How to detect a fake pair of Nike Air Jordan 1’s
Every time a new pair of the famous Nike Air Jordan 1’s are released, sneaker fans from across the globe are eager to get their hands on them. For those that did not get the chance to get them on the date of release, we’ve often gone ahead and started searching online; and most of us are willing to pay 2, or 4 times, over the original price to resellers. However, due to the fact that our emotions and adrenaline rush flows through our brains, we fail to see the potential, or even the obvious red flags, that you may get from buying a fake pair of the famous Nike Air Jordan’s. The good news is that there are many ways for you to spot a fake pair of Air Jordan’s and avoid that miserable feeling of being scammed and having the shame of finding yourself wearing a fake pair of Jordan’s. Look at the box first……. The easiest way to figure out whether it is fake, or not, is to look at the box. When you buy a pair of AJ1’s from a legit store such as Foot Locker, Flight Club, or Foot Action, you can easily see that the packaging is nearly perfect. There are barely any dents or scratches on the box. Unless it gets dents during shipping and storage, that’s a different situation; and is usually minimal. If you were to buy the pair straight out from Nike’s official website, it may come in another Nike branded box. However, the most notorious aspect to determine whether the pair of AJ1’s is fake or not is to look at the font size of the letter that is seen on the detail label. This is where you can see the actual model’s name of the sneakers along with the size measurements, and where the bar code is located. The detail label that is on the box carrying the fake pair of Jordan’s has the letter font slightly bigger and has an unusual gap of spacing in between. While on a real pair of Air Jordan’s all of the letters will have the same font size, and there are no space gaps, and they use the actual name of the color of the sneaker. Example: “AIR JORDAN 1 RETRO HIGH OG EP” (real) Presentation is everything! As mentioned before, when buying a pair of AJ’s, the presentation is the first impression. In an actual pair of Air Jordan’s, it has a spare pair of laces that comes in a tiny-small bag: pay attention to the detail of it. You’ll notice that the laces are tightly and perfectly tied up; and fitted exactly with perfection into the lace bag. There is barely any air space at all. In a fake pair of Air Jordan’s, this isn’t the case. The laces tend to be poorly tied, with huge air space gaps within the laces and the bag, or in some cases it may not even come with a lace bag at all. If you encounter this, then it is a red flag. Take a look on the stitching Another way for you to determine if your Air Jordan 1 pair is fake, or not, is by looking at the stitching. It should look clean and be symmetrical on both shoes. To make it simpler, you can grab a backlight and you should see the stitching glow and it should have a consistent gap between each stitch.
The Air Jordan logo says it all
This is a bit harder to distinguish when trying to determine whether the pair of shoes are fake, or not, since they make it so good that they look similar to each other. On a real pair of Air Jordan 1’s, the logo is embossed a little bit deeper into the leather instead of being flat. Also, notice the position of the logo. On a fake pair of Air Jordan 1’s, pay attention to the right side of the wing you’ll see that there is a huge gap between the logo and the leather panel (it can be black or white). Meanwhile on a real pair of Air Jordan’s the gap between the logo and the leather panel is minimal. Also, you’ll see the “TM” (Trademark) logo is right next to “Air Jordan” on the right side.
The Nike Logo
The easiest way to see if your pair of Air Jordan’s is fake is to see the logo. In all Nike sneakers you’ll see the “Swoosh” symbol and the brand word “Nike” on the shoe tongue and on the bottom of the shoe, which is the ‘outsole’. The outsole is the bottom panel of the shoe. If you were to look at the tongue of a real Nike shoe, you’ll see that the “Nike” logo has two “TM” logos. One on the top right next to “Nike” and the other one would be on the bottom left in-between the “N” and “Swoosh” Nike symbol. Obviously, if it only has one “TM” logo or none at all, then you should definitely rise the red flag. On the outsole, you’ll notice that letter “K” of the word “NIKE” is touching the tail of the swoosh and the logo should be perfectly centered. If the letters are narrow and if the letter “K” is not touching the tail of the “Swoosh”, then without a doubt you have a fake pair of Air Jordan 1.
Final Thoughts
These are the easiest ways to find out if the pair of Air Jordan’s that you are buying are the real deal or plain outright fake. To simply avoid this, is to buy them from an authorized retailer like Foot Locker, Foot Action, Flight Club, or go to an actual Nike store or visit Nike’s official website.