So if I’m a fake manufacturer and I’m perfecting my craft on GR’s or even semi-limited stuff…why wouldn’t I just perfect my craft on SUPER limited stuff? Why wouldn’t I just perfect my craft on pairs that I could sell for $1k instead of pairs I’m selling for a measly $100? Like…I mean…if I’m a fake manufacturer, why wouldn’t I just focus my time on a handful of pairs I can sell for a lot instead of focusing my time and effort on thousands of pairs that I could sell for basically retail. And nearly NO ONE can tell that the shoes I’m creating are actually fake. There is nothing to compare them to.
Think about it - when I’m auth-checking the 42356th pair of Travis Scott Jordan 1’s, I know exactly what to look for. In most cases, I can tell within 3 seconds whether or not I have a pair of Fugazi’s on my hands…but with a sample pair? Who am I to know whether or not the pre-production pair had leather instead of suede? Who am I to know whether or not the color of the piping was a standard silver 3M or a gold 3M? I mean, it’s virtually impossible to tell…
So. I stopped doing legit checks for samples. I mean, I’m still 99% confident that I can pick the right answer 99.999% of the time, but it’s nothing that I can prove. So my 99.999% is useless. There is nothing I can point at to say - ‘hey, this little thing right here is off.’ There’s no way for me to accurately tell what ANYTHING is if I don’t even know what an AUTHENTIC pair looks like.
I’ve had a handful of samples come across my feed lately and I’m confident I got the right choice, but when you’re talking $10k+ at stake - it’s time for me to take a step back…I can admit when I’m out of my league.