Following on from our last article all about the copycat problem in the boxing industry, where we talked about the prevalence of fake products on sites like ebay, we thought we’d provide you guys with a quick guide on how to spot a pair of fake gloves. You can get very in depth on individual brands, and there are plenty of YouTube videos doing exactly that, but this guide is designed as a quick checklist to consider before you buy yourself a new pair of gloves.
Use Your Eyes
When you’re buying gloves online you don’t have the luxury of physically examining the gloves, so the best thing you can do is thoroughly inspect the product photos. Therefore the first thing we’d suggest doing is getting a photo of the gloves up on the companies official site and use that as a reference.
Then, look for the obvious features; is the shape of the glove correct? Are the logos the correct size and location? (Check out the Cleto Reyes example below, the black one is fake) Is the wrist strap constructed the same? The structure of the back of the hand correct? (Like in the Fly Sports example below, the white pair being the fakes)
If you can, get a close look at the gloves as there can be several ways to identify a fake pair of gloves from the details. Start with the labels; are they the right size? Shape? Position? The prime example is Winning, who use a rubberised badge on the cuff of their gloves, so if the pair you’re looking at have a cloth badge then they’re fakes. If you can check out the stitching; while most companies use double stitching to maximise the durability of their products fake gloves are just built to turn a profit, so often just have single stitching.
Bottom line, if some part of the glove doesn’t look the same as the official product images then they’re probably not the real deal.
Use Your Head
If the listing only has a couple photos that don’t give much detail then you should be suspicious, but contact the seller asking for more detailed photos. If you’re asking questions and the seller isn’t forthcoming with answers then thats another reason not to trust the product they’re selling.
At the end of the day, you’ve heard the saying a million times but if a deals too good to be true then it probably is. The reality is the photos on the listing could be faked, and not represent the gloves they’d be shipping you. It’s your job to consider that if someone is selling a pair of perfect condition luxury boxing gloves for a fraction of the high price tags they normally command then odds are there’s something dodgy going on.
Have you found this guide helpful? Have you had an experience buying fake boxing gloves? Let us know in the comments!