoin if they’ve also placed an ad on Vestiaire Collective, which has a authentication serviceand link to it.

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

Privately request photos of 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 love them but also because they can be brought in to resell them according to their own. collection wishes.

Get used to resale, these gym shoes as they are called in the jargon of fashion, they therefore know that it is in their best interest to keep the proof of purchase and the original packaging of their shoes. So you can ask privately for photos of the receipt, brand name plates and shoe box.

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

Be careful the quality of the shoe box carton (Is it too bumpy, ribbed, to be that of an industrial giant like Nike or Adidas, for example?). The label stuck on the card indicating the correspondence of the sizes can also betray that it is a counterfeit: it may seem poor quality, lack of gloss, with too light printing ink colorsFor instance.

Reverse search the tempting ad photos

If retailers happen to be content with taking photos displayed in brands’ eshops to illustrate their particular ad, it is clearly unreliable. You can request images of the article in question.

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

Scan and count key details

If you have really good eyes, you can too compare the photos of the announcement with those of the eshop.

For example, you can count the number of perforations per ferrule (the front part of the shoe that welcomes the toes, which in French is simply called the end) or the space between the letters of the brand at the level of the buttress (i.e. the part against the Achilles heel). Irregular intercepts or an approximate quality of the embroidery can warn that we are dealing with a fake. The quality of the size label inside the sneaker can also leave something to be desired.

Recognize a fake sneaker when you have it in your hands

To go further, the sneakerhead show She is a good couple produced by Mouv ‘also gives advice on how to spot a counterfeit on Vinted, but is primarily interested in the product once it is received (and as soon as it is announced, contrary to the advice above).

Front page photo credit: Vinted screenshot.