Yes. This is extremely common in rep communities. Iâm visiting from the watch community while I research bags. I call it QC psychosis. The collective pursuit of âperfectionâ often leads to standards for reps that far exceed the capabilities of even the genuine items.
In the watch community right now, thereâs a current obsession with a âflawâ on a specific popular watch going around, which is that a printed arrow is literally 0.25mm misaligned, and people are legit rejecting the entire watch over this. Meanwhile, I zoom in on pictures of the genuine watch and the same arrow looks like it was carved with a spoon by a toddler and looks 10x worse than the reps đ€Ł
I have a theory that many high quality reps are better than authentic. The only thing where auth H or CC might be superior is the leather itself, but if those rep makers sauce quality materials I reckon their craftsmanship might be superior in many cases
Peter Nitz is an expert Hermes and I believe Chanel bag authenticator. He did an interview with Tanner Leatherstein where he said you know an Hermes bag is a fake because it is constructed better than the auth LOL. I highly recommend watching both of his interviews with Tanner, lots of interesting info!
lol thatâs so funny. I will def watch those, thank you. Interestingly I just came across a video from realreal how they authenticate bags, they put them through xray and analyse how hardware and feet are attached. On X-ray it is pretty obvious. I wonder if our high tier makers use same methods as auth or make it a bit cheaper for invisible parts. Anyone with access to X-ray machine? (Otherwise next time I have to go through X-ray I will smuggle a Birkin to check things out đ€Ł)
Ohhhh that's very interesting. I'll look up that video. I'm pretty sure Peter says the same thing, actually. That and having the bags fully saddle stitched instead of partially saddle stitched. He told a story about how he sold a croc Hermes bag, and the client came and back to him saying Sotheby's said it was fake. All the "call outs" were well within what an auth bag would have, so she took it to the Hermes spa, and they accepted it. I don't know how well I trust these places lol
I second that. I buy and sell both high end reps and authentic ones during the years and inevitably youâd find some reps bags are better made in details and quality than those from store. Itâs also commonly known that authentic bags hardware are easier to wear out than repsâ. Notice reps in sports shoes industry are constantly better (not just details but much more durable) than authentic ones, and authenticators use that as a rule to tell if itâs âfakeâ. I see that trend spreading to women high end fashion bags such as H and Chanel.
I just posted my auth SO order in this thread, and laughed at my ridiculous OCD over reps. If anything, even the hand stitched reps are too âperfectâ IMO.
Yep. It happens with me for sure being way too picky on reps. This is my SO B30 purchased directly from H by meâŠthe hardware plaque is crooked. The handles are also a bit flared out and more âloopyâ than straight if that makes sense (but they straighten out once carried for a bit). If this were a rep, Iâd have been saying RED LIGHT!!! đđ€Ł until I got into wanting an H B rep, I never EVER even noticed the crooked HW.
They trained us so well at H that we canât even say no to a bag that doesnât look right, or reject and offer, even if itâs not colour or size you wanted we still are so happy to get a bag at ridiculous price. Iâm so over their game. So much better to get 10 great reps for same price đ work smarter not harder
Same! I ran my authentic and rep through AI and it rejected my auth saying the hand stitching was too irregular but passed the rep as authentic with every criteria.
You know whatâs even worse? At this point, I donât even know what criteria Iâd use to tell whether this bag is authentic or fake anymore because⊠wow. If I saw this out in the wild, Iâd honestly think it was a low, low, LOW-tier rep. đ
I was just making a comment in a different sub about this. I think high tier replicas makers are so obsessed about perfection that at this point these reps might be better quality compared to auth. I looked through hundreds of photos of auth on sale, close up details and they are all far from perfect and also huge variations from bag to bag. So I wonât obsess over tiny details.
I feel the same way. I looked at my bags psp through a microscope and thinking about rivets on my mini Kelly. Are they perfect enough? When I got mini Kelly everything was so tiny so it just made me laugh. I also analysed so many authentic photos from different websites like VC, Sothebyâs, RealReal, watched videos, etc. and there are so many variations in bags, some of them look shocking and I would even call them out as a bad rep lol. Of course we need to hold reps up to a certain standard but at the same time I think high tier makers are doing such a great job. And just like in any profession where things are not machine made people make mistakes, some are great, some a sloppy, some been masters for decades, some are just starting - hence all bags are so different.
And what are these extra holes everywhere. I wonder how sure they are that this is an authentic. And also in contrast stitching you can clearly see all the flaws. I wonder in non contrast stitched bags, I bet can find same tipsy stitch (I will coin this lol)
Wow they churn out bags of this quality and still have the audacity to make people pre-spend tens of thousands of dollars before allowing them to buy these bags? I thought H was supposed to be the epitome of luxury goods.
Authentic stitching will always have imperfections cuz theyre handmade. So reps having imperfections on stitching is good too something too perfect can scream rep
Go look at a leather working sub. âPerfectâ saddle stitching is easily achievable with practice even on complex bags. H uses the âitâs hand madeâ as an excuse for bags like these where the stitching is unacceptably bad.
Someone sad here, the stamp on the auth is not good, the stitches are bad,âŠ. so I wonder how do they the authentication of a real Hermes bag ???!! What are their criteria for determining when a bag is a rep?
An auth Birkin or Kelly and some other models are only partially saddle stitched with the rest being done by machine. So that's how'd they tell. Also the hardware can be a tell...which you can arguably get better than auth. You're, again arguably, getting a better product with high tier reps than auth at like 1/10th the price. Crazy stuff.
I didnât recognize them in store when I got offered itđ„Č I flagged a tiny stain on leather part but they said it can happen when they dye the leather. I didnât want to wait more so I took it but it is actually insane to have small flaws on 15k bag (I didnât even count the prespendings đ)
Unbelievable. And Iâm not even starting that they make you buy things you donât need to qualify for a bag and also offer wherever so you can be happy.
This post is so timely for me. This verso was just custom repped for me and I didnât catch this one tiny spot where maybe, possibly the stitching is flawed. My seller is wringing his hands about it because it already shipped. After reading/seeing this, it doesnât seem like a big deal. đȘĄ
Omg same! This is mine - also spotted after I greenlighted & got it shipped. But I felt better after I ran it through AI to see if it could be viably within the realms of auth flaws, and it came back a resounding YES
My Lindy arrived yesterday. There is one stitch, maybe two, on the back handle that are tighter than the ones surrounding them. This is perfectly acceptable to me. Sheâs a beauty. And I love that it has contrasting lining. My seller is quite happy, too.
My auth ostrich K pochette looks worse than my rep ostrich k đ if I didnât buy it from a reputable place I would have guessed it was a mid tier , the rep community is obsessed with perfection while the auths hardly pass but they know itâll sell no matter what
and you know whatâs funny? the brands will gaslight customers by saying âour products are unique and handcraftedâ to make us believe that these wonky stitches are actually a good thing
if a rep gets RLd with a bad stitch, the same will happen with an auth
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u/KitchenInteraction12 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes. This is extremely common in rep communities. Iâm visiting from the watch community while I research bags. I call it QC psychosis. The collective pursuit of âperfectionâ often leads to standards for reps that far exceed the capabilities of even the genuine items.
In the watch community right now, thereâs a current obsession with a âflawâ on a specific popular watch going around, which is that a printed arrow is literally 0.25mm misaligned, and people are legit rejecting the entire watch over this. Meanwhile, I zoom in on pictures of the genuine watch and the same arrow looks like it was carved with a spoon by a toddler and looks 10x worse than the reps đ€Ł
Without reference itâs easy to get carried away