Wednesday, July 11, 2007



REAL OR NOT?

Ever get tired of seeing all these fake stuff all over the internet, especially eBay?

When you just want to sit down and browse for some potential steals, you enter "Supreme Dunk" and hundreds of results pop out, but what are the chances of spotting a pair of dunks that actually are BOTH the Supreme dunk AND authentic?

Quite low.

And the saddest thing is, I am seeing people still paying $500+ for fake Supremes thinking they got a steal... and the buyer would leave a good feedback saying "100% authentic thanks a lot!" Be it a dual fraud or a dumbass buyer, I can't stand eBay sometimes.

I was fortunate enough to negotiate two okay deals for authentic supreme dunks back then; and from the course of searching; I've always wondered how to determine fakes as they are seriously everywhere like Starbucks are.

There were quite a few sites, some magazines that teach you how to differentiate, but then you'll never know until you buy yourself a fake pair like I did back then. The purpose of this post is to prevent you from getting owned.

So here it is, this post is dedicated solely on Supreme Dunks, but then it'll work well against other dunk SBs, they are from my experience and chances are I will be right since I've owned both the real and fake ones (or who knows, they're all fakes).

1. Cement Print

The easiest way to tell a pair of Supreme Dunks from being fake is its cement/elephant print. See the picture below, it is FAKE TO THE BONE:

Some of you may not even know, but these look so damn ugly having the knowledge that they are fake.

Fake Supreme Dunks that have textural elephant prints will have a severe brownish tone to them; please compare the picture above to the real deals below:

Authentic Supreme Dunks have a PINKISH tone to the elephant print, and if you can touch it, they are NOT PAPERY like the fake ones that peel with a few wears.

2. Tongues

This applies to virtually ALL older SBs (at least before Tiffanys, after that I gave up on SBs anyway.) Real SBs tend to have "V" or "U" shaped tongues that bend inward with a certain textual appeal to them(that makes people go "hm that looks comfy"); whereas fake SBs tend to have just straight edge that looks somehow just plain cheap and just mesh-ish.

3. Laces

Real Nike SBs ALWAYS have a better and fatter laces than fake ones; the fakes have ridiculously thin laces that just look stupid, these are the things that you can spot in pictures; Nike SB laces look oval yet flat in a way, fake ones have just round and thin laces.

4. Lace Lock (or whatever it is on the middle of the tongue)

Real Nike SBs do not necessarily have the highest quality material for that, but then fake SBs take that to the next level, they sometimes just use a 45 thread count nylon fabric, or shall I say PAPER, for that little piece, I mean the fake manufacturers need to make money right?

Here are a few pictures for example:


1. Flat tongue edge, it should be either V or U curve inward.
2. Lace Lock thing, you probably can't see on the picture, but if you have the actual shoes go check.
3. Laces are very thin
4. The elephant print is wayyyyyyyy too shitty brown.


This pair will probably get some of you fooled.
1. The cement print is new and improved, but it is still "FIRED", because the overall texture is too smooth with no leather feel; there are no pink tone to it, meaning it is probably printed.
2. The fakes still manage to repeat their mistakes by using thin ass laces.
3. The tongues now look more authentic, it is puffy and all that, but the edge still fails to be curvy, I guess the fake makers just can't figure this one out.



1. A clearer view of the edge of the tongue, no cigar.
2. I'm sorry but I don't recall Supreme Dunks come with blue laces, these people should really do some homework, this is such an instant give-a-way.

5. BOX

The boxes are another givaway, however, it is quite hard and unsafe to just rely on the box. Generally, if the fakes are cheap, don't expect them to use high quality boxes either; the fakes will have the fonts and all that copied, but they will ALWAYS fail on the quality:



The sticker color is way off its box color

Here is the real thing:


6. Price

But hey, even if you know ALL the little things about fakes, you are still bound to get some whack fakes, because people will simply put on REAL pictures and sell you fakes so you don't know, when your cement print starts peeling off and you try to find them, eBay tells you that they are "No longer registered member" so you will shut the hell up.

Anyway, price is one thing you can determine, there will be no freaking way you can get a pair of Supreme Dunk DS or NDS for $350 BIN, unless you are extremely lucky, and if you have to read what I have to say, you are NOT lucky. So, take a second to rationalize whether the price is too good to be true, (actually when you buy from me it's always too good to be true, because I'm always desperate for cash, but then I will NOT sell my supremes for $350 bin, even if they're used!)

7. Feedback/Credibility

So, here comes the last check, ALWAYS check the feedback scores, don't just check them, because some of these snakes buy 100 stamps for 5 dollars and then sell 10 normal air maxes for retail prices to fool you into thinking that they're really authentic. So always carefully study their feedback scores before you make your purchase; be sure to ask for some photos with a hand written name tag or even ask for their cell phones and whatnot.

Alright that's about all I have, good luck in finding your pair of REAL SBs, say no to FAKES!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've been trying to find a good authentic vs. fake comparison. Can you reload the pics?