Hello Sneaker Friends! Please visit us at Sneaker Con Los Angeles, December 8th from Noon to 7:00pm @ the Anaheim Convention Center. The SneakerFactory team will be on hand to talk about shoes, sign books, and just have a good time.
We will have books and plenty of shoemaking stuff on sale. I hope you can find time to join us!
Sneaker con LA! @ the Anaheim Convention Center!
The Greatest Sneaker Show On Earth
Sneaker Con is the world’s premier sneaker show, providing a huge space for vendors and attendees to buy, sell, and trade some of the most sought-after footwear in the game.
Founded in 2009 by New York-based sneaker enthusiasts, Sneaker Con is the premier event for sneakerheads to buy, sell, and trade their shoe collections. Since its inception, Sneaker Con has held 100+ events, in 30+ cities worldwide, attended by 100,000+ sneakerheads. After years of cultivating a community of sneaker fans through the Sneaker Con events, the team has brought their passion and expertise for kicks to the Sneaker Con digital platform.
Sneaker Con’s digital platform offers shoppers the safest and easiest way to buy and sell sneakers online. Whether you’re copping a rare pair or trying to find a steal, Sneaker Con has a wide selection that will meet the needs of any sneaker shopper. Additionally, every shoe purchased on the Sneaker Con marketplace is reviewed by their in-house team of experts to ensure authenticity of your purchase.
Today we toured the Yuan Shen Metal Mold Company. My friend David Collins, a 30 year + shoemaking veteran, is the Vice President of Sales and handles the English speaking customer relations. David has worked in Korea, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam, making shoes for many top brands.
Located in South China
Yuan Shen Metal Mold Company is located in the South China city of Chang An. Yuan Shen is in the heart of the China shoe trade; you can get to the factory by car from Hong Kong in 2 hours or from the Shenzhen Airport in 45 minutes.
CNC cutting Outsole Tooling in ChIna
Yuan Shen is a full-service footwear outsole mold design and fabrication factory. The factory has 2D and 3D design capabilities for outsole, midsole, and injection parts. You provide the lasted upper and 2D design, the team here will make your outsole design to fit. Yuan Shen works directly with your choice of shoe factory as a subcontractor. When you work with a contractor like Yuan Shen, you own and control the outsole molds.
David has worked with Yuan Shen to make sure they have the right equipment to make all types of footwear molds. With 6 high-speed CNC machines, Yuan Shen can make a size run of wood cuts in 3 days and a full set of metal molds in 40 days.
In house SLA 3D printing
They have rapid prototype development service. David showed us the in-house SLA 3D printing equipment. They can also create PU pouring silicone molds. These molds cost around $350 and can be used to make up to 15 flexible, wearable test parts for prototype shoes.
Their mold prices are very competitive for the South China tooling market. $1,400 rubber outsole molds CNC cut steel with Teflon coating
$1,800 to $2,000 for cast aluminum EVA midsole pressing molds.
Vietnam production
The Yuan Shen Metal Mold Company has built a sister factory outside of Ho Chi Minh to serve customers with Vietnam production. Many of their customers take advantage of their China development service and then have the production molds produced in Vietnam.
If you would like to arrange a tour or discuss your mold requirements, contact David Collins directly. Datoe1961@Gmail.com
Do you want to see how high heel shoes are made? Now is your chance to take a quick tour of two small factories in China producing handmade women’s fashion shoes. Located in a major shoemaking city in south China, these small, one assembly line, “micro” shoe factories, produce small orders of high quality, high fashion shoes. These factories are self-contained. They have development, cutting, stitching, and lasting all together in one small space.
These women’s shoe factories are very different from the massive complexes that produce for the mega-brands like Nike™ or Adidas™. Due to the small staff of 40 to 100 workers, these factories are flexible and well suited to keep pace with the speed of modern fashion shoes. Moreover, these factories may look humble but they produce shoes for export around the world. Let’s see how a small factory makes high heeled women’s shoes.
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
Before the cutting and stitching departments can get started, the shoe last must be selected for the particular shoe style. Women’s high heel shoe lasts come in many shapes and sizes. Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes!
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes
Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes
Cutting Department:
One assembly line making women’s fashion shoes can be supported with just two cutting machines. Cut shoe parts are carefully stacked. Women’s fashion shoes require almost as many parts as an athletic shoe. The shoe part cuttings are neatly organized waiting for the next order. Learn more about how to make shoe cutting dies.
Women’s fashion shoes do require as many parts as an athletic shoe.
Cut shoe parts are carefully stacked
The shoe cuttings dies are organized waiting for the next order.
Stitching:
Most women’s heels only have a few stitching operations so the stitching line is made up of just a few workers located in the same room as the assembly line. These workers stitch and assemble the upper parts.
stitching line is just a few workers
Most women’s high heels shoes have few stitching operations
These workers stitch and assemble the upper parts
Lasting Line:
Just a few steps away from the stitching line, you will find the lasting line. A single assembly line can complete 250 pairs a day. Of course, this is considerably less than the 1,000 or 1,500 daily pairs a large sports shoe factory will produce. Here each shoe is very CAREFULLY assembled, ensuring each pair is a small work of art. Learn the basics of how to make shoes here. Purchase the ultimate shoemaking Pro Pack of information here.
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
The shoe cuttings dies are organized waiting for the next order.
Women’s fashion shoes do require as many parts as an athletic shoe.
These workers stitch and assemble the upper parts
Most women’s high heels shoes have few stitching operations
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
Development and Last Making for high heel shoes:
stitching line is just a few workers
Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes
Cut shoe parts are carefully stacked
Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes
Cutting dies organized in the cutting room
Here workers are building samples of next year’s high fashion shoes
If you are asking yourself, “Should I go to shoe school?” The answer is -Yes!
Are you looking for in-person shoemaking classes or workshops near you? It can be hard to find a shoe school, but if you look hard, you can find one. We know of in-person classes and workshops in Portland, New York, Detroit, San Diego, Los Angeles, London, Italy, and Spain.
While the USA-based shoe schools are more weekend or night courses, European schools such as the Astoria school tend to be full-term footwear certificate courses.
More recently, we are benefiting from the stay-at-home effects of Covid-19, which has led to many opportunities for excellent online shoemaking programs.
We have pulled together a list of school schools focusing on shoemaking and shoe design. You will need to find a school that suits your study plan. The small programs focus on a particular shoemaking skill, such as boot making, footwear pattern making, or sneaker design workshops.
When: Saturday September 21st & Sunday September 22nd 10:00am – 4:00pm Where: The Gavica Studio 5277 Alhambra Ave Los Angeles CA
Your instructors will be Professional Sneaker Customizer Erik Gavica and Wade “The Shoe Dog” Motawi. We will get you started on your own personal shoemaking journey.
Shoemaking Beginners Start here! All of the shoemaking equipment is provided. Just bring your creativity. Ages 15 to 115 are welcome!
Many aspiring shoemakers dream of visiting Italy to study shoemaking from the masters of the trade but finding the time and the money to do this can be difficult. Luckily for us, our friends at the Arsutoria school in Milan, Italy are coming to the USA. If you live near Los Angeles, New York, or Boston, you can join a weeklong shoemaking workshop taught by veteran shoe masters.
My friend Paolo Marenghi, a senior instructor at the Arsutoria school in Italy, invited me to visit his class in Los Angeles. The five-day course covers pattern making, fitting, sourcing, costing, and lasts. Paolo teaches in conjunction with two other super shoe dogs, Roy Russo, and Roberto Grasso. Between these three pros, you have access to over 80 years of shoemaking experience and expertise.
Paolo, Roy, and Roberto bring you 40 hours of informative instruction. I enjoyed the class and found the instruction practical for a modern shoemaker. The course is beneficial for beginners and professionals alike. Whether you are a shoe designer, footwear developer, sourcing specialist, or footwear buyer, you will enjoy the Arsutoria course! The classroom is sure to be full of your peers in the shoe trades.
For more information on the traditional shoemaking workshops in the USA Visit
“A five days course in Los Angeles dedicated to those who wish to know more on how dress and casual shoes are made. The course covers topics such as shoemaking of different constructions, materials, and components used, international sourcing strategies and analysis of product costing. With the support of FFaNY (Fashion Footwear Association New York) and TwoTen Footwear Foundation.”
You can find fake Nike shoes in stores all around the world. A counterfeiting ring smuggled thousands of counterfeit Nike Air Jordan sneakers into New York and New Jersey! Five people are each expected to receive 20 years in prison for trafficking copy Air Jordans.
How can you tell if Jordans are fake?
Today we have two pairs of the Air Jordan 1 and we will have a good look at the small details that tell the big story of counterfeit Nikes. We will study the real Air Jordan shoe purchased directly from Nike and the counterfeit shoe imported from South China. You will learn how to tell if a Nike shoe is real or fake. The secret to making a real sneaker legit check is…quality shoemaking.
The price is right?
When shopping for real Nike shoes you should expect to pay real Nike prices. If you find a rare Air Jordan or a unique color at a price that is too good to be true… then it IS too good to be true. Low prices and beat up boxes are your first clue that you have a fake, counterfeit, or illegally smuggled-in B-grade Nike shoe.
Make any mail-order or E-Bay purchases with trusted retailers. Remember, slightly used does not mean the shoes were real Nikes to start with.
Look for the alignment guides, the red shoe is the fake Nike.
Air Jordan wings logo:
Studying the real Air Jordan and the fake Air Jordan side-by-side, you can see the factory making copies did a nice job on the logo. The artwork on the fake shoe is correct, but the real Jordan 1 logo is still embossed a little deeper into the leather. In this case, it’s hard to tell the difference until you look at the pattern of the cut parts. The real Nike does not have any stitching guides to help the stitchers locate the panels during assembly. The red logo panel of the fake Nike is loaded with these little assembly guides. These assembly guides are not a sign of poor shoemaking and are very common, just not on the real Air Jordan.
Two stitch lines on the grey Nike, that’s the real deal!
The Jordan 1 heel strap stitching:
The Air Jordan 1 has a tiny heel tab that covers the back seams of the quarter panel and the Swoosh. You can see the back tab on the real (grey) Nike has two stitch lines as the quarter top lines cross over. Also, the black thread contrasts with the grey leather. On the fake Jordan 1, a single stitch line crosses the tab and they used black thread on black leather. The stitching on the fake matches the leather instead of contrasting it with the leather. Again this detail is not an indication of low-quality shoemaking, it is just not how the original was made.
You can also see the centering guides on the red leather parts of the fake Jordan 1. The original Jordan does not show any assembly guides.
Look at the “K”, if it is not touching the swoosh, it’s not real.
The Jordan 1 outsole logo:
If you look closely at the Nike logo on the outsole you can see the fake artwork is wrong. The width of the letters is too narrow. Another obvious mistake is that the “K” of the fake Nike logo is not touching the tail of the Swoosh. Additionally, when you look closely at the tread patterns you can see the fake (red) tread has glossy spaces between the tread features where the grey does not.
Yes, two trademark logos are correct!
The Jordan 1 tongue logo:
Next, get a good look at the woven label attached to the tongue top. The fake Jordan is missing the registered trademark circle “R”. I know it’s strange, but Nike likes to have the circle “R” twice on the woven label. On the backside of the woven logo label (below), you will see the trademark information in English and French. The fake has the wrong lettering style and the tag is stitched on crooked. Crooked parts are a sure sign of poor shoemaking.
Inside the shoe, you will see the size label with the Jordan Jumpman logo (above). The fake shoe has the tag welded to the back of the tongue. On the real Jordan 1, the tag is sewn down on the inside.
The cut lace keeper on the left is legit.
The Jordan 1 tongue lace keeper:
The lace keeper is a small point but a dead giveaway when looking for fakes. The real Nike shoe has simple cuts in the tongue fabric to act as the lace keeper. This construction looks pretty low rent for a $120 basketball shoe, but this is how the original was made. The counterfeit Nike has a small piece of fabric added as the lace keeper.
See inside More Nike Shoes
We have made a proper sneaker legit check on a pair of Vans Old Skool sneakers. Check it out here.
How To Tell If Your Nike Air Force 1 Supreme NBA is a Fake, The official Sneaker Factory legit check.
Nike Air Force 1: Real or Fake?
How to Spot Fake Nike Air Force 1’s
Today we have two new pairs of the Nike Air Force 1 Mid Supreme NBA White. One pair is a real Nike 100% authentic purchased from StockX. The other pair of Supreme NBA White was recently purchased in China. The real Nike Air Force 1 Mid from StockX set us back US$343.95. The fake Nike Air Force 1 Mid Supreme NBA cost RMB $300, or about US$45. Now it’s time to see which Nike is counterfeit and which one is real.
Real vs. Fake : What to look at first?
Can I buy real shoes at fake prices? Simply put, NO. If the price seems too good to be true- the shoes are fake.
What if the footwear packaging is missing? If the sneakers do NOT have the packaging included…watch out!
What about shoe production quality? Real Nike shoes can have some quality issues. Look closely for small flaws. A real Nike may have some flaws but more than one or two issues is a danger sign for fake shoes.
StockX to the rescue
The StockX sneaker marketplace saves you the worry and trouble of authenticating shoes. When you purchase shoes from StockX you receive a guarantee that their staff has carefully checked them over to confirm the shoes are real. The Stockx team are real pros, They know how to make a sneaker legit check. When your shoes arrive they will have a StockX badge and sales slip. Hang on to these! When you are ready to sell, these will be very valuable. Visit their online shop: https://stockx.com
How to spot a fake Supreme Sneaker?
We have two pairs of the Nike Air Force 1 Mid x Supreme NBA in white. Before we cut them open we are going to make a few quick observations.
How to Tell Real Shoes Like Airforce Ones From Fakes. Can you see the fake Nike Supreme?
Color Matching
How to Spot Fake Nike Air Force One Sneakers? Look at the colors! Right off the top, we see the fake Nike Air Force 1 Mid’s have a major problem with color matching. Check out the collar lining. The real Nike collar lining is white with a smooth, turned out seam. The fake Supreme NBA is yellowish (off white) with a lumpy seam.
Fake shoes are usually made with local market materials, meaning quality and color matching may be poor. Authentic Nike shoes will only be made with high-quality materials and the material color matching will be perfect.
Have a look at the heel view of the top collar. The real shoe has a smooth, round curve. The fake Nike is a completely different shape.
Counterfeit Nike Logos and Labels
Plugged vent holes and the nose holes
Clean printing art – the nose
Logo looks okay
Not great stitching
Logo and labels are often a weak point in counterfeit Nike sneakers. When you make a Nike sneaker legit check you must study the logos carefully. Our pair of knock-off Nike Supremes has all the common faults. The Chicago Bulls logo on the vamp has some problems. The nostril holes on the fake are mis-shapen. Also, on the fake shoe, you can see an air vent hole has been filled in with ink.
The Supreme embroidery logo on the top strap of the fake sneaker actually looks okay, but the edge stitching around the strap is a bit rough. The Nike swoosh logo on the strap ends have very different stitching patterns. The fake has perimeter stitching, while the authentic Nike has solid cross stitching. Note the rough stitching on the strap perimeter.
The “E” is messed up
The real deal
Printing problems
you can see the clovers
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.The tongue logo label on the fake is close, but not perfect. The bottom leg of the Nike ”E” is buried in the tail of the swoosh. The ”Supreme” logo is a little thin when compared to the real logo.
Look closely at the Boston Celtics logo on the lateral side mudguard. The ink color on the leprechaun’s vest is not correct and on the fake Nike, you don’t see any clovers. Now take a closer look at the basketball. The printing design on the ball is incomplete. Look above the basketball, you can see the stitching on the eyestay is rough and does not follow the pattern edge.
Construction Quality
Plugged vent holes and the nose holes
Clean printing art – the nose
Poorly fitting parts
Stitching quality
Notice the centering mark on the tip of the toe cap. The real Nike shoe does not have the centering mark. When comparing the strap ends you will see that they are different. The fake Supreme Air Force 1 has a mismatched end cap, you can see the plastic is not fitting correctly. The real strap end has smooth, even stitching, while the fake has rough stitching. You can see rough stitching all over the fake shoe.
The Fake Nike has thicker leather.
Fake vs real Sneakers Leather Quality
Both the real shoes and fake shoes are made with plastic coated “Action” leather. The fake shoe actually has thicker leather. You can see the blue chrome tanned leather edge on both shoes. The edge of the fake’s leather is much darker.
The Nike Air Force 1 outsole is a classic design but the tooling is modern. Nike manufactures shoes in China and Vietnam. Rather than move outsoles and tooling from country to country, Nike will own several sets of tooling. The Nike Air Force 1 outsole has a distinctive star pattern. What I find interesting is the fake outsole unit has a cleaner, more organized, texture pattern. If you zoom in on the fake you can see a cleaner mold parting line and a slightly sandblasted texture. The real Nike sole unit lacks the sandblasted texture and has a uniquely chaotic star pattern. The heel logo on the counterfeit Nike is close to the original but has some problems. The fake “Air” logo is further from the parting line. The design line has a wider gap between the “R” and the end. You can also see the “I” on the fake Nike is a bit narrow compared to the real logo.
Fake Nike Footbeds
The real Nike has the size sticker
Notice the glue line pattern
The copy is thicker
The two footbeds are interesting to compare side by side. The real Nike footbed has a size sticker. You can also see a portion of the Supreme logo’s red box which is in stark contrast with the footbed fabric. The footbed of the fake Nike is actually thicker, and when comparing the cut edges, the copy footbed has a cleaner, trimmed edge. Lastly, the bottom design. The last notation and size mark are clearly different. On the underside of the footbeds you can see the pattern made by the gluing machine. The real and fake footbeds have different stripe or gluing patterns. The Glue pattern is great fake “tell”.
Overall, this shoe is an okay fake. Not a great fake and not the worst we have seen. The material quality is okay, the outsole assembly is pretty good, and the assembly stitching quality is poor. The fake Nike shoes have visible over-gluing and paint touch-ups. The embroidery logos and woven labels are of high quality but the screen printed logo coloring and artwork are substandard.
Does this fake have a “tell”?
After a few minutes of study, we did find a tell. This is a tiny detail but if you are looking closely it’s a dead give away. Look carefully at the cut lace keeper on the PU tongue face. On the real Nike Supreme Air Force 1 you can see the lace keeper is a single layer of PU with white backing. Look carefully at the fake Nike, in this case, you can see a layer of blue-tinted PU foam glued to the back of the lace keeper!
Do you want to know how Vans shoes are made? The Vans classic slip on and skate shoes are made by the vulcanized shoemaking process. The Van Doren brothers, Paul and James, started The Van Doren Rubber Company in 1966. Over the next 40 years, they opened factories in California and later contracted factories in China and Vietnam to make the classic Vans vulcanized shoes.
“vulcanize: The process of heating raw rubber to cure it. This process creates crosslinks inside the rubber compound bonding it together. Before the rubber is vulcanized it is stretchable, gummy, and easy to tear. After being vulcanized the rubber is tough, stretchable, and ready to wear.”
How Vans Shoes are Made: Vulcanized
In the Vans vulcanized shoemaking process, the rubber shoe outsole parts are assembled onto the lasted upper before the rubber is completely cured. With the sole attached, the entire shoe must be heated in a vulcanizing oven. The shoe must be heated to around 110˚C/230˚F for 80 minutes. The heat required to vulcanize the rubber sole will melt nylon and polyester fabrics, making them unfit for vulcanized shoes. Also, certain types of foam, like EVA and PE, will get damaged by the heat. This can limit the material choices for footwear designers. Uppers must be made of heat-resistant materials like suede, leather, and cotton canvas with metal hardware.
Vulcanizing equipment
The vulcanized shoemaking process must be done in a specific factory equipped with lots of special machines. The shoemaking equipment required for vulcanizing is very different from the equipment needed to make cold cement shoes. A shoe factory will usually specialize in one process or the other, you will rarely find both vulcanized and cold cement processes inside the same factory.
The upper stitching and construction of a Vans vulcanized shoe are nearly the same as a cold cement shoe, with an exception being the inside reinforcements for the toe and heel counters are made of thin rubber sheets instead of plastic. Again, due to the high temperature required for the vulcanized rubber, any kind of plastic, PVC logos, or trim treatments must be avoided when designing a vulcanized shoe. The lining of a Vans shoes is made from lightweight cotton canvas.
While the uppers are being stitched, the rubber components for the vulcanized sole unit must be prepared. The rubber components have a shelf life of only a few days. If the rubber parts are made and set aside, the rubber will begin to oxidize, partially cure, and leading them to not cure properly when the shoes are being vulcanized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZwW86sYnlQ
The Shoe Dog would like to tell you about how vulcanized shoes are made. Have a look!
The Shoe Dog would like to tell you about the difference between vulcanized construction and cold cement process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpGKmKqcjPg
Want to learn more about how vulcanized shoes are made and other shoe construction techniques?
Check out Chapters 12 in the book How Shoes are Made. We will cover all the popular shoe construction methods. You will learn shoe construction terms, sneaker construction, and common shoe construction terminology.
If you are interested in the battles between Nike and Adidas you will love the podcast Business Wars: Nike vs Adidas. This 7 part podcast series produced by Wondery is an awesome look into the birth of Adidas and its decades-long clash with the brash upstart from America, Nike.
Adi Dassler Founder of Adidas Nike Founder Phil Knight
The podcast covers the humble beginnings of both Nike and Adidas. While Adi Dassler and Phil Knight started their companies on different continents some 40 years apart, their brands would battle for hearts, minds, athletes, singers, teams, and even entire sports leagues.
Jessie Owens in his Adidas
It’s an amazing saga! From the triumphs of Adidas and Jessie Owens to the battle for Kanye West and Kobe Bryant, you will get the whole Nike vs Adidas story!
Check out the podcast series Business Wars: Nike vs Adidas.
How can you tell if your Nike Air Max 90 shoes are real or fake? We are going to study two pairs of the classic style Air Max 90. One pair is real and made by Nike, the other is a Nike Air Max 90 counterfeit: 100% fake. How can you spot the fake Air Max? What are some of the differences in the real shoe vs. the fake shoe?
Let’s check out a Nike Air Max 90 Counterfeit
#1. Check out the shoe bottom. The outsole on the red pair of Air Max ’90s is made of rubber while the blue pair’s outsole is made of PU foam that has been painted! I also noticed the blue sneaker weighs much less than the red Nike sneaker. Look closely, the blue shoe is even missing the “Nike” logo. The blue must be the Nike Air Max 90 counterfeit!
That was just too easy! Fakes are made by many fraudulent companies, some are better imitators than others. Let’s look at a few other construction details that will help you tell the difference between the original Nike and the counterfeit Air Max 90.
Fake Painted PU bottom
Real rubber bottom with color breaks
#2. Examine the tongue logo. Our real shoe has the “Nike+Swoosh” label sewn down on all four sides. The fake is turned and stitched into the tongue seam. While this is a nicer way to attach the tongue logo, it’s off from the original Nike construction. Take another look at the artwork. On the real patch, the tail of the swoosh overlaps the “E” of Nike and the head of the swoosh almost touches the “N”. Notice the fake label has the “Air” logo twice.
Fake Nike shoes will have the circle “R” mark on them so that is no evidence the shoe is real or fake. There is nothing to stop the fake shoe factory from adding the “™” logo also.
The Fake Air + Air Max
Nike Air Max real logo
#3. Check out the heel logo. On our fake Air Max 90, the stitching groove interferes with the “A” and the “R” of the Nike Air logo. Also, the counterfeit shoe “Air” logo is missing the molded ribs below the letters. Additionally, the top shape of the OG Nike patch has a significant dip in the middle.
#4. Let’s examine the side “AIR MAX” logo. Our counterfeit Nike has a two-tone logo, while the real deal Nike has a single color. When you feel the logo, the OG Nike Air Max logo is made of stiff plastic, due to its location on the shoe being just above the outsole. The fake logo is a softer material that was distorted during the shoe assembly process. The original logo is made by plastic injection in comparison to the soft PVC logo on the fake shoe.
The real single color logo injection
The fake rubber two color logo
#5. Check out the paint around the airbag in the heel. While the Air Max original paintwork isn’t perfect, the fake Nike paintwork is a mess with paint outside the lines.
Messing paint on the fake
The real Nike’s paint is just okay…
#6. Look inside at the footbed. The original Nike shoe has a 3D compression molded EVA footbed with the outsole design pattern and printed logo. The counterfeit Air Max 90 has a super cheap die-cut foam sheet.
Let’s look inside a Nike Air Max 90 Counterfeit
Real Nike PU midsole
Fake Nike PU midsole
Some of you may be saddened by this next step, this is when we get out the knives and take a look inside the real Nike vs. the counterfeit Nike Air Max 90. This is a good time to look at the Bar code and SKU numbers. Every pair of real Nike shoes has an SKU (SKU (pronounced “skew”), short for Stock Keeping Number) that is identical to the SKU number on their box. If the numbers are missing or do not match, you may have a fake shoe. Check the tongue label. Often, the counterfeiting shoe factory will put outdated sizing labels on the inside of the shoe.
Real Nike with padded tongue
Fake Nike
#7. Let’s feel the tongue of the shoe. Inside the OG Nike, you find an extra layer of foam that’s missing from the fake shoe.
Real Nike
Counterfeit Nike
#8. Let’s look at the upper reinforcements. The authentic Nike has grey non-woven “super tuff” fabric backing the top eyelet holes. The fake Nike does not have any reinforcement.
#9. Let’s compare the midsole construction of the two shoes.
“Nike” PU foam Midsole (fake)
The real Nike midsole is made of supple, solid, but flexible PU foam. The fake Nike is cored out to save material and allow the cheap, stiff PU to bend. Look at the Strobel bottoms. The official Nike Strobel sock is well bonded to the midsole while the fake is barely glued at all!
Real TPU Air Bag
Fake PVC air Bag
#10. While we are looking at the midsole, let’s examine the airbag. The OG Nike shoe has a thin film blow molded airbag with 3 cells. The fake Nike has a thicker walled, stiffer airbag. Notice the different colors of the airbag materials. Nike uses a special formula to help hold the air in, which creates a yellow tint. The fake is made of clear PVC plastic.
Real
Fake
#11. Now, peel back the lining to reveal a few more differences between the real and fake shoe. While both shoes use a similar plastic infused paperboard for the heel counter, you can see the fake one does not fit well and the edges have not been skived down. Look at the midsole heel of the fake – what a mess!
#12. Look at the toe tip area inside the shoe.
The fake shoe was not carefully made and the toe lasting operation has left a junk show inside. Look at the spacing of the Strobel stitches that hold the upper to the bottom. The original Nike shoe has even, closely spaced stitches, while the copy has loose, uneven, and widely spaced stitches.
In this case, our Nike Air Max 90 counterfeit is really a rotten shoe, you can see that not only are the design details of the fake incorrect, the internal construction is really terrible. So, while the fake shoe may look pretty good on the outside, the inside is a horror show of low-quality shoemaking.
When shopping for shoes, especially classic Nike sneakers, do your research. If the price looks too good to be true, or the store looks suspect, then you may be looking at counterfeit shoes.
Nike Air Jordan Counterfeit vs. Real
Next, we have two pairs of the Air Jordan 1 and are going to spend time dissecting and researching what is behind the real Nike model, to contrast with a fake shoe imported from Southern China. This fake is of much higher quality than the Air Max 90 we found here, and can be used to teach about many more aspects of well designed Nike shoes that can be looked for to spot the difference between real and fake shoes.
Do you want to see how high heel shoes are made? Now is your chance to take a quick tour of two small factories in China producing handmade women’s fashion shoes. Located in a major shoemaking city in south China, these small, one assembly line, “micro” shoe factories, produce small orders of high quality, high fashion shoes. These factories are self-contained. They have development, cutting, stitching, and lasting all together in one small space.
The Fake Nike has thicker leather.
