Counterfeit Skate Gear Thread

[BALARGUE]

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Does AH make wheels?

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They are the same graphic as the wheels on the budget completes, so although they are cheap and made in China, they are not necessarily fake (as some shops will take them apart and sell separately), but going by where they are listed, which has had some fake product before, I would say they are most likely fake cheap wheels.

The OJs definitely look like the cheap and crap copies of the real thing, especially as most don't come in plain shrink / no packaging.

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And they have no size printed on them. The others I've google'd all have at least the size on them and most have the Duro on them too.

the legit OJs on completes don't show size / duros

these could be legit wheels from completes, taken apart and shrink wrapped

shady anyway

[rocklobster]

DLX get their decks, trucks and wheels made in China for their budget completes. My guess is:

1) the factories are producing above the ordered amount and selling these out the back door
2) these are production seconds and sold out the back door
3) counterfeiters are copying the graphics and stamping them on shitty blanks

[Ghost Face]

DLX get their decks, trucks and wheels made in China for their budget completes. My guess is:

1) the factories are producing above the ordered amount and selling these out the back door
2) these are production seconds and sold out the back door
3) counterfeiters are copying the graphics and stamping them on shitty blanks

Seems like you're correct. The prices are so inflated though. I feel for people who shell out for these.

[ok boomer]

I would buy fake gear if the spellings were wrong
Trasher
Suprem
Would act like hot shit (while being cold diarrhea) in that

[rocklobster]

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DLX get their decks, trucks and wheels made in China for their budget completes. My guess is:

1) the factories are producing above the ordered amount and selling these out the back door
2) these are production seconds and sold out the back door
3) counterfeiters are copying the graphics and stamping them on shitty blanks

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Seems like you're correct. The prices are so inflated though. I feel for people who shell out for these.

This kind of stuff is pretty rampant in Asia, but the counterfeiters struck gold with the Spitfire wheels / Bones bearings. 2 of the most trusted brands in skateboarding in a region that doesn't have the same financial access to these products.

Local awareness of these goods has grown in the past year but newer skaters will still fall prey to these fakes. Who wouldn't want to save a few bucks.

[Mbrimson88]

The funny thing I have seen is when the prices for the fake product are too low, they don't actually sell as much as when the prices are just below the normal RRP.

Sucks for the people who don't know any better, especially when some ebay sellers are calling themselves AUSkate or something which sounds a lot more like a shop name than just freddy23 or some other personal name.

The guy taking the completes apart here is a different thing - they are legit completes (all made in China) but trying to sell them for the same as or just under pro board prices is bad.

Some people will get hold of something, especially anything with any recognised brand name, and then copy it and make a good profit and sell it on to others who also think they can make money from the fake stuff regardless of the actual quality.

This is always going to happen, but it has come up in leaps and bounds with the shortages and distribution issues that are still ongoing in some areas.


I have even seen old shop owners who have been blacklisted end up getting fake stuff just to try to stock up their shop, or continue selling product, even if it is not from reputable sources.


Any which way, if it is more widely known, then hopefully there will be less of an issue and these people will look to other avenues when no one really buys their crap product.

[rocklobster]

The funny thing I have seen is when the prices for the fake product are too low, they don't actually sell as much as when the prices are just below the normal RRP.

Fake Spitfires at $20 - "these are definitely suspect"
Fake Spitfires at $28 - "oh these are a steal"

[Mbrimson88]

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The funny thing I have seen is when the prices for the fake product are too low, they don't actually sell as much as when the prices are just below the normal RRP.

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Fake Spitfires at $20 - "these are definitely suspect"
Fake Spitfires at $28 - "oh these are a steal"

Ha yep it was weird to see, but checking the history of sales for certain people I can see when they had them at $49 they only sold one set, but when they were back up to $69 they sold three sets, from one ebay seller.  RRP is $79.99 AU here now.

They were the Radial Slim wheel snake graphic so go figure.

[DISTANT RUMOURS]

I spent the night on chinese websites and was mesmerised by the amount of fake skateboard gear. They have colored /mixed spitfires now as well … fake i “ndys?

[Mbrimson88]

It is crazy how many "genuine looking" products there are now as well, Independent Trucks in bigger sizes, Spitfire wheels in as close to shape, size and colour as ever and other things.

The most recent ebay listings have 149 Indy forged hollow (still have differences, like thicker baseplates that are still cast, even with the forged bottom graphic) and a few other things.

It is getting weird, that's for sure.

[manysnakes]

It is crazy how many "genuine looking" products there are now as well, Independent Trucks in bigger sizes, Spitfire wheels in as close to shape, size and colour as ever and other things.

The most recent ebay listings have 149 Indy forged hollow (still have differences, like thicker baseplates that are still cast, even with the forged bottom graphic[
) and a few other things.

It is getting weird, that's for sure.

I don’t know if the same thing is happening, but 10ish years ago, famously the bicycle company Specialized had The CAD drawings for their Tarmac and Roubaix frames leaked by someone at their Taiwan (or maybe mainland China, can recall) manufacturing facility. This allowed flawless appearing fakes to slip out into the market. The underlying carbon fiber was dramatically different and much shittier, but it fooled a lot of people and many of those bikes are still floating around.

It would be much easier to make a fake Indy truck without requiring the original CAD drawings, but this is a possibility.

As a postscript to the knock off carbon bikes - the manufacturer who sold the fakes is a company called Dengfu who now does big business selling frames, rims and wheels direct to consumer on their website. Would be funny to see a Dengfu equivalent gain a foothold in the skate market.

[rocklobster]

It's already happened with trucks, wouldn't surprise me if someone in the China Indy facility stole the CAD drawings. There are lots of "blank" trucks in China that look exactly like a Stage 11, just missing the logo and text on the baseplates.

This hasn't happened for Thunder or Venture yet. I bought a counterfeit pair of each for closer observation beyond the rough finish and odd bushing colors, the geometry is off. Haven't measured the wheelbase but the height difference between the fakes and genuine ones is a dead give away.

[strongererections]

can a mod delet this thread this is just right wing conspirity theory and racist agnst chinese and delet board weight thread too this is just harmful conspirity theorys i only sell product to shops very cheap bcuz my homie is flow ok

[LewFarrell]

Saw this on IG, somewhat local to me so I checked it out.
Gotta be fakes right? Especially given this ad on AliExpress.

https://www.instagram.com/squareoneskateshop/p/CXJbutargXA/?utm_medium=copy_link

[rocklobster]

Saw this on IG, somewhat local to me so I checked it out.
Gotta be fakes right? Especially given this ad on AliExpress.

https://www.instagram.com/squareoneskateshop/p/CXJbutargXA/

Without a doubt. China sellers in my region use the exact same cover image and sell the exact same models of F4 wheels. This seller probably also sells Bones bearings, Independent trucks (139 only) and Baker / Toy Machine / Foundation / Crailtap decks.

[LewFarrell]

This is the URL of another "shop" that looks to be selling fake shit here in Canada.

https://convictionskateshop.com/collections/skateboard-decks

[rocklobster]

Mixing genuine stuff (Portland Wheels, Bacon Decks) with the fake stuff.

https://convictionskateshop.com/products/spitfire-formula-four-54-mm-101-duro-radial-slims
Spitfire Radial Slims in a Classic shape.

Bearings are suspicious too if he's getting the wheels already.

The most egregious may be the helmets, I wouldn't trust the QC standards on unbranded brain buckets.

Edit: Baker / Crail / Element decks are definitely the same ones you find on Aliexpress. I'm willing to bet he only has Indy's in 139 since that's the only size the counterfeiters make. A "smart" move not to list the fake stuff online and only in-store.

[Ghost Face]

It's already happened with trucks, wouldn't surprise me if someone in the China Indy facility stole the CAD drawings. There are lots of "blank" trucks in China that look exactly like a Stage 11, just missing the logo and text on the baseplates.

This hasn't happened for Thunder or Venture yet. I bought a counterfeit pair of each for closer observation beyond the rough finish and odd bushing colors, the geometry is off. Haven't measured the wheelbase but the height difference between the fakes and genuine ones is a dead give away.

The guy ion the 2hex website has a video on "we can make your stuff for you" and he's clearly holding an Indy copy in his hand.

https://www.2hex.com/skateboard-trucks-manufacturer

[Ghost Face]

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Saw this on IG, somewhat local to me so I checked it out.
Gotta be fakes right? Especially given this ad on AliExpress.

https://www.instagram.com/squareoneskateshop/p/CXJbutargXA/

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Without a doubt. China sellers in my region use the exact same cover image and sell the exact same models of F4 wheels. This seller probably also sells Bones bearings, Independent trucks (139 only) and Baker / Toy Machine / Foundation / Crailtap decks.

The biggest indicator here is that no one is importing "Made in America" wheels to The East and then reselling them back to The West at a heavily reduced price.

[Mbrimson88]

Another one on ebay, this one listing the wheels as usual  with a stock pic first, but putting up a second pic of the actual product, which shows things like bad colouring of the graphic and the wheels themselves, thinner shape than the conical full and a few other little things that give them away.

As said by people like @rocklobster they are definitely coming along in product likeness, from the very first ones to these latest ones coming out, but to me it seems like they always make a mistake somewhere, which really shows if you know what you are looking for, or are very familiar with the genuine product.

[Mbrimson88]

Another one from the same ebay seller, this time the 101 duro version of the same as above.

Note the colour is actually too dark now, along with the wheels being too skinny, the graphic blurry and the gold colour too dark on the wheels.

[TwisT]

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It's already happened with trucks, wouldn't surprise me if someone in the China Indy facility stole the CAD drawings. There are lots of "blank" trucks in China that look exactly like a Stage 11, just missing the logo and text on the baseplates.

This hasn't happened for Thunder or Venture yet. I bought a counterfeit pair of each for closer observation beyond the rough finish and odd bushing colors, the geometry is off. Haven't measured the wheelbase but the height difference between the fakes and genuine ones is a dead give away.

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The guy ion the 2hex website has a video on "we can make your stuff for you" and he's clearly holding an Indy copy in his hand.

https://www.2hex.com/skateboard-trucks-manufacturer

I’ve seen fake ventures, specifically the ti prod. It was always the 5.0 selling for way to little.

Idk if it’s from 2hex but indy molds are in the streets. Zumiez has that compound brand of house trucks. Then there’s that foundry truck brand prime was doing last year.


Identical

https://www.zumiez.com/compound-polished-silver-5-25-skateboard-truck.html

[rocklobster]

Lots of shops in China are doing store brand Indy knockoffs. So far I've only seen a handful of shops actually design a unique truck, the closest of which was a Thunder knockoff with a better baseplate design at the expense of a horrible turn.

[Mbrimson88]

Curious to see if anyone ever does a knock off of Ace trucks.

The other main brands all have their copies, but as yet I don't think anyone has done anything like that.

Definitely seen many variations on the Indy, Thunder and Venture looks though.

[Brad Wesley]

Are these operations mainly counterfeiting the high-demand items like Baker decks and F4s? Do they make knockoffs of minor accessories like risers and bushings, or are those not worth the effort? I ordered some rails from Amazon but after reading this thread, I had second thoughts and returned them.

[rocklobster]

Are these operations mainly counterfeiting the high-demand items like Baker decks and F4s? Do they make knockoffs of minor accessories like risers and bushings, or are those not worth the effort? I ordered some rails from Amazon but after reading this thread, I had second thoughts and returned them.

They target the brand name decks, trucks, wheels and bearings. I've seen Independent, Diamond and Crailtap hardware sell for overly cheap on Aliexpress.

The other one to watch out for would be griptape. Mob and Grizzly from Aliexpress is suspicious.

[Mbrimson88]

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Are these operations mainly counterfeiting the high-demand items like Baker decks and F4s? Do they make knockoffs of minor accessories like risers and bushings, or are those not worth the effort? I ordered some rails from Amazon but after reading this thread, I had second thoughts and returned them.

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They target the brand name decks, trucks, wheels and bearings. I've seen Independent, Diamond and Crailtap hardware sell for overly cheap on Aliexpress.

The other one to watch out for would be griptape. Mob and Grizzly from Aliexpress is suspicious.

I would also guess if it was a "big brand" product, there would be more chance for that to happen, but generic products would not have such a high interest, or would most likely be about the same quality as those produced under a brand name anyway, eg I think rails all come from China nowdays, so I don't really think there would be a big difference, if any, in the quality of the product.

More than anything, if it is a lot cheaper than the genuine product, there is a much higher chance it is fake, but plastic components like rails and risers would be about the same, unlike bushings or wheels, which are completely different compounds of urethane, so are going to maybe look similar but feel very different when you use them.

[Ghost Face]

Are these operations mainly counterfeiting the high-demand items like Baker decks and F4s? Do they make knockoffs of minor accessories like risers and bushings, or are those not worth the effort? I ordered some rails from Amazon but after reading this thread, I had second thoughts and returned them.

There's loads of the Thrasher/Indy mounting hardware on Ali.

[Fhk]

got a set of Swiss off parade for $50 via holiday sale a couple weeks ago. they arrived today from a shop in Miami called Andrew. seems like more streetwear than skating. I'm looking at the bearings and most things seem pretty legit, but I'm not sure. Date is 1981. bottom of box reads bonesbearings.com with no full address, just Santa Barbara, California U.S.A. not really sure what's going on.... any thoughts?

[manysnakes]

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got a set of Swiss off parade for $50 via holiday sale a couple weeks ago. they arrived today from a shop in Miami called Andrew. seems like more streetwear than skating. I'm looking at the bearings and most things seem pretty legit, but I'm not sure. Date is 1981. bottom of box reads bonesbearings.com with no full address, just Santa Barbara, California U.S.A. not really sure what's going on.... any thoughts?

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this counterfeit gear crap is so frustrating. I'm pretty sure these are fine, but it's still like what the fuck. never had to do a quality check on new bearings before...

Only buy Bones bearings from dealers listed on their website. No one else is getting authentic product.