I made the mistake of buying fake - so you wouldn't have to!

I'm not new to eBay, I'm not new to Christian Louboutin, but I still managed to get fooled into buying a fake pair of boots. I decided to create this post, so you could see what it is that you might be sent (factory direct from China!) when you buy fake designer footwear.

I paid $600 for the lot. Those boots perhaps cost $0.60 to make. I will do my best to get that back; not because I need it, but so as not support organised crime.

Authentic Louboutins are made of leather - uppers, inside, soles. They are hand made in Italy and at least 10 people touch every single shoe in the manufacturing process. They are exclusive and exquisite. What you are about to see is the exact opposite. There are unknown materials used and the people who made them in China were probably children.

However, enough of the grim stuff, let's get on to the fun stuff: pictures! You can click on all of them to see them bigger.

The shoes were sent by EMS, with a tracking number (that wasn't sent to me though), and it was delivered yesterday. I thought it would come from the US, but the sender appeared to be situated in China; that was red light no. 1. I carefully cut the tape, and this is what welcomed me:

Exhibit A

Uh oh! Now, I own a few pairs of Louboutins and I know what their boxes look like. The inside shoebox here doesn't look anything like the real thing. It's brittle cardboard and the parallel lines running across it are very faint and close together. At this stage I was pretty certain the contents would be fake, so I took out the shoebox:

Exhibit B

On the side of the box was this:

Exhibit C

That amused me. Who would ever fall for that? Seriously, if you were to see this box on offer at the market on town square, would you really believe that designer boots have a hand-cut label and Chinese hieroglyphs on them? If anyone can tell me what that means, please let me know. Perhaps it's a big "HA HA", as per Nelson from The Simpsons.

Boldly, I opened the box to bring its guts to light. First of all, a shocking chemical smell hit me. I don't really mind the smell of paint and its other pungent petrochemical relatives, but this was very strong. Let's lift the lid:

Exhibit D

Look, they even gave me a free pair of extra heel tips (taped to the box top)! Isn't that nice? And, oh, a free paper bag as well!

And those lovely red dusbags:

Exhibit E

Let's have a closer look at the bags, eh? With flash!

Exhibit F

I believe it is evident from the picture above that the dustbags are made of velvet, and the paint is chipping. Louboutin's original bags are not made of velvet, it's more of a soft cottony material. Moving on; here is one more picture of the inside of the box, and one showing the shape of the boots:

Exhibit G

Exhibit H

Louboutin doesn't make anything that looks like Exhibit H above. The boots are bastards of several styles. How can you counterfeit something that you haven't even seen before? Well, apparently you can.

Okay, now to the best part: the red soles!

Exhibit I

They actually managed to get the colour almost right. I'd give them kudos, but they're evil so, nah. The shape of the last and the embedded logo and its friends on the bottom of each shoe were obviously wrong and fake:

Exhibit J

The embedding on real Louboutins is deeper and sharper. And in leather, not plastic!

There was very shoddy craftmanship inside. The outside was like a $10 pair of boots from a budget supermarket but the inside was nothing like I've ever seen before:

Exhibit K

Exhibit L

I think the pictures above explain themselves.

That completed my journey to the horrible unknown!

Disgusted and amused at the same time, I packed everything up again. Here is the box, all ready to go:

I hope you will never have to experience close encounters of the fake shoe kind, and in order to make sure it doesn't happen, make doubly sure that you know what you are dealing with.

First of all, never buy your shoes from iOffer. They're all fake.

When dealing with eBay, familiarise yourself with the style you're looking for, read the seller's feedback, examine the pictures and if needed, ask for more. Stock photographs are always suspicious, and so are blurry ones. Peruse the description looking for anything odd, read return and refund policies and if you have any questions, ask. Only pay by PayPal and nothing else, ever. Not for designer shoes. Some other methods are okay but only if you completely trust the seller or it's something that isn't really faked. Like a coffe mug, for instance. Not designer shoes.

If there are 2 hours to go on a 7-day auction and there are no/very few bids even though the starting/current price is low, then that is a red light.

These are the basics. There are many other tips on how to avoid getting scammed, I don't want to be repeating everything here. Go on eBay and read the guides.

In case you're looking for Christian Louboutin's shoes on eBay, the ladies and gentlemen of the Purse Forum will gladly help you authenticate, and point out anything suspicious. You can find the forum here: http://forum.purseblog.com/christian-louboutin-shoes/

If any of the members are reading this, then thank you very much, guys, for reporting the auction and helping it to be taken down by eBay; your support and information regarding Google Checkout (do not use it for eBay!).

I hope you enjoyed this blog and the gruesome photographs. I also hope that you will never see a counterfeit shoe specimen in real life.