It’s Not as Simple as Real or Fake Anymore
WHAT ARE UA PRODUCTS?
Tl;Dr: “UA” stands for “Unauthorized Authentic”. UA products are very similar to retail Nike/Jordan Brand shoes but are never officially contracted with those companies to be made. UA shoes and all UA products are usually made in the same factories, with the same input materials, and the same workers that make the official retail pairs in most cases on the very same production line. They differ from replica products because they are of a much higher quality and most people cannot differentiate UA products from retail products. It is important to note that most UA products cannot be resold as authentic because they do not receive the final hidden markings for authentication from the brands.
In case you’re curious to learn more:
If you’re a sneaker-head, you’ve probably become accustomed to hearing various terms in relation to the authenticity of collectable sneakers. Starting with the obvious – “authentic” – shoes which have passed through the authorized supply chain of the brand whose logo they depict.
What about the other terms, though? “Unauthorized Authentic” (UA), “fake”, “counterfeit”, “replica”, or even “knockoff”?
In this article, we attempt to clarify the meaning of these terms and explore the unexpected details involved in whether or not a certain branded item can be considered to be “authentic” or not. *Spoiler alert* - It’s a lot more complex than you may think.
IT'S NOT AS SIMPLE AS REAL OR FAKE ANYMORE
First, we’ll take a stab at defining what should be the easiest term of all – “authentic”. In order for a pair of sneakers to be considered authentic, there are quite a few steps they need to pass through. Let’s go through them one by one:
1) They need to be an original design of the brand
Firstly, they need to be a design which originates from the brand on the label. Now this one may seem mind-numbingly obvious but a staple of many low-grade knockoffs is the tendency to take the logo of a brand and stamp it on any model the sellers think will sell well.
For example, take a look at these “Off-White” Yeezys. Now these may look perfectly fine to the untrained eye, the quality even looks pretty decent. However, those who are acquainted with both brands involved here will know that there is no way such an official collaboration could have ever come to fruition. Even though Kanye and Virgil (R.I.P) were very close, “Yeezy” is a brand that has been under the umbrella of Adidas for a number of years, while “Off-White” has only ever been involved with Nike when it comes to sneaker collaborations.
2) The design needs to have been commissioned for production by the brand itself
Contrary to popular belief, the big brands responsible for the collectable hype sneakers we all know and love do not actually run their own factories.
Trump’s trade war with China meant that many American brands have been forced to try and move their production back to the States. Despite this, the attractively low costs of labour and materials in Asian countries mean that these big brands still subcontract the manufacture of over 90% of their inventory to independently run factories in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. With Chinese factories producing the vast majority. Selecting the factory/ies to be granted a production contract for a certain model involves sharing official blueprints, moulds, and materials suppliers with a number of them. Sample batches are subsequently produced and evaluated, while negotiations on pricing are carried out. Finally, the brand will select one or a handful of factories to manufacture their official supply (depending on the number of units needed) and place an order with them. The remaining (not-selected) factories will be instructed to destroy the official blueprints and moulds per intellectual property (IP) law.
Given the level of IP law enforcement in China, however, you can probably imagine that this almost never happens.
3) The units produced in the authorized factories need to pass through the brand’s quality control (QC) process
When a factory receives an order for a specific number of shoes, it is common practice for them to produce significantly more than has been ordered. For example, if Nike orders 30,000 pairs of Travis Scott x Jordan 1 “Reverse Mochas”, the authorized factory may produce around 50,000 units instead. This is done with the purpose of having a tolerance for “bad eggs”.
While the brand in question has become notoriously lax in terms of its QC standards, with certain newer models popping up in retail stores with glue marks and loose threads, they still reject quite a few pairs at the end of the production line. This means that authorized factories end up with a number of pairs they cannot sell officially ranging from the thousands to the 10s of thousands. As you can imagine, they hardly discard or recycle them for materials. No way, José.
4) The shoes which have passed the brand’s QC process, now need to go through their official wholesale and retail distribution process
Once the approved shoes leave the authorized factory, they begin their journey to the wholesale distributors and subsequently reach the retailers, apps, and websites we’re somehow never able to cop from. After being swiftly bought up by bots and being backdoored to celebrities, as well as consignment shops at which senior executives of the brand often own shares, they hit the resale market. This is where the prices often triple or even grow to ten times those at retail. The most well-known of these online marketplaces is StockX, which for a number of years reliably sold shoes they claimed to have been 100% authorized and authentic. In 2022 however, they were sued by the biggest brand on their platform for allegedly selling unauthorized pairs of their shoes.
The whole StockX debacle just goes to show how subjective the entire debate on what “authenticity” is to begin with. An online marketplace, which built its entire business and reputation on being able to authenticate rare and collectable sneakers – suddenly slammed for not exactly adhering to their advertised accuracy.
This begs the question – who is the ultimate authority on authenticity and does it really matter if this authority can suddenly be brought into question by the brand itself, casting doubt on years of supposed legitimate sales?
“THESE SHOES ARE ORIGINAL. IT’S JUST THE BRANDS THAT ARE FAKE”
The above quote was taken from a New York Times article from 2010, which took an in-depth look the unauthorized sneaker market. At one point, the author describes a raid of two warehouses in Brooklyn that year, which uncovered nearly 300,000 pairs of shoes branded with Nike. The only way that the customs agents were able to establish them as non-authentic was because “the importation docs were not truthful”, according to an email from an immigration spokeswoman.
SO, WHAT EXACTLY ARE UA SNEAKERS THEN?
Based on what we’ve gone through above regarding defining authenticity, any single pair of shoes which does not meet all four criteria of authenticity cannot be considered authorized or “authentic” per definition. Therefore, the product itself can be physically exactly the same, could have been made in the same factories with the same machinery, and be technically unauthorized because it did not pass through the brand’s QC or distribution chain.
These products are not to be mistaken with what typically comes to mind when we think of replicas/knockoffs. They aren’t produced in a smokey, hidden-away Chinese sweatshop and they won’t fall apart after a few wears. These are basically the real deal with a cheat code and the conditions that they can’t be resold as authentic.
WHY CAN’T UA’S BE RESOLD AS AUTHENTIC?
Firstly, it’s kind of a scummy thing to do (not that the brands don’t essentially do the same thing by hogging pairs on release and then reselling them after creating a false scarcity). Most importantly, however, after the shoes pass the QC of the brands, small markings are added in hidden places (often with UV ink), in order for them to be verifiable. Since the vast majority of UAs come factory-direct, this step has not been completed, and they, therefore, won’t be able to pass a thorough legit-check which checks for these hidden markings.
ARE THERE ANY ETHICAL OR LEGAL CONCERNS WHEN BUYING UA SNEAKERS?
It is not illegal to purchase or own unauthorized sneakers. Reselling them with the intention of deceiving someone into believing they are “authentic”, however, is illegal.
In terms of ethics, factories are actually paid more per unit for UA shoes than they are for their authentic counterparts. This is mainly due to the fact that authentic pairs are paid for in bulk, while UA shoes are sold in smaller quantities. Furthermore, factories are expected to charge a higher price on UA shoes due to the risk involved with selling them, to begin with.
Where can one find such sneakers?
While some sneakerheads may turn their nose up at this idea, UA sneakers are almost identical to the original product, with some even being made in the same factories. They provide a cost-effective solution for those who missed out on the release, as they are priced similarly to retail and can actually be worn without the fear of damaging a valuable collector's item. However, it is important to purchase UAs from a reliable source to avoid getting average-quality reps.
Our personal experience has shown that Drip Locker offers the best quality and customer service compared to other online options. We regularly wear shoes from them around the office and recommend them to our sneakerhead friends.
If you do end up making the decision to purchase from them, make sure to use code “DRIPBIBLE” for 10% off your order. It supports this blog and helps us make more content to keep you updated on the latest and greatest in the sneaker world.