How to Spot Fake Levi's 501 Jeans?

There has been an outbreak of knock-off items over the past few years. Started from clothing to handbags and shoes. Unfortunately, one of the with One of the most popular items of clothing has been Levi's. To Levi's fan like us, we find it extra careful when we get our jeans online.

Most imitate Levi's are 'Vintage' Levi's 501s with all or some of the details that make real vintage Levi jeans valuable. These can include:

-The Red Tab with capital 'E" which date real levi's to pre-1971
-V-Stitch near the top button. Another vintage characteristic
-Buckle on the rear (Buckleback)
-Bar tacked Rear Pockets

These imitate Levi's are mostly come from Asia countries where they are made with cheap labor and materials. The denim used for the most part is of average quality, if not better than average. But the hardware used: Buttons, rivets, etc. are normally of inferior quality.

A quick search on eBay will almost always reveal anywhere from 2 to 3 fake pieces to almost 100 in some cases. eBay seem to be doing very little in trying to remove these items from their site, or in fact, it is almost impossible to identify all these imitation. Nevertheless, we would like to share some of the obvious areas that you could spot easily.

1. Number on back of top button:
Almost always stamped '501' off-center or not stamped at all. While some non-vintage authentic Levi's 501s may have this stamped on them, vintage big 'E' will always have a single digit or letter stamped (6, 5, 2, W) or blank, but if it is blank, there are usually punch marks on it.

2. Elongated 'V-Stitch' on fly:
Another common characteristic of fakes

3. Rear Patch:
The rear patch on the right hip can also give clues to whether or not the garment is authentic.

4. Material:
If it is a hard leather like material, the jeans are suspect. Unless the jeans are from the 1930s and the patch has a 'jerky' look to it, very few other Levi's have or had a real leather like patch. Although this is not a surefire way of telling because some in the LVC (Levi vintage clothing line) and ones produced in places other than the United States (Japan, Canada for example) did actually come with a hard leather patch.

5. Labeling:
Another clue is the printing on the patch. If the patch material seems authentic, most times the printing is not. It is either off center, spelling mistakes, or barring all of that not being present they are labeled '501-0657' in black ink. If the jeans are anything other than black 501s from the 1980s - if they have that on the label than they are fake.

Of course talk is easy, but how to differentiate when come to actual piece? Thanks to jhahn1234 who shared a video in YouTube.

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