How to tell Lacoste polo from fakes

[pica]

Does anyone has any idea?

I'm looking to buy some Lacoste polos from the ebay, or other online stores, but has no clue how to tell authentic or not.

[Serge d Nimes]

Go to a department store any buy one. If you buy one online at a discount price it is probably fake. There is too much of a demand to require deep discounting.

Carpe Denim!

[Brienneoftarth]

if you are planning on buying a bunch...woddbury commons outlets in ny has em for like 34 bucks or so.

[rollinjunk]

if you go to woodbury tho go early as fuck i was there at like 4:00pm on a saturday and the place was blasted out you could not find you self in that place. So many people in there.

I use to have a life before i joined the music industry

[psyiko]

http://www.issforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=79926&highlight=lacoste

check that out. its an excellent thread on spotting fake lacoste. today i just saw the preacher's kid sporting a lacoste fake and gay seven jeans. and he's a dude. and he had a perm. i dont like him.

[pica]

What about Polo?

[domino_jono]

Real Lacoste will have the crocodile sewn on using fishing wire (synthetic like thread). Fakes will almost certainly be sewn on using cotton. Its pretty easy to spot!

www.benchart.co.uk

[benzak]

the funny thing about fake lacoste polo's is that a lot are produced in the same factories as the authentic ones... usually they are made with cheaper materials or they are leftovers

[benny rags]

I'd have to agree with Benzak on this. Fake stuff is almost always produced in the same factories, with the same patterns.

I saw a bunch of obviously fake Lacoste shirts down in Chinatown (LA), the crocidiles were two or three times larger than normal. Fabric was the same, mercerized cotton jersey, even the colors were just about there. The shit looked great, ten bucks each too, sometimes rockin the obvious fakes is funnier than wearin the real thing. Does anyone else enjoy the irony of wearing obvious fakes, out there?

Benny Rags

[darknworn]

now that's irony, you'll get a bigger croc for a fraction of the price, no pun intended

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[djrajio]

Benny rags is right. I had friends in HS whose parent's used to do manufacturing for Nautica, etc...All the companies use the same manufacturing processes and machines, so after the quotas were filled, they'd use the machines in the black market. I remember one time we went and the guy asked us how big we wanted the Nautica logo on a sweatshirt and in what color and in a few minutes it was done. Same process and machine just difference in design standards, time, and materials. When you buy authentic, it might invariably come from fake producers as well: Biggest trick American retail ever pulled....

[darknworn]

Here's the deal, it seems like the only way now-a-days to tell a fake Lacoste is by looking at its model code found on the price tag.

it should starts with LXXXX XX XXX XX

Men:

L1212 - short sleeve pique

L1312 - long sleeve pique

Women:

PF168 or PF168E - short sleeve stretch pique

PF368E - classic long sleeve pique

51 - Peru factory (Central and North American market)

?? - India factory (Middle East, Asia, and some European countries)

?? - France factory (very rarely seen outside of France or western Europe)

some popular colors:

001 - white

031 - black

166 - navy

107 - yellow

240 - red

132 - green

476 - bordeaux

TO3 - flamingo

NSX - lawn green

TO1 - till blue

8LX - pearl

NXU - coastal blue

CBK - aegean blue

Size:

T3 - XS

T4 - S

T5 - M

T6 - L

T7 - XL

T8 - XXL

Thus, a Men's short sleeve pique yellow Peru made shirt in size small should read: L1212 51 107 T4

99.9-100% of the new Lacoste shirts on eBay are fakes, even though some are really good (all the design features are copied over, albeit different qualities). Another noticeable tell tale sign is the position of the crocodile, which correctly should be between the bottom button and the bottom of the placket and not horizontally to the bottom of the placket. Obviously, the buttons have to be mother of pearl. eBay sellers, even with thousands of feedbacks, will guarantee the authenticity of these fakes because they've been told from their supplier that there are flaws and/or these are not made to American standards. The only surefire way to get a real one is to fork out some real $$$ for them, go to the Lacoste outlet stores to save some $$$. 72 bucks for a shirt that most likely will never go out of style in your lifetime isn't such a bad investment. And like wine, it gets better with age. Good hunting. Lacoste.com has links for authorized online/offline retailers.

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[psyiko]

what i dont get is this. making fakes are illegal anyways, and the fake labels are printed by the people making hte fakes, so why cant they print the label following the guidelines above to make them 'real'. is it just MORE illegal to have an exact copy of the tag?

[aitsuka]

I remember I saw a fake Lacoste polo with the alligator that resemable more like a chameleon...

-don't hate, appreciate-

[witts]

just buy a "le shark" polo

ice cold vintage

[woejozney]

how much quality difference is there between a good fake and the real thing? If they are made in the same factory, aren't they essentially the same?

[brianguy]

I have a question for Darknworm. I was itnerested to know where you got your information regarding label codes? Where did that source come from and how accurate is it? I just bought a shirt that does not match the label code critera and I haven't found that information anywhere. If anyone has info on this please post

Brian

[email protected]

brian

[email protected]

[darknworn]

i gathered this info from various sources online. the color codes came mostly from www.adasa.com, which is an authorized Lacoste dealer. these codes are accurate, i have several shirts from the Lacoste boutique store in Boston and they all matched up. in the rare instance of mislabeling, you can only be sure if you bought from a Lacoste boutique. i have yet to see an authentic one on eBay among those thousands.

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[sway]

Yeah, I bought a Lacoste polo on eBay a year or so ago, and they were definitely fake, even though the seller swore up and down that they were real, and even all his feedback was positive. The fakes are easy to tell in that they don't quite have the same waffle-like texture material. Real Lacoste polos feel softer/"stretchier". Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to tell this just from pics. I would never trust buying a Lacoste polo on eBay... it's just not worth it.

[future troubles]

swearing up and down your not telling a lie in the "E" world means little.

Dis bad man like yuh tek man fi claffy

Copper shot a pick yuh like how crook pick ackee

Shouldn't dis di man from brook vally

[brianguy]

Darnworm,

wanted to say thank you for posting that info ont he codes. A friend and I have been looking into buying/seeling these shirts. We found them for really cheap in my neighbourhood and thought it was sketchy. We got a sample and it wasn't until reading your info we realized it was fake. We checked it out and it was so exact the only thing wrong was the TAG had 3 digits changed on the LXXX etc.

Just wanted to say thanks!

Brian M

brian

[email protected]

[darknworn]

brian, don't mention it. this board is about sharing information, i take some...i give some.

many, if not most, ebay sellers don't bother to research their merchandise. they're not any more sophisticated than the normal consumers. in fact, i know of several sources where you can buy wholesale the Lacoste shirts found on ebay for $10-$12/each. i think there's a syndication out there selling these shirts en masse to the n. american market. most likely they're out of asia or latin america, and they're quite good. the last leg of the hurdle is to put the correct tagging on them, which is inherently more expensive since it requires human capital. they just figure that most consumers won't bother with checking this out, and they're right. oh well, like the old proverb says...if it's too good to be true, it probably is...

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[loopyloops]

Just bought some lacoste shirts from http://rationalfashions.com/

I wear size 6, and the ones I was sent are too small. I notice on other lacoste shirts I've purchased from retail stores, they don't say "hencho en peru" - the ones from rational fashions do. But, I also notice the tags on some sites that are "real" say that as well. Why would some say that and others don't? Anyone know if rationalrashions is selling knockoffs?

[darknworn]

those lacostes on their site look suspicious. i wouldn't bet on them being real.

"God is Dead" - Neitzsche

"Neitzsche is Dead" - God

[Guest]

Darkworn,

I just ordered some shirts from India and they have 3 tags; Pique cotton tag, Booklet for shirt care and Devanlay Tags. The cotton is soft and waffle like, the crocodile is sown in with fishing line or what seems to be fishing line. The shirts also have tissue paper with the Lacoste crocodile embeded in it. What do you think about these shirts?????

[wild_whiskey]

Very suspicious. The buttons don't look MOP.

[Corbin Law]

its hard to see the fabric though those bags. but it looks like a differnt material. or maybe a differnt stitching or something

chwa?

[wild_whiskey]

Well ALWAYS be weary of any Lacoste shirts sold in a poly bag. 99% of stores don't get them in Poly bags that I'm aware of, I think it's just a gimmick to make you think that they're authentic. The only item I've ever gotten in a poly bag was a Jil Sander suit (confirmed by me to be authentic - and wonderful, I might add). I've been burned with fake Lacoste, and its REALLY easy to spot as soon as you touch it. Real Lacoste is incredibly soft to the touch, kind of spongey/stretchy, and creates a great sillhouette down to the hips. Fake Lacoste looks like a sail when you put it on, the collar is stiff and crappy, and the shirts are rough instead of soft.

[sway]

Yep, definitely agree about the bag thing; it's usually a dead giveaway that it's a fake. I've never seen a single retail store have a Lacoste shirt in a bag. Even when they go to the backroom to check for additional stock, they never bring anything out in a bag. Yet, just about all fake Lacoste's come in a nicely packaged bag...

[jjs home]

the fakes i've seen just come in bigger sizes and have much looser sleave openings