I think I just touched on this subject not too long ago, but in the last blog I mentioned how 99% identical fakes could change the market in a major way and these Mars Yard are the case in point. When these first released I actually passed on them because I wasn’t feeling them at the time, but after a few months I had to get them because they grew on me. Little did I know the re-sell price on these went through the roof. I was on the fence initially but I ended up pulling the trigger. However, recently I noticed a surge of listings pop up on the market and it got me a little curious where this is all coming from. The comparison by Fake education on the early fakes was very easy to tell. It was a no brainer…everything was off with the shoes. But the new pairs on the market looked identical to the real pair. I almost got finessed by paying close to $2k on a pair recently but after a little bit of research and photo comparing I noticed something was off. The only difference I could spot was NOT on the shoe, but actually in the accessories and that is a bit scary if you ask me. But I was curious to find out how good these pairs really are in person because I could not spot the difference just from photos alone and ended up paying for a pair for $300.
I got these in yesterday and I must say there isn’t much different from the real pair. From a side by side comparison you could say the mesh and shade of the suede is slightly off, but other than that there isn’t much else different. From a different perspective, without the real pair in comparison side by side, I don’t think I would be able to tell. Just imagine I wore the fake pair…you’re probably not going to question the legitimacy of the pair because you’re not going to remember how the mesh exactly was and how the exact shade of brown in on the real pair. The only dead giveaway from the fake pair was actually the box and accessories. The insole prints were poorly positioned, the box was a little less sturdy, and the pamphlet was noticeably smaller in size, but who the f*ck cares because you’re not going to carry the box around when you wear the shoes, right? I always joke, what if there are so many fakes out there, when ppl see the real pair they would think the real pair is fake because they look off to the fake pair…lol. Here’s the bigger question…as a consumer that genuinely loves the design and aesthetics of the shoes…would you pay $2,875 for a legit pair of $300 for a fake pair that absolutely no one can tell? You can say StockX is cheaper…but fk that because the price isn’t accurate unless the seller is actually selling a real pair. Flight Club is a guarantee.
If there is such a BIG difference in price with almost no difference in the shoes, I’m not going to lie, I’m tempted to just go with the fake pair. Of course I’m speaking in the context of wearing the shoes and not taking a fake pair and selling it off as real. I’ve been in the game for so long that I don’t need to impress anyone with the shoes I’m wearing. I could justify saying no to fakes when we are talking about a price difference of $400-$500 but when it hits a certain threshold I’m sure a lot of us thinking the same thing…why should you feed into this high resell price and fuel it even higher?
So my conclusion today is…Fakes are just going to get better and better and there will come a day where it is absolutely 99.9% identical. But how does this affect the market? There will always be brand loyalist that will refuse to buy nothing but the Authentic item and there will always be people out there that have deep pockets to pay the re-sell price, but the vast population could eventually give in to fakes knowingly and unknowingly. The market is composed of a lot of small individual players and when fakes are so good, you could be buying and selling a fake not even knowing about it. This will create a lot of headache for consignment shops big or small because in order to distinguish real or fake, you pretty much have to have a pair in the archive almost all the time for reference and comparison. For example, if this pair didn’t come with the box and accessories and a customer brought these in as pre-owned…it would be extremely difficult for me say if it is real or fake. At this point…I can see re-selling in the market in the future to be consolidated into very large companies that could afford to keep an archive like this at all times and smaller re-sellers would slowly die off.
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Depending on the shoe, fakes are already at 99.9% authentic. Furthermore if the same chinese factory that is making the shoes for Nike a d Adidas are also making Unauthorized pairs, are they really fake if they are using the same materials and blueprint to make the shoe? The only thing that makes 1 fake I guess is Nike or Adidas didn’t authorize it, but the quality is identical.
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I’ve worked in China in the industry and spoken to sneaker reps and they’re not being made in the same factory
HOWEVER you’ve got tens of thousands of engineers with manufacturing experience that can recreate everything outside of the factory
Not only that but even Chinese nike retail employees will help you find the best fakes with limited shoes
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The idea that replica sneakers are made in identical factories as the authentic sneakers is a myth, probably created by the people selling the fakes.
I don’t blame you for having believed it though, as I believed the same thing for a while.
That said, the quality of reps has grown considerably over the years, to the point that there are a lot of pairs that the vast majority of sneakerheads (let alone the average person) wouldn’t be able to differentiate from the authentic version.
It’s honestly a little depressing to have discovered this, after all the money I’ve spent on sneakers purchased at resale prices.
From now on, my outlook is this: I’ll try to buy the shoe I want at retail, but if I strike out (which is often the case these days), I’d rather buy a high-quality rep than pay resale prices. Never again will I pay ridiculous prices for a shoe I want!
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