This is my experience buying some (fake) Quiksilver shorts from eBay. Basically, as soon as I received the shorts I knew they were fake. However, I needed some evidence; so I purchased some original shorts for $80 and compared. Below are my findings. If you think that I have made a mistake (or even if you agree), I would love to hear from you.
Firstly, photos of the shorts as displayed in the item description. These are the listing images as found in the description. The shorts look quite nice.
Now lets have some pictures of the actual shorts that arrived (excuse the carpet background)
They look quite similar, actually, very similar. So what is wrong with them? Lets have a closer look.
Throughout this guide I will be comparing the shorts against genuine Quicksilver shorts.
Above is a pair of genuine Quiksilver shorts purchased for $80.
Inconstancies
Firstly lets look at the inconstancies:
This is a pair of Velcro, notice one side has a diagonal line, the other doesn’t.
This is a photo of the groin area of the shorts (the area where the front meets the back). Notice that there is double stitching on one side and triple stitching on the other.
Stitching
The above photo is a picture of the stitching of the fake shorts. Notice the stitching is generally very messy. Doesn’t overlap properly, and even goes outside the fabric. Now lets look at the stitching of genuine shorts.
It looks a lot nicer, no ugly overlapping and they even added extra overlapping stitching. Generally it looks much nicer.
Screen-print
The screen print sealed the deal; it was what made me certain the shorts were fake. There is no way a respectable and reputable company would release a product with a screen print of such poor quality.
Above can be observed white paint in splotches and patches; these are areas where too much paint was applied. Furthermore, it areas can be observed with too little paint, with the red still visible under the white.
The screen print has some obvious ghosting, not a clear, crisp print as would be expected. This is throughout the screen-print.
Finally, all over the shorts were splashes of white paint.
As I mentioned to the seller, I could do a better screen print then that.
Final aspects
While it is difficult to say if all shorts should have these, below are some of the features a pair of genuine shorts have.
Rubber square with silver Quiksilver logo.
Quiksilver logo printed on the lace’s aglets
Rubber Quiksilver cutout logo, stitched in the seam of the short’s.
Quiksilver logo made from stitches.
The fake shorts purchased had none of these features or anything else that looked ‘special’, the real shorts had all of the above.
Conculsion
I hope that this information will be helpful for future buyers. The seller of the shorts did give me a full refund, but only after I returned the item. I am guessing he resold them. Feel free to share your opinion, but I think the evidence is quite clear.
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