Hi everybody. I have a clothing and accessories store on Ebay and am seeing a lot of demand for Prada. Unfortunately, I am also getting a lot of fakes palmed off as originals by some of my new suppliers.

Does anybody here have any tips on distinguishing a real from a fake Prada. Plus, is there any good way to avoid dealing with such suppliers?

Prada manufactures a lot of items under their umbrella brand. You will need to understand how to spot a fake within each category. I can give you some tips for their line of bags; these tips btw are relevant for almost all categories of branded bags (except the more specific tips, of course)

• Examine the quality of stitching. Designer bags have very clean, even spaced stitches in what is usually a neutral or matching color. Fake prada bags on the other hand have stitches that are messy, missing, not aligned or much too obvious.

• The next giveaway is the lining. A genuine Prada will have black lining with the Prada log printed on it. The quality will be fine, soft to the touch; Fakes will have plastic material which is often glued and not stitched on.

• Check the spelling of Prada – In really low end bags even that is wrongly spelt. Fakes often have a logo where there shouldn’t be one – it’s like they try and scream that they are designer since they are not. Originals have a more subtle logo position.

• Inside lining should have a small metal tag with “Prada Made in Italy." A tag in any other material or with any other message is a fake Prada.

• Handle designs are very poorly made in fake bags.

• Genuine Prada bags come with a white dust bag that carries the Prada logo in black. Fake Prada does not have that.

• The genuine article will also come with an authenticity card that comes in a small black envelope.

Go to a store and spend time examining the real deal, the product as well as the packaging – Next time you will find it a lot easier to spot a fake Prada from a mile way.

Genuine bags also cost a great deal more than the fake ones. Did you get the fake shipment at some discount?

In any case, most people get taken in by fakes. I can tell you tips on how to make out a fake Prada shoe. You mentioned accessories so I think this should help.

1. Back sole strip should carry the Prada logo in bold.
2. Price should be 60 pounds and upwards. Anything less and you should be concerned unless it is an outdated style.
3. The shoes come in a silver sleeper bag with a silver colored cord drawstring.
4. The box should not have any logo on the top but a logo on the side with the shoe model and price info.
5. The box itself will be made of corrugated plastic and not cardboard.
6. Insole should be removable and you should be able to see Prada written on the heel.

The copies are getting better every day. Given the huge mark up on designer brands, it is easy to pull off a good quality fake Prada and still keep pricing low due to the saved marketing costs.

I suggest that you pay attention to the place or person that you are buying from. Only very select group of distributors have access to the genuine bag. Check with the manufacturer to see if your supplier is authorized or not. Anybody selling on the street or pulling things out of a car’s trunk is most likely dealing in fakes.

It is not that easy.

Even exclusive brands like Prada have a very large clientele today making their supply chain very unwieldy. It would be impossible for the company to comment on the authenticity of each and every supplier. There are multiple layers – distributor, sub distributor, dealers, retailers…etc

Plus, there are perfectly legal channels of distribution that coexist and deal in clearance, outdated or damaged stock which further adds to confusion on account of pricing differences.

The real reason why the counterfeit industry is prospering is because there is a huge market for people who want to sport a Prada without having to pay top dollar for it. There is even a term for it `Counterfeit fashion’
It is also a fact that the huge `designer imagery’ is not completely rooted in a substantial quality difference. So people can easily sport a fake Prada bag or shoe without their friends noticing the difference. Counterfeiters are basically leveraging this mentality.

That may be true for a small percentage of bags. The majority are made in poor conditions by unskilled labor in some third world country. They are smuggled into buyer countries without logos which make the final logo sticking operation and the product, sloppy. The stuff that you see on the street is worse than a standard departmental bag – at least Kmart has some product norms.

At the end of the day faking brands is an illegal operation. They cannot afford to be buying and running sophisticated machinery in some dingy alley. They also keep moving the makeshift factory from place to place to avoid detection. The result: quality rarely matches up in a fake a Prada.

You could also try going to the website and seeing the latest designs. These are made in very small batches and there is a possibility that the color or style that you are holding was never even manufactured. Like some frilly tops that I have seen passing for Prada, have to be fakes since Prada sport just doesn’t do that kind of stuff. Same goes for their accessories like shoes and handbags. They pay a fortune for design and stick to a few pieces each season. Familiarize yourself with that list and you should find spotting a fake Prada, a lot easier.

Go to both the current as well as past styles to check. You could also try taking a sample piece to a departmental store and asking for their help. The staff there is trained to spot a fake Prada at once. Also if you are buying off the web (which is a big no for designer goods unless they are used or pre-owned) see how much clarity the seller has given to the picture or logo.

Genuine buyers try to make the `genuineness’ as apparent as possible so that they stand out from fakes and charge good money. People selling fakes are guilty and show poor quality images with an angle that doesn’t show the logo.

One thing to keep in mind is that brands also have a lot of inconsistencies in product design and finish. A lot of the detail work is done by hand and that work can be done across the globe. A product finished in Italy could look different from a product finished in Romania (that does happen in this day and age of outsourcing). People’s skill levels vary – their sensibilities differ. I know of products that Prada reserves for Europe but not other countries – There is something called a fashion lag which makes third world countries great targets for Europe’s last season merchandise.

I thought the whole point was about uniformity and consistent quality. In fact I assumed it to be a hygiene factor. Isn’t that why we pay through our nose to buy these goods?