You’ll know that there were quite a few replica shoe sellers on this website a few years ago, including the popular Old School black and white Vans. However, a few years ago everything changed: AliExpress got serious and started systematically driving fake sellers off its platform. So far everything is normal.
But the really strange thing happened a year ago and not so long ago: Suddenly, very cheap old-skool shoes appeared in the official Vans category of AliExpress. The same ones that still exist today.
What’s going on here? Is the original old skool?
At first we didn’t care: we assumed that the salespeople were fake and that they were temporarily beyond the control of the reviewers.
But the weeks passed. And the months. And a year and soon after, the shoes are still there with hundreds of long-time sellers and sellers. And yet we were faced with a sea of doubts: What if it really is a very cheap original Vans Old Skool?
What if we thought badly because we believed they were wrong? Maybe we had a bargain in front of us and couldn’t see it! Overcoming doubts seemed easy enough: all you had to do was ask for it and check it out in person. Welcome to the first episode of.
CSI ALIEXBA
11/11 we bought a black classic Old Skool, size 44 from this seller. They cost $ 40. Two weeks and shortly afterwards the shoes arrived.
First of all, I wasn’t expecting what you see in the second photo: the shoes came in their box (even if it was completely dented). I compared them to the originals (bought from Amazon) that I have and saw this:
Little details
With the magnifying glass there are small details that deserve to be highlighted. For example, my label says “Made in China” instead of “Made in Cambodia”. Although Vans may have a factory in China, I can tell the truth, I have no idea.
But the most important thing I noticed is that the shoes had small imperfections, such as a badly painted piece of the sole.
As a badly sewn tongue end:
Finally, the heel has a slightly weird finish:
But otherwise they are a good product, they are ordinary Old Skool Vans that cannot be faulted.
Conclusions.
Suppose I buy such Vans Old Skool on Amazon, unpack them and after checking that everything is in order, I put them in front of the door and go to sleep. Let’s also assume that someone gives me the change at night and instead leaves this Old Skool from AliExpress.
If you left the house in the morning it would be impossible that I realized that they are not the same. It takes a keen eye to see that they are not the same as the Old Skool that you can buy at a Vans store. And even then, I don’t dare say they’re wrong: AliExpress / Alibaba have long taken counterfeit sales on their platforms very seriously, they risk their prestige and a lot of money in litigation, and I would be very surprised if they did so by now Counterfeit products are sold with impunity.
So why are they different?
I honestly have no idea. But I have two theories:
- They are original but have manufacturing defects and are therefore sold cheaper (i.e. they are remnants)
- Or maybe Vans decided to launch a cheaper production line for the Asian public, and AliExpress sellers are doing business by exporting them to the rest of the world.
Whenever we discover something new, we update the article. Oh, and I’ll update it too when I put them on and after a hundred meters I feel the asphalt on my sole 😂
