FAKE The North Face Products

How do you really know if the item you are bidding on is the real deal? Beware, there are tons of fake North Face products out there. And I'm not talking about just ebay. Because North Face makes such great products dishonest people will copy them. Having been in the outdoor industry for over 10 years I have learned a few things. Here's a quick rundown.

Some of the fake North Face products are actually made in the same factories as the real stuff. Like most companies, The North Face contracts with production facilities to make their products. North Face designs their products and has control over the production. However the people making them actually work for the factory, not North Face. This means that non-North Face companies have North Face designs. Here's an example: The North Face has an order for 1000 jackets. So the factory has their employees work the day shift to make the jackets. And a fine job they do. Unfortunatly, a dishonest factory manager can have the night shift, unsupervised by The North Face representative, make the exact same jacket. Only now they are using inferior materials. They can look the same. They have the same patterns. They can do all the embroidery. They even print authentic tags, including the Gore-Tex and Polarguard tags. It is the same jacket with bad fabrics. It can be hard to tell the real from the fake. That is until you take it skiing. Your so called Gore-Tex jacket is wet in a few runs. Or that super breathable jacket is muggy. Why? Inferior materials. 

Another way fakes come to market is by production factories not even related to North Face making the products. These are the ones that look fake. What they do is take a jacket and then do their best to make one that looks the same. These are much easier to spot. The design is not the same.

Either way you are not getting the real thing. I know some people don’t care about the performance. They just want a North Face jacket to be cool. Let me say, It's not cool to support the black market.

Here are some guidelines so you don't get burned.

Don't buy from a seller in China. I have nothing against China, but I have NEVER seen an authentic North Face item from a seller in Asia. But that's not all. Most of the fakes are from sellers in the US and Canada.

At the time of this guide there were 521 North Face Denali jackets on eBay. I would be highly suspicious of about 480 of them. Yes I am accusing them of selling fakes. Most of those on eBay now are fakes. Don't buy them. Even from sellers with 600 feedback. Those are fakes. Especially from the sellers with less than 100 feedback. ALMOST ALL NORTH FACE DENALI JACKETS ON EBAY ARE FAKES. When will eBay wake up and stop this. Every person that buys a fake item hates eBay and they lose a customer and so do I. PLEASE eBay, stop this before it puts us all out.

We get emails almost every day asking if our items are authentic. Yes, we only sell the real thing. But if I was selling fakes would I tell you? "Uh, yes this is a fake north face product, please buy it." Asking the seller does not guarantee anything.

I have very rarely seen fake North Face tents or large backpacks. Those are more expensive to produce so there are fewer fakes. However smaller daypacks are ofter knocked off. Use caution when buying them. Those making fakes focus on the easy stuff like clothing. If a seller is selling tents and backpacks they are most likely the real deal. However if a seller is only selling clothing that does not mean that their items are fake. We don't sell many backpacks or tents during the winter so there are times when we only have clothing but it is authentic.

Nothing can top a sellers feedback. If they have low feedback be careful. If they have a history of selling and good feedback they are probably good eBay citizens and won't mess around with the black market. For example, look at my feedback. At the the time this was written I have over 17,000 with 100% positive. You won't see anything like that from a seller with fakes.

Beware of low Buy it now items. $39 for a $150-$500 jacket should raise a flag. This only applies to buy it now items. We start a lot of auctions at .99 because we know the product is good enough that it will get bids and go higher.

The most popular fake items I have seen are Denali Jackets and Mountain Jackets. If a seller has a lot of those but not other items beware. Do a search for North Face Denali. Then go through a few of those jackets and see what else the seller has. You'll be surprised to see how many of those sellers are only selling Denali's. And claim they are 100% authentic. Denali jackets aren't the only ones. North Face McMurdo jackets, Nuptse Jackets, any North Face Fleece. I wish the list didn't go on but it does.

If you find this information helpful please vote yes below. The more yes votes this guide gets the more often it will show up on searches and the more people we can help. If you don't find it helpful please email me and recommend any changes.

Last of all I invite you to take a look around our eBay store. You can find lots of North Face products that are authentic.

We no longer sell under the name GotYourGear. Please check our new eBay name SummitShop.

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