In the pandemic world, we have a boom of counterfeit products as people have mostly converted to online shopping, which has become more convenient in the last 2 years as covid regulations recommend staying at home and avoiding social situations. As much as it played a major role in keeping small or big businesses alive, it also made it possible for counterfeit brands to sell more fake items. Sometimes replicas are so close to the original designs that it becomes impossible for an inexperienced eye to tell fake from authentic. Thankfully, professionals like LegitGrails exist! If you ever decide to buy branded items online from a website that isn’t official, we advise you to use brand authentication services. Even if you have already bought the product but aren’t sure whether it’s authentic or not LegitGrails will analyze it for you and give you an authenticity certificate! If you want to do the authentication by yourself, you can check out their legit check guides where you can read the instructions step-by-step for various branded items.
What are the most famous brands that are faked
According to the Global Brand Counterfeiting Report 2018, the most counterfeited luxury brands are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Fendi, Prada, Dior, and Gucci. Let’s say a few words on some of them.
Louis Vuitton – It is not a big surprise that Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited luxury brands in the world. Even though the brand has a zero-tolerance policy in regards to counterfeiting and is using its resources to the fullest to fight these criminals, they still manage to replicate LV goods and sell them under the authentic name. For example, in August of 2020, the Chinese police arrested 62 criminal gangs that manufactured and sold fake Louis Vuitton bags. They not only damage the reputation of the brand and take away sales from them, but they damage the customers the most because of their toxic and questionable materials.
Chanel – Chanel is one of the most popular luxury brands and therefore one of the most commonly counterfeited ones too and its trademark rights are violated on a daily basis. Only in 2019 Chanel accused almost 100 internet-based stores of manufacturing and selling fake goods online. Most commonly counterfeited items of Chanel include bags, wallets, jewelry, etc.
Gucci – It might not surprise you that Gucci is the most counterfeited luxury brand on TikTok. The study revealed that the brand has 13.6 million TikTok hashtag views to fake Gucci products where bags and belts seem to be the most faked goods on the social platform.
Why do swindlers use exactly these brands
The brands mentioned above are one of the most popular luxurious brands on the market. For example, in 2018 Chanel made $10 billion in revenue for the first time, Louis Vuitton made 14 billion Euros in 2020 and Gucci made 9.62 billion Euros in 2019. It isn’t easy for such massive brands to control the market so well for counterfeit goods not to exist anymore and even though they have zero tolerance against counterfeiting, fake brands still manage to produce replica products illegally.
How swindlers fake the brands
Even though counterfeiting is illegal, fake brands still manage to replicate authentic designs and violate their rights. Their working process is mostly very secretive but the counterfeit products are mostly manufactured in Asia, where people don’t get paid fair wages and their rights are spurned.
How to distinguish fake
Here are 5 tips you should take as advice to distinguish the fake brands:
1) Compare pictures from unknown websites to official pictures. Look closely and if you find differences in shapes, colors, measurements, and stitching the product most definitely is fake.
2) Check the material quality. While authentic brands use high-quality materials such as lambskin, calfskin, gold plated hardware, etc. replica brands use low-quality materials to reduce the cost.
3) Asymmetrical and loose stitching. Stitching on authentic products is symmetrical, tight, and secure, which results in the product being super durable whereas stitching on counterfeit products is loose, sloppy, and asymmetrical.
4) Look out for low prices. If the price of the product seems good to be true then we hate to break this for you, but it’s fake.
5) Different logos. If logos on a product seem to be shaped differently, have different colors and measurements, then you should take it as a major red flag.
Conclusion
As you can see, some luxury brands are more commonly counterfeited than others, but you have nothing to worry about if you know the general rules of how to distinguish fake from authentic products. Even if you struggle with authenticating branded items by yourself, thanks to the professionals, they are always around to help us!
