A friend told you that he is selling brand new Supreme T-shirts at bargain-bin prices. He said he gets it “directly” from the manufacturer’s plant, hence the low cost. While your penny-pinching brain tells you to bite the bullet, you’re common sense tells you the same old lesson: If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Honestly, I’d rather do custom T-shirt printing than wear a clone.
So how can someone determine if a shirt is the real thing and not fake? Here’s our top 10 list of things to check out for to confirm if a shirt is authentic.
1. Look at the logo - Most fake merchandise will seem off if you scrutinize its logo. Check the color, shade, and overall quality of the print.
2. Stitching - Stitching of legit shirts are more complete than counterfeit ones. In fake clothes, you’ll see that the maker seem to have scrimped on the number of threads on the stitching.
3. Fabric - Going back to our earlier Supreme T-shirt example, a good tell of a fake one is the fabric. If it’s too coarse or thick (ratio to cotton is extremely low) it means the manufacturer used cheap quality fabric, an automatic red flag.
4. Spelling - You better believe it. Some fake merchandise out there are so focused on selling their pirated products that they did not even bother to make sure if they got the product’s name right. I once saw a pair Havaianas sandals rip-off which said. “Hawaiians”.
5. Pricing - This is a big sign if you’re getting genuine products. I mean seriously, a Nike T-shirt for $5? Again, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. Better to go the custom T-shirt printing route if you’ll ask me.
6. Packaging - Shirts from well-known brands are packaged nicely in matching plastics. Counterfeit ones, on the other hand, especially those that are sold around the corner, get tossed around in bins like you’re buying from a garage sale. Sometimes, they are wrapped in plastics which does not bear the product’s brand name.
7. Check garment seam - a uniform stitch is a good indicator of quality. Clones are typically made with less stitches per inch.
8. Check the shirt buttons - Here’s another trick you should check out. Legit shirts will have their brand name imprinted on the shirt buttons. Counterfeiters usually don’t have the equipment or resources to do this. Also, they want to produce it as cheap as possible so they skip this even if they can.
9. Where is it being sold? - If you see a Louis Vuitton bag being sold by someone who set up shop at the side of the street, do you really think it’s the real thing?
10.Wash care tag - Most fake shirts don’t even bother with placing wash care tags on their products. Again, to save on production costs.