How to spot fake Louis Vuitton

How to spot fake LOUIS VUITTON - a beginner's guide

First, some important things to know about LV.LOUIS VUITTON NEVER...
* goes on sale. Ever. For any reason.
* allows anyone else to sell their product. You can ONLY buy it at an LV boutique (some boutiques are in other department stores such as SAKS but it is still an LV store.) Only louisvuitton.com sells online.

* has 'seconds' or any merchandise that would be less than perfect or sold at a discount. LV is handmade and if there is a problem it is destroyed.

These are some really easy ways to spot fake Louis Vuitton1) FAKE CARDS -- For some reason lots of fakes come with 'authenticity cards' - which is odd since LV doesn't come with them.

Here are some of the easiest cards to spot - the dreaded yellow card and green envelope.

2) Fabric swatches and attached tags. LV comes with neither of these.



3) POOR QUALITY. Louis Vuitton is worth a lot of money and it is very well made. So a great way to tell a fake is by looking at the quality. Look for things like sloppy stitching, drippy glazing (the red stuff around the leather) and bad alignment - the LV's and fleurs should line up and the LV's are very rarely cut off.




4) THE WRONG HEATSTAMP. This is the part on the bag where it says LOUIS VUITTON paris made in France (or Spain, or USA or others).The easiest way to tell a fake heatstamp is to look at the O's. They should be perfectly round. Fakes will have tall O's.
Real heatstamps never have the LV logo on them:







LOUIS VUITTON MYTHS...

* If LV has plastic on the handles it's fake. Not true - LV bags come with plastic which is supposed to be removed by the time it hits the floor - but some SA's leave it on when they give the client the bag straight from the back.

* The LV's should be upside down on one side of the bag or it's fake. - There are many variaions to this. Some bags are made with a single piece of canvas - so when it comes up the other side it will be upside down. However, some bags are made from more than one piece so they will not have the upside down logos. The speedy often will have a single piece of canvas - but during the time that the French Compant made bags (70's & 80's) they used 2 pieces - so both sides will be right side up.

* Authentic bags will have numbers inside, or the right kind of stamping or quality materials etc. but the fakes will not. --- Counterfeit bags are a million dollar industry -and they are made VERY well. Not all fakes are poor quality - and most are meant to look real. You can NEVER be 100% you are buying a real bag unless you get it from the boutique yourself. But there are ways to weed out the fakes so you can lessen your chances of getting a fake.
* If the LV's on the canvas are cut off it's a fake. -- While many bad fakes cut off the LV's there are some REAL styles that have the LV's cut off as well - so this is not always a tell tale sign. Sometimes they had to be cut off on one side to maintain the aethsetic of the main side.
* If it comes with a receipt it's probably authentic -- receipts are the EASIEST things to fake - all you need is a photocopier or a computer.


Get free authentications at www.effenhaute.com
Get professional authentications at www.authenticate4u.com

How To Spot Fake Lululemon

I will have some pics up soon comparing fake to real ones but for now here are some helpful tips:

"I can tell if it's real by the quality."  - the days of fakes only being poor quality are over.  Many of the fakes coming out of China are high quality and very similar to the real ones - here's why:
China does not have laws protecting 'intellectual property' so anyone can make anything over there.

Often a factory will be open by a company during the day - but at night that company is not there -- so someone else will come in and use the exact same machines to do the exact same work (this is the case with some Apple factories)
Or the exact same workers who are making Lululemon will go to their second job - making FAKE lululemon - and take all their knowledge with them to make the products available.

Specific to LULULEMON

- Check the rip out tag.  The name of the country where is is made should be capitalized. For example - if it was made in China the tag should say Made in China,  If it says made in china (without capitals) it is fake.  (This goes for Made is Vietnam, etc.)  It's the capitalization you need to look at.
(Lululemon is made in China, USA, Israel, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Peru. Peru)

- Check the spelling of the rip out tag.  Many times they will spell words wrong.

- Check the zipper.  If the item is new (last few years) it will have a lululemon symbol or YKK.

- Check the size sticker.  This should be stuck like crazy -- if it is easy to peel off it's fake.


If you need an authentication letter for paypal please go to www.authenticate4u.com 

To see some pics of fakes click HERE

Lululemon Fakes - the basics

Like every great brand, Lululemon is now the target of scammers.
Items are coming out of China where they are made to look a lot like the real thing.

Here are some things you need to know to keep yourself safe.

- Lululemon does not allow anyone else to sell their products.  Only Lululemon Stores, Lululemon Outlets, Lululemon.com and Lululemon Strategic partners are authorized to sell.  This can be easily verified by googling the store's name - if it's on lululemon's website it's legit.

- Lululemon does not sell their items to wholesalers and they do not have 'seconds' or close outs.  Anything that is left over goes to the outlet or the website where it is listed on 'We Made Too Much.'

- You can not buy lululemon wholesale.

- If you see someone who has many of the same item be cautious.  They might have bought up a bunch of stuff at an outlet or online --- but, if they are offering many NEW items at less than retail then stay away.

- One popular way to sell fake lululemon is at house parties.  Like Tupperware or candle parties these parties well a variety of items but they are usually fake purses and accessories and now fake lululemon.

- If you are going to buy Lululemon online (from ebay, kijiji or a facebook group) make sure you see a picture of the actual item for sale (not a picture taken from the lulu website).  Ask for pics of all tags and logos -- even if the tag is no longer there the lululemon symbol should be somewhere on the item.

- Also ask the seller where they got their items - if they will 'not reveal their sources' run the other way.

- ALWAYS pay with paypal and make sure you pay as 'goods' rather than a gift.  If you are scammed paypal will help you get your money back.  Some credit card companies will also protect you so to be double safe you can pay with credit card through paypal.

To see pics of fakes click here

Helpful links:
http://www.lululover.com/how-to-spot-a-fake/

http://www.lululemonstory.com/2011/09/lululemon-beware-of-fake-lululemon.html

http://isitcounterfeit.com/counterfeit-lululemon-athletica-hoodie

Sellers of fakes, Coco's Closet & Hooked Clothing

A common way to get fake Lululemon out there is through facebook groups and home parties.

The following groups have been identified as selling fakes (please see below for details).
(I have contacted Lululemon regarding both companies and I have been assured by Lululemon that these groups are not selling new authentic items)

"Coco's Closet"
"Hooked Clothing"

'Coco's Closet'
- This page, run by Colinda Lammers is a tricky one because they combined authentic used items with brand new fake items.
This way she has many buyers who have purchased authentic items and will stand by her.

- I have not seen fakes on her site since September but she still will not admit to any wrong doing and there are people out there who she has stolen money from -- until all these people get their money back (and until she contacts those who bought fakes and makes retribution to them) I will continue to warn people about her.

- She has changed her site now to 'I LOVE LULU' and has changed her name to SASHA THREADS.   


- What happened this summer was she sold 'new' items that are from Chinese wholesale companies.  She maintains that these are authentic and can not be trusted.

- I have heard from many, may people who have been scammed by her and are having to fight paypal to get their money back.  She admitted on her page to selling fakes - saying that she didn't know they were fakes - all the while refusing to refund those she scammed. 


 'Hooked Clothing'

The owner, Kayla states that she does not buy directly from lulu but "from a yoga store that is going out of business in BC "

Lululemon does not allow anyone to sell their items - all overstock

goes to their warehouse or to their website.

When Kayla was confronted about selling fakes on her facebook       

group 'hooked clothing' (which is no longer up and has been

replaced instead with a facebook shopping retail page) she said

that "There are no FAKE goods listed on our business page, as to

 the old group page that's was up to the old owner to delete off there

account."  

Here is what I found in looking at Hooked's old page and new page 

that contradicts what she has said.

Sept 1 2010 – Kayla starts the Hooked Clothing group (which she later claims to have been started by someone else)

Aug – claims to be ‘in discussion’ with Lululemon

Aug 2011 – “Select Lulu style available to order!”

Sept 15 / 2011 – claims to be working WITH lululemon:

Someone asks: about getting a certain lulu jacket

Kayla’s response: sorry we just started our account with them and can only get select items from them till we build our account up

(wait,I thought she said she didn't deal directly with lululemon but bought from stores going out of business....)

May 1  2012– “WE have a limited supply of LULU styles available order going in this Saturday please contact us or comment under the photo with your size. Payment must be received by Saturday for your order to be placed :P there only 50 units of each style” 

(How is an order 'placed' if they are getting close out stuff? Also, 50 of each unit? That must have been a HUGE store that closed down)

May 16 – “Red Deer Rep. is placing another Lululemon order this Saturday album will go up soon.”

(another order?  Did another lululemon store close down?)

July 15 – Another order.

(wow – lululemon stores must be dropping like flies to be able to get all this stuff!)

When asked to give the name of the yoga shop that closed down so this could be verified with lululemon she refused.  This could easily clear things up if she is telling the truth as lululemon would let us know if that was a strategic partner at one time and what happened to their merchandise when they closed.

ALSO 

If you look at the pictures she has – check out the ones that are not taken from the lulu website (the ones that are not on models)  These are the same styles that are available from Chinese knockoffs on alibaba.com

Hooked Clothing:

https://picasaweb.google.com/110960131327940782226/LululemonSz4681012#

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.336653603084955.78752.124377977645853&type=3

Chinese resellers:

http://www.alibaba.com/member/hk111865995/productlist-2.html

http://www.alibaba.com/member/ca1011211624/productlist.html

related interesting reads:

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/on/news-nouvelles/2011/11-09-28-sarnia-eng.htm

http://www.thestar.com/living/fashion/article/1063869--fake-lululemon-sold-at-house-parties