Comments on: Fake Vibram Five Fingers – Buyers Beware!

By: eduardo

eduardo — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:51:04 +0000

I was not aware of all this & ordered a pair from fivefingersclearance.com for $79.90. They charged a bit more like $3 extra, and when I realized that the charge was from China I became suspicious & became aware of the problem of fakes. I tried to cancel the order to no avail & seems to be at NY customs now — I tried to see if I can contact a fraud unit there or at USPS but have failed to find any contact em/phone. This was my last exchange with the vendor:

On May 21, 2011, at 5:49, anna molly wrote:

Dear Eduardo xxx,

We are so sorry for delay because of our company anniversary celebration.

We have shipped out your order on May 19.

Here is your tracking number: xxx

Tracking site: http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm?form=global

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Best Wishes to you and your family.

Customer service

2011/5/20 xxx
From: xxx
Email: xxx@gmail.com

——————————————————

Please, as instructed by my previous emails:

CANCEL THIS ORDER & SEND ME CONFIRMATION OF THE CANCELLATION

Thanks

——————————————————

Office Use Only:
From: xxx
Email: xxx@gmail.com
Login Name: Exxx
Login Email: xxx@gmail.com
IP Address: 71.191.30.97 – 71.191.30.97
Host Address: OFFICE_IP_TO_HOST_ADDRESS
Date and Time: Fri May 20 2011 13:20:40 CEST

By: Leonardo

Leonardo — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:54:45 +0000

Hi, I bought fakes for $35 on ebay and they are wonderful. My friend’s expensive real fivefingers developed a tear on both big toes. Mine on the other hand are great ! I even stretched the second finger of my shoes cuz its my biggest. I stretched it by putting the shoe directly on the fire of a candle and pulling with pliers. They are still brand new after 7+ months of running ! The only problem with Fake Vibrams is that they are not available on ebay anymore !!! I should have bought 5-8 pairs more to have color variety and so I can use some while the others are drying (from placing them in the washer).

By: justin

justin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:09:43 +0000

So, the final verdict….
drum roll please!

There is virtually no difference, in these shoes(95% the same). That is if you consider the rubber sole to be made of godlike material or something, you may have a different opinion.
There are subtle differences that are comment worthy, however.
The most notable is the rubber material. It’s different, not in a bad way, but it’s not the same. The real ones are more pliable, the fakes not as much. The fakes are seemingly generic in quality, but nonetheless just as functional. No serious damages from running roughly 20 miles in them, so far anyways. I honestly think that one might benefit from using either one without regrets, aside from warranty/customer service …etc. I will however say this, don’t do what I did and pay $73 for the fakes. From what I understand you can get them for around 40 bucks elsewhere.
Moral of the story. If you’re cheap buy fakes(for $40 bucks or less), or just fork out the extra cash and get the real deal for and feel a little better about your purchase.
Sorry, no pics. I would suggest youtube, as you’ll probably get a far better view as to how they look.

By: justin

justin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:01:18 +0000

Hey I will post some pics on here in a few days. In the meantime check out this website…seems these are also becoming popular in the military. http://www.futglove.com/products/Men%27s-WARRIOR.html

By: barefootie

barefootie — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:29:04 +0000

sucks to hear about the fakes, hopefully you can use them for something, post up some pictures if you get a chance, I’d like to see how fake they look.

By: justin

justin — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:04:50 +0000

I too ordered a pair of fakes without thinking that there were counterfeit companies out there selling these things. I became suspicious AFTER I ordered from newfivefingers.com, and noticed that they had an msn, gmail, hotmail, and skype account for their “Contact” information. I became a little uneasy so I just called Vibram, whom confirmed my fears and emailed me a list of official distributors. Oh well, just got the fakes in the mail today. I honestly would not know that these were fakes….if they didn’t come in a very small cardboard box….yeah. I certainly was expecting an actual box or packaging system. Anyways they are the right size and color…black kso’s. They came with the sprint tag attached… I honestly laughed for about ten minutes as to how dumb I am for buying something like this from a less than credible website. I would send them back but I really don’t want to get totally burned here, I guess I’m not as brave as James. I have an official pair arriving in a couple days. I’ll probably just keep the fakes and wear them until they blow out or fall apart, then switch to the real pair. I’ll try to remember to do a follow up on here in a few weeks and let you all know how the fakes I purchased are holding up….

By: barefootie

barefootie — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:26:47 +0000

Glad you were able to get a refund. I thought these scam sites might not let you return…

By: James

James — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:08:30 +0000

I just bought a pair of these and did not know why were fake until I told some people about them and they said that 65 for an 85 dollar pair sounded too good, so after doing research I found that they were in fact fake. I looked at the stitching and you could tell they were poorly made. I was able to return them and got my money back.

By: William O. B'Livion

William O. B'Livion — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:19:59 +0000

I’m surprised that these fakes are of such low quality. Usually these “pirates” just run an extra shift or two on the production line and ship the un-accounted for product of a different doc.

This is what happens when you offshore your production to a country with no respect for “foreign” laws or property rights.

By: Patty

Patty — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:17:06 +0000

My coworker ordered a fake pair and he insisted that they were real until I showed him that the color he ordered didn’t actually exist through Vibram… And once he got them (which took about three weeks) the sole part on the big toe came unglued after two days of wearing them, so then he ended up going to City Sports and buying a real pair. Overall it ended up costing him a lot more than it would have if he just bought the real ones in the first place. I don’t know why if you really like the idea of the shoes, you wouldn’t just pay for the real things in the first place and support Vibram, not the knock off companies…