What is the difference between FAKE & BOOTLEG? (2024)

Here is the Thrifted take on the difference between FAKE and BOOTLEG. What we think should become a vintage industry standard, to avoid the sort of problems you see on Depop and elsewhere. Take a watch of our clip and have a read of our editorial on this below.

What is the difference between fake & bootleg?

Bootleg Gucci? Bootleg Chanel? Surely not right? However the aforementioned high-end luxury brands with the ‘bootleg’ label preceding them are some of the most sought after items in the modern day fashionista/Vintage collector/Hybebeasts wardrobe. But bootleg is just a fancy word for fake you say? The line between a bootleg piece & a fake piece is where it gets interesting – so lets get down to it.

A Fake item of clothing is one that has directly copied an authentic product already on the market, marketing itself as an original product in the hopes of duping the consumer. A great example of this would be the case of both Stone Island & Moncler jackets. With both jackets retailing from anywhere between £500 to thousands of pounds the market for faking the jackets is huge.

Both of these brands have an instantly recognizable feature with the iconic stone island patch adorning their jackets sleeve, & the instantly recognizable Moncler rooster taking center stage on the arm of Moncler jackets. With both of these features being a key branding element, producers of fake clothes go to great lengths to copy the iconography as close to the legitimate product as possible – making it increasingly difficult to tell real and fakes apart. To copy either of these could only be fake as there isn’t any room for experimentation in the end product. Fakes of these jackets even go as far as replicating the tags & wash labels, adding further difficulty in identifying a fake to a real piece.

Fake & counterfeit goods production is an enormous market, becoming a 1.2 trillion dollar industry – that could just about pay off my student loan debt, mental. Brands such as Supreme, Louis Vuitton & Off white are all faked on an enormous level. One interesting case regarding Supreme fakes comes in the form of global tech conglomerate Samsung, whom in 2018 announced a collaboration with the street wear juggernaut to the surprise of Supreme who knew nothing of the collab upon its announcement – Embarrassingly for Samsung they had been in negotiations with ‘Supreme Italia’ a fake supreme outlet in Italy, the collaboration was cancelled & supreme proceeded too sue, awkward.

Here’s where things gets interesting, now we have established the grounds for an item being fake, we move onto ‘bootleg’. In stark contrast to an item being fake, a bootleg piece as no intention of marketing itself as the real thing, the aim of a bootleg piece isn’t to copy existing pieces, only to creatively appropriate brands, mimicking the original but making it the designers own, resulting in a unique looking product. Take for example this bootleg Tommy Hilfiger jacket available on our website in comparison to an authentic Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Sports logo. Prior to bootleg tommy sports sweatshirts, t-shirts & jackets coming onto the market in the 90’s, Tommy Hilfiger hadn’t even released clothing with the name tommy sports attached to it, making tommy sports completely unique. Legitimate tommy sports clothing has now been released officially off the back of the popularity of the bootleg pieces (below) & this isn’t the first time brands have taken notice of bootleg culture.

Ventements DHL ‘collaboration’ hit the market in 2016, with yellow t-shirts adorning the humble DHL logo selling for £165. Looks bootleg doesn’t it?

Check the 90s Tommy bootleg here, vs the re-pro 2019 Tommy on the right:

FAQs

What is the difference between FAKE & BOOTLEG? ›

In stark contrast to an item being fake, a bootleg

bootleg
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Bootleg_recording
Bootleg recording - Wikipedia

piece as no intention of marketing itself as the real thing, the aim of a bootleg piece isn't to copy existing pieces, only to creatively appropriate brands, mimicking the original but making it the designers own, resulting in a unique looking product.

What is the difference between counterfeit and bootlegging? ›

Counterfeit goods are much lower quality and are sold for a much lower price than authentic merchandise. This is unauthorized usage of registered trademarks or trade names. Bootleg goods are legitimate items but they end up on the black market being sold for less than half the retail price.

Are bootleg shoes fake? ›

bootlegs are shoes. that are based off another shoe silhouette. but they make design changes and logo changes. to make them different. they're not trying to trick you.

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What does it mean when an item is bootleg? ›

Bootleg is good for describing something that's stolen, smuggled, or pirated. You can use it as a verb, too, when you're talking about selling something illegal or obtained in a sneaky way, like secret recordings of a rock concert or contraband candy at summer camp.

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What counts as bootleg? ›

Bootlegs usually consist of unreleased studio recordings, live performances or interviews without the quality control of official releases. Bootlegs reached new popularity with Bob Dylan's Great White Wonder, a compilation of studio outtakes and demos released in 1969 using low-priority pressing plants.

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Is counterfeit the same as fake? ›

Some common synonyms of counterfeit are fake, fraud, humbug, imposture, and sham. While all these words mean "a thing made to seem other than it is," counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable.

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What does a counterfeit look like? ›

Look closely for blurry borders, printing, or text.

Look around the edges of the bill and at any small text. Authentic bills have extremely detailed micro-printing, meaning that even under a magnifying glass, the printing is crisp and the micro-text on the bill should be readable.

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Why are fake shoes illegal? ›

It is illegal to purchase counterfeit goods. Bringing them into the United States may result in civil or criminal penalties and purchasing counterfeit goods often supports criminal activities, such as forced labor or human trafficking. Help to stop the funding of criminal enterprises by buying authentic goods.

Why is bootleg called bootleg? ›

"Bootlegging" originated from traders in the mid-west during the 1800s who would hide a bottle of liquor in the top of their bootlegs when going to do commerce with Native Americans. The term would be adopted and expanded to anything involving illegal trade in alcohol during Prohibition.

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What is a bootleg Nike? ›

a bootleg is someone. stealing the design of another popular sneaker. but they don't use their logos, they use their own logo. like these are bootlegs, right? because it's not the Nike sign, it's the McDonald's sign.

How to tell if a figure is bootleg? ›

Look for thin, highly detailed painted areas on a figure to identify bootleg figures as these areas will generally not be painted as accurately and consistently (i.e often times not within the lines) as the official figure.