When buying football kit online, the sad truth is that unless you are shopping through the secure website of a reputable store, there is no guarantee you won’t receive a fake. Fortunately, there are numerous genuine sellers online that can offer you a better price than many high street stores. It takes a savvy buyer to be able to tell the difference, so we have put together some of the top ways to spot a fake.
Too good to be true
As they say, if the price is too good to be true, it is probably a fake. How do you know how low is too low? The simple answer is to go to the official website and see how much is being charged; as a rule of thumb, anything more than 30 per cent reduced could be suspicious. This does not mean that anything less than 30 per cent off must be genuine, of course; in addition, depending on the time of the season, you could see significant discounts as retailers try to move stock.
All the big names in big sizes
Another dead giveaway is an online store that only sells the kit of the most famous clubs and players, and only in large or extra-large sizes. They do this because they want to move volume, with these players and sizes the easiest to sell.
Match the serial numbers
This is by far the best method for spotting a fake. All genuine Football Kits from stockists such as www.kitking.co.uk/ have the same printed serial number on the shirt tag and the swing tag. In the genuine kit factories, this is easy to do; for fakers worried about people spotting duplicate numbers, it is much harder.
Know your product
Did you know that official Nike merchandise has colour-coded sizes? For example, a medium is always sky blue. This makes life easier for shop assistants looking for your size and helps you to spot a fake. It is not that hard for the fakers to match the colours, of course, but to print them the same shade is more difficult. If you have your tags from last time, do a comparison. Don’t forget to give the kit a rub, as most of us can tell good quality from the feel of the fabric.
