Legit Check - AJ1 Court Purple & Banned

[DHarris]

Hey Guys. Long time follower here, first time poster. Recently I've gotten hooked on AJ1s and have been pretty rapidly fleshing out my collection. I've got a pair of Court Purple (been wearing for a couple of months) that I bought off of StockX that I believe are legit but there are a couple of things that concern me a bit.
Today I just received a pair of 2016 Banned that I purchased on Ebay. Price was $400 and change all in. Not too low but better than some of the prices I've been seeing.
Ever since my purple have given me OCD I've been checking a lot of the Real vs Fake comparisons. Seems for every couple of things that point to legit, I find another that doesn't. Drives me crazy.

Anyway, figured I'd post both here to get you're opinions and hopefully put my mind at ea
Thanks in advance!

 

[DHarris]

Didn't realize at first that I could only post 10 images and figured the more I put the better the opinions I could get.

Well, I took yesterday and reviewed the breds I received thoroughly. I'm thinking I ended up with a pretty pair of fakes. Assuming so, they're going back. I hope I'm wrong and these are legit but I've got a feeling that's not the case.

I'm still learning what to be looking for and these looked good to me at first. The logo appeared well done, they have the hourglass shape and the placement of the swoosh on the tongue tag looked good. The leather quality is also very nice with no peaks either.
Then I noticed that the F and Es on the tag inside the show are poorly printed, unlike my other pairs.
The lace bags look bigger than they should, but not as big as some I've seen.
The stars at the front of the sole looked more defined and spaced out than on my other Jordans. When I flipped the shoe over, the whole sole just looked wrong. I'm not crazy, right?
The cardboard shoe trees were also a bit different than those in any of my other pairs.

Oddly, despite the leather really being quite nice, these put off a pretty funky smell. Is that typical of fakes?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[DHarris]

When I put these in line with a few of my other AJ1s, they're about a 1/4" taller as well.
That isn't normal, right?

 

[DHarris]

Just noticed height and shape are the same as my gold toes.
Somebody please help. Losing my mind here

 

[AP\22]

The price alone sort of has me skeptical especially on eBay. Secondly I have a lot of ones , and I’ve never seen numbers on the inside of the ankle collar at all. My top 3’s were made the same year these were. They‘d also have that distinct new signature smell.. Also you may want to press in on the soles and make sure there firm except around the toe area. Fakes will be soft all over with no firmness. Just to be safe you may want to check a local sneaker consignment shop and get a LC, or go on Reddit on the sneaker page and get group of trained eyes on them.

 

[DHarris]

Thanks for the reply. The numbers on the collar are specific to the 2016 bred 1s.
I'm fortunate that I actually live up on Fairfax Blvd in LA and am just quick drive from the heart of the sneaker reseller store area. Brought these into SoleStage today and they were great about taking the time to compare these with a confirmed legit pair of theirs. These Breds are indeed fake, though according to them, some of the best fakes they've seen.
The gentleman I purchased them from has already approved a return/refund but asked for comparison pics so that he could try to get his money back from whoever he bought them from.

As is seems fakes are improving, I'll post the comparisons later in hopes it may be able to help someone else here down the road.

 

[AP\22]

At least you had a decent seller who will refund you.

 

[DHarris]

Got my money back on the breds but wanted to circle back to share the comparisons with a legit pair. Went to Sole Stage in Los Angeles who couldn't have been more helpful in making a determination. Supposedly, these were the best fakes they'd seen.

Having gone through all the real vs. fake comparisons I could, these were missing most of the fake "tells". The major giveaways to me were the texture/pattern of the outsoles and the printing of the logo on the insole. Given the inconsistent QC, I just wasn't sure.

Here's what Sole Stage pointed out:
Picture 1 - The ribbing and color of the cardboard on the inside of the box are slightly different. The outside and label looked identical.

Picture 2 - Lace bags. These were larger, as the fakes usually are but not as large as most fakes. Seems whoever is cranking these out in China is learning.

Picture 3 - The inside of the tongue label was surprisingly close to the legit pair. The front, when compared next to each other just didn't have as nice a placement or clarity. The color was also off. The red was brighter everywhere on the fake pair. Without having the two pairs in hand, the tongue on the fake pair looked VERY closely as it should.

Picture 4 - This printing was the best giveaway to me. Just a cheap iron on print vs the typical printing. Of course, most of my other AJ1 had had the printing wear off after a couple of wears. If you don't have a fresh pair to compare to, the fakes felt like I could just pick the printing off.

Picture 5 - Compared next to each other the toe box was a brighter red and the black leather came up slightly higher on the fakes.

Picture 6 - The outsole was clearly different in texture, pattern and color. That said, I have pairs where the left and right shoe have different looking outsoles (makes no sense to me assuming the all come from the same molds).