Are you being scammed with fake FiveFingers? How do you know the real Vibram FiveFingers when you see them?

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Are you being scammed with fake FiveFingers? How do you know the real Vibram FiveFingers when you see them?

By Al Gauthier ⋅ May 16, 2010 ⋅

Are you being scammed with fake FiveFingers? How do you know the real Vibram FiveFingers when you see them?

The popularity of the Vibram FiveFingers brand is undeniable. The company is continually struggling to keep up with the huge demand of their excellent product and the demand continues to grow! As they continue to develop ever more specific and refined models like their new FiveFingers Bikela (make specifically for running), there is a growing trend to copy their product.

The trouble is FiveFingers are sometimes hard to find especially if you are looking for the newest models. For those looking to buy Vibram FiveFingers outsides the USA or Canada pricing can be more than twice the price that North American’s pay. The result of course is that the excited public are looking not only for online retailers that have stock, but for prices that are easier on the pocket book.

Copycats have recently sprung up all over the internet. What is rather surprising is that they seem to have done a reasonable job in copying the FiveFingers product – well at least it seems that way when you look at photographs. We attempted to contact 8 of these web sites in order to get some more information and see if we could persuade them to offer up samples for testing and review. Only 3 replied, and all three declined the offer suggesting that we should instead waste no time in ordering their wonderful product. Not a chance!

(We have decided not to list these web sites. The more relevant links a site has, the higher they rank on Google, and we are certainly not going to make it any easier for these impostors)

While we would certainly have given these products a review, we doubt highly that it would have been favorable. These knock-offs are very unlikely to use the same technology and the same materials as the real Vibram FiveFingers. Even if we did I wouldn’t feel right using a product that had been so blatantly copied. Vibram makes a great product and I’m invested in keeping them profitable so that they continue to put out more of what we all love so much!

Protect your money. These companies are operating a scam. They have no track record and most of them don’t even respond to email. Many have no contact options at all, and most don’t have phone numbers that work. Are you willing to give your credit card information to a company like that? I hope not!

So how do you spot the fakes? It’s rather easy. Here is the list from the VFF team:

• The url utilizes a spin-off of Vibram or FiveFingers. Hyphens, underscores, and declarations of “authentic” or “real” products are a dead giveaway.
• There are all sorts of crazy colors offered that you’ve never seen on www.vibramfivefingers.com.
• Brands not named Vibram are offering their own “FiveFingers” products. Vibram is the only company legally allowed to produce FiveFingers products.
• Confusing or poorly written product descriptions and low-quality or low-resolution product images.
• Discounts! FiveFingers products being sold at discounts of 20%-50% or more are almost always counterfeit.
• Discount incentives and options to buy in BULK.
• Fabrics and materials that appear different should be a tip-off. Many fakes are using a lycra-like material that has a thicker, less-elastic knit texture to it.
• The “retailer” offers no contact phone number or the contact number immediately directs you to voicemail.

If the “retailer” can’t be found on our store locator http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/productsupport/store_locator.cfm (all authorized web retailers of FiveFingers® products MUST have a brick-and-mortar presence).

For those of you that know the FiveFingers product, logos can often also be missing or in the wrong spot on the product.

The bottom line is that if it seems too good to be true, or if you get that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind, it’s probably a fake. Do a little research and you’ll be able to spot the fakes quite easily.

If you have any doubts contact us and we’ll be happy to give advice.

Buy Vibram FiveFingers at these quality online retailers:

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As you read our reviews, please keep in mind that our reviewers review shoes in terms of their suitability for those looking to find the highest quality minimalist shoe products. All reviews are as factual as possible. In an effort to be transparent and ethical, we will point out any defects found, even if these do not affect the usability of the product. Not all defects will be present in final production shoes as we are sometimes offered “seconds” or pre-release products in an effort to provide you with reviews in a timely manor. In the event that serious issues are found with a review sample we will give every opportunity for the manufacturer to replace to explain the review samples before the final review is released. We never accept payments for reviews. We do not guarantee a good review for any products sent to us. We do not review products that do not claim to be minimalist or “barefoot like” unless we receive a significant number of requests from readers or listeners.

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Tags: Fake, Fivefingers, Real FiveFingers, Scammed

Discussion

8 comments for “Are you being scammed with fake FiveFingers? How do you know the real Vibram FiveFingers when you see them?”

Facebook comments:

It seems that some Google adds here links to Fake Fivefingers sellers sites !

Posted by Denis | May 16, 2010, 16:36
Hi Denis,

It’s true! Google Ads are an automated system that scans the articles we wright and then dynamically displays Ads based on key words. Many of these scamming companies use Google to display ads and thus these Ads may be displayed on our site as well.

Posted by Al Gauthier | May 16, 2010, 16:39
Al,

Two things:

1) You can eliminate the fake sites from your Google Adsense using the competitive ad filter

2) I’ve created a list at birthdayshoes:

http://birthdayshoes.com/these-are-not-vibram-five-fingers-spotting-fakes-counterfeits-knock-offs-and-other-pirated-black-market-five-toed-shoes

Note that none of those domain names are actually linked to the sites, so they don’t boost page rank.

Posted by justin | May 18, 2010, 09:35
Great list of domains – we are working on cleaning out all the offenders

Posted by Al Gauthier | May 19, 2010, 09:01
This started off looking like it was going to be a good comparison of branded and generic fivefingers, but you ended up just looking like you are on vibram’s payroll, congrats

Posted by Graham | December 5, 2010, 02:14
I can assure you we are not paid by Vibram to say nice things about their product. In fact when there are problems with products we report in them. Often we really don’t want to as we don’t want to be negative about a company we really like, but we would have no credibility if we didn’t report on exactly what we see and experience. Vibram Fivefingers have been consistently excellent in our experience – we love their products.

These other companies are not even pretending to offer a different product. In many cases they even copy the Vibram logo. They are conducting business in a way that is simply not ethical.

We would not support them even if the product was great. They have not put the time and money into building the Fivefingers brand, they are just tricking people into spending some money on a fake.

Having said that, we would review, and we would review honestly, any samples that we could get from any of these companies. Despite our continuing efforts we have not been able to do so. We suspect many of these sites do not even send out orders but simply collect money. As they do not respond to emails and have no phone calls I would assume there us no customer service.

If anyone has received any of these products please contact us. We would very much like to get your opinion and lay eyes on the samples themselves.

Posted by Al Gauthier | December 5, 2010, 07:25
Well, since I can’t get vibram five fingers because my feet are too big I have no choice but to look for an alternative.

Italy should be banned from exporting anything they produce that has anything to do with body size.

Posted by Finn | June 16, 2011, 19:31
That’s a very broad statement and I’m not sure it’s really a fair one given the massive following Fivefingers have for those who have difficulty wearing other types of footwear.

How big are your feet exactly?

What have you found that works?

Posted by Al Gauthier | June 16, 2011, 21:09