Lacoste shopping bags: 5 tips for spotting fakes
Lacoste is a French brand specialising in top-of-the-range ready-to-wear clothing for men and women. They are best known for the Lacoste polo shirt, a true fashion classic. As well as clothing, Lacoste also offers shoes, accessories and perfumes.
When a product is popular, it is automatically coveted by counterfeiters. Today we're going to take a look at Lacoste shopping bags and how to recognise and avoid counterfeit Lacoste bags when buying outside official shops.
1/ The place of sale
Lacoste bags are only sold in official Lacoste shops or in certain authorised retailers such as Galeries Lafayette. You can also find all the official Lacoste shops on the brand's website.
So if you find a Lacoste bag in a street vendor's shop or elsewhere, beware - it could be counterfeit. Prefer the second-hand market to street vendors.
2/ The logo
The packaging of a fake Lacoste bag is often quite successful. Counterfeiters go to great lengths to get as close as possible to the original, but put less effort into the other details. Let's move on to the logo.
All Lacoste bags have a printed logo. Pay particular attention to that famous crocodile. It is made of high quality materials with defined lines. This logo can be green, like the original logo, or monochrome, when it takes on the colour of the tote bag in question. It is usually present on the canvas bag and engraved on the inside pocket. If the logo on your bag is missing, it is probably a fake Lacoste bag.
On the left, a genuine Lacoste logo, on the right, a counterfeit.
3/ Materials and seams
Lacoste bags can be made of canvas, PVC or leather. They are all made from high-quality materials, which justifies their price. The main flaw in counterfeit Lacoste bags is the interior stitching. Authentic Lacoste bags are carefully crafted with uniform, well-finished seams. Fake Lacoste bags have irregular stitching and loose threads. Take a close look at the inside of your bag.
Above, stitching on a real Lacoste bag, below, stitching on a fake Lacoste bag.
4/ The straps on your bag
The buckle strap of a real Lacoste bag is made from top quality leather. The strap is not too stiff, easy to fold but still very strong. The opposite is true of a counterfeit Lacoste tote bag. Replica Lacoste tote bags have a very stiff strap that is difficult to fold because they forget an important material in this design: the authentic Lacoste strap is made of garter under the leather.
On the left, the strap of a real Lacoste bag, on the right the strap of a fake Lacoste bag, thicker than the other, more rigid and difficult to fold.
5/ The zip
The zip on an authentic Lacoste bag goes all the way to the end of the bag. Most Lacoste replica bags will stop just short of the edge of your bag.
Also, the Lacoste brand engravings on this fastener are light and shallow, unlike Lacoste replica bags.
The bag in the middle is a replica Lacoste shopping bag, the other two are authentic Lacoste bags.
Buy your second-hand Lacoste bag with Obvy
If you can't afford to buy Lacoste shopping bags in the brand's official shops, you can opt for the second-hand market. Buy your second-hand Lacoste bag from individuals on classified ad sites thanks to Obvy.
With Obvy, our secure payment solution, you benefit from a number of features that allow you to carry out a transaction with complete peace of mind. In the event of a counterfeiting scam, you'll have access to your transaction history and you'll have the option of returning the item to the seller for a refund. Our customer service team will be happy to help you with this process.
We have also written an article to help youavoid counterfeit Lacoste polo shirts.