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Sneakerhead Self Defense
Identifying and Avoiding Fake Sneakers and Fraudulent Web sites
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Introduction
One of the most important questions you can ask is “Are my sneakers the real deal? Are they authentic?” Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast ways to tell the fakes from the real, but here are a few tips to help keep you from getting fooled even if you don't know a lot about the shoes. First, here are a few definitions to help you understand the lingo that websites will use.
- Variants
- These are fake. Variant is just another way to say that shoes were not made or authorized by Nike and never have been.
- Samples
- "Samples" come in Size 9 with no box, and are used to road test different looks for a shoe. You can come across some unusual samples, some of which are valuable, but these can be very rare. Anything else is fake.
- Lookalikes
- Lookalikes can be found in department stores, are made by an anonymous brand and are very cheap replicas.
- Customs
- Any shoe in a non-original colorway, it is a sample, a fake or a ‘custom.’ Customs are shoes that have been hand detailed in some way usually by one of the few well-known custom designers. These individuals take a legitimate pair of shoes and custom detail them for you, in which you case, you know what's happening and fakes are not a worry. Some websites call their shoes ‘customs’ but they are fakes. Anything that has been structurally altered is fake, including the Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry Air Force Ones.
Always buy from a reputable merchant. Reputable doesn’t mean a huge corporation, but it does mean that they provide a mailing address, an email address and a phone number to contact them. Their business hours should be clearly posted and when you call, a trained, professional customer service representative should be available to help you. Here is our advice for buying sneakers on the Internet.
Webpage
Appearance
Webpages for reputable, reliable merchants should look clean, professional, and be functional. Product images should look like they were taken in a professional studio instead of someone's living room or a warehouse. The company should have its own domain name instead of a website hosted on a free service like Geocities (e.g. www.sneakerhead.com versus www.free-website-service.com/~sneakerhead/index.html). Registering a domain and creating a business website with an original design takes both time and money.
Note: The appearance of a website is not always the best way to judge the authenticity of a merchant. There is powerful software available that will create very professional webpages, and sometimes, website selling fakes or websites pretending to sell products to steal your money will simply steal the design and images of a more famous (and usually legitimate) website. This tactic is to deceive customers into believing their website is legitimate and related to the legitimate company.
Search Engine Ranking
When you go to Google, Yahoo, or another webpage to search for something, the results you get are ranked by order of importance. This ranking is determined by variables set in place by the companies that own the search engine. The rank or where it appears on the results is tells you how well that website is doing. Legitimate merchants will usually be located within the first three pages for specific words like "Nike Shox Lethal" and within the first four or five pages for more general searches like "running shoes".
Note: One excellent way to know how a website ranks is to download the Google toolbar from Google.com. Next to the search features and Google news icon is a small icon labeled "PageRank". This feature ranks websites on a scale of 0 to 10 with zero meaning that the page isn't ranked by Google and 10 meaning that this is one of the most important pages on the Web. Legitimate web merchants will usually rank between 3 and 5. Five is a very good ranking for Google because only household names like nike.com, msn.com, google.com etc. can score higher. Lesser known names like RunnersWorld.com and Menshealth.com may score a six or a seven, leaving most merchants ranking between 3 and 5. Sellers of fakes will generally, but not always have a low page rank score on the Google toolbar. There is at least one exception to this rule that we are aware of.
Method of Payment
Authentic websites should accept credit cards either directly through their website or with Paypal. Paypal should only be for very small companies. Merchants should follow all credit card processing regulations including having the cardholder name and address. In order to accept credit cards directly, you must apply for a merchant account which often requires a company to file as a corporation. These two methods are the most generally accepted methods of processing credit cards over the Internet. Other payment processors may be available. If any company only accept money orders, don't bother. More than likely, you'll never see your money again and quite possibly, you may never even see the products you paid for. Always pay with a credit card. At least with a credit card, you have the protection of knowing that your card issuer can reverse the charge. With a money order, you may as well hand over your wallet with all its cash. The money is gone and you can count on never seeing it again. But even with credit cards, we recommend that you use with care. Anyone can set up a legitimate looking shop for the purpose of stealing your credit card information. Use with care. For more information on shopping online with your credit card, please visit Important Things You Should Know about your Credit Card & Shopping on the Internet.
