How to tell if a bape hoodie is real

Name: Gold Foil

Time: 2007 to Present

Details: Can be found attached underneath the tags of nearly all Bape items.

Comments: Should not be used to determine authenticity.

Below you will find various Ape head tags from over the years.

Note: Older tags may have very slight differences, but all retain the iconic Ape head shape.

Name: APEE (women's)

Time: - 2007

Details: All women's items now use the usual brown head tag since APEE was discontinued in 2007.

Name: n/a

Time: Early-mid 2000's

Details: Sewn on a little higher up the sleeve.

Name: n/a

Time: Early 2000's

Details: Features registered trademark ® on the left side.

Name: Black Label

Time: n/a

Details: Used on items released exclusively at the "Bapexclusive" Aoyama and NYC stores.

Comments: Has been used on some non-store exclusive releases in recent seasons.

Name: Pirate Store

Time: n/a

Details: Used exclusively on Pirate Store branded items.

Name: Baby Milo

Time: 2005 to 2007

Details: Used exclusively on Milo branded items.

Backside:

Fakes may not be apparent until you check the details. Small things like tags are usually overlooked and full of mistakes.

Below you will find pics of real authentic Bape tags. This is how all tags should look.

If you have pics of tags for an item in question, closely compare them with the pics in this guide.

________

Name: A Bathing Ape

Time: 2010 to Present

• larger ape head size and shape

Name: FrankenApe

Time: 2005 through 2007

Details: Used exclusively on shark and tiger hoodies.

Comments: After 2007, all monster hoodies use the usual brown head tag.

There are three exceptions which use the FrankenApe tag:

• (2010) BapeLand 1st Anniversary shark

• (2010) neon color shark (red/sax/yellow/green)

• (2010 AW) shark with camo on the back of left sleeve

Backside: "CITY OF THE WALKING BIOHATERS"

• Be sure there is white space between L and K in "WALKING". Those letters are commonly connected on fakes.

___________

Name: MADEWITHGENERAL

Time: Early-mid 2000's

Details: Can be found in an assortment of colors, with and without a gradiant.

\__________

Cut & Sew Tags 

Name: Ape Shall Never Kill Ape

Time: Early 2000's through 2005

Comments: Take note of the ape head shape surrounding the motto, font size and shape, and stitching.

_________

T-Shirt Neck Tags 

Name: IDEOGRAPEGH

Time: Early-mid 2000's to 2005

Sizes: XSmall - XLarge

Backside:

Women's tag:

Name: APRIMAL APEAREL

Time: 2005/6 through 2007

Sizes: XSmall - XXLarge

Details: Color-coded based on size.

Women's X-Small = Yellow

Small = Red

Medium = White

• Bape did not make sizes 3XL or 4XL, however they do appear on the tag.

________________

Name: Newest

Time: 2008 to Present

Sizes: XSmall - XXL

Details: Since late 2013, some tees are made in China. These tags will say "A Bathing Ape" instead of "Made In Japan".

Comments: Limited production of size 3XL in 2013.

_____________

Name: Baby Milo

Time: 2005 to 2007

Details: Only used on Baby Milo branded items. The letters held by Milo correspond to the size.

This tag was used only on T-SHIRTS

_________________

Name: Bape 20th Anniversary

Time: 2013

Before you say Bape is dead (lma0) there are tons of people getting scammed because shark hoodie still sell, so here's the most in-depth guide I could put together.

This post was made by Legit Check App gang so I have to link this here so that Google knows it's not copy-pasted (thus calling it a fake guide for a "fake Bape guide" - meta as hell): //chdaniel.com/legitcheckapp/guides/bape-a-bathing-ape/real-fake-bape-shark-hoodie/

I also recommend reading it through our link for a better experience (or for many more LC guides) - but I don't want to ask without giving so here's the guide.

We suggest starting the authentication process of the Tiger/Shark hoodie by looking either at the neck tag or the wash tag — see the next step, if for some reason this detail cannot be analysed.

We’ve attached the map below where we explain the real vs fake hoodie tags details:

Remember, replica manufacturers will always compromise quality on details that are not visible (such as the neck tag). Therefore, the stitching is all the time loose/low-quality on fake neck tags

The authentic neck tag’s text is very slightly bolder — the gap inside the first capital “A” or the first lowercase “a” is visibly smaller on the authentic hoodie tag

Pay close attention to the definition of the ape icon. Highlighted on the fake hoodie tag is missing detail and generally, the counterfeit one will lack detail.

Yet another detail that’s missing is, in this case, at the bottom of the ape icon — notice how the replica tag’s ape is a bit more “furry”, as opposed to a well-defined icon on the authentic version.

The ® is too far away on the fake hoodie tag

The bottom line of this ribbon is too wavy on the fake.

Notice how the letter spacing between “t” and “h” is almost nonexistent on the counterfeit neck tag.

Fake Bape Shark/Tiger hoodie tags will have inconsistencies in print such as this one — observe the lower left corner of the “i” dot

The “1993 to 2093” text is slightly thinner on the replica tag and a bit too far from the ribbon (especially on the right end of the text box)

In the fake “world gone mad” text, the highlighted “D” letter is misprinted. Also worth noting is how there’s a clearer distinction between “A” and “R” on the genuine Bape hoodie tag, yet on the counterfeit one they’re harder to tell apart

Once again, stitching is lacking on the fake tag.

Very important tell: the “S” that denotes the size is misaligned on this side tag. 

Not all pieces will have all these exact fake hoodie tag flaws but some of them. Pay attention to inconsistencies with the level of attention to detail described above.

Moving on, not all tags will be high-quality, like the one we compared above. Here’s an example of a lower-quality fake Bape hoodie for illustration purposes.

For the sake of explaining those, we’ll quickly note:

Poor stitching

Less detail found on the fake Bape icon

Fuzzy lines in print on the fake

“1993 to 2093” text is too close to the ribbon

Misaligned letter

“A” and “R” practically indistinguishable

“XL” font is too big.

Just to clear out any possible misinterpretations, any stitching that looks like the one pictured below is 100% a fake Bape hoodie.

One last thing to be mentioned before we move on to the next tell is the fact that on the other side of the side tag, one should find this Bape logo — pictured below.

Moving on, we’ll need to take a close look at the wash tag. Don’t worry, nothing is too complicated here and the fake tells are very obvious, as we’ll soon see in the fake vs real comparison pictures.

We’ll start with the best fake care tag.

The most important thing I’d look out for is the density of the wash tag stitching, pictured with #1.

Spotting fake Bape hoodies is very easy since replica manufacturers always compromise here — no person who wears counterfeit hoodies cares about these details. We’ll attach some other pictures as well below, bear with us.

As you can notice through numbers 2, 3, 5 and 6, the font on the genuine Bape hoodie is thinner than its counterpart. You need to pay close attention, but once you see it, you can’t un-see it.

Last but not least, tell number 4 is very important. Real Bape hoodies should have this character that looks like a… bullet point, but not quite. It’s closer to a bullet point with an asterisk on top.

This is an absolute instant tell for a fake Bape hoodie care tag: an asterisk on where number 4 is highlighted.

No authentic piece from this model should come with an asterisk.

Moving on, here’s another example of the less dense stitching found on the fake Bape wash tag (or care tag).

Both examples are fake, with the left one being definitely less dense, and the right one showing a richer-but-not-rich-enough stitching version.

And last but not least, make sure you give the wash tags a read. We’ve highlighted two flaws here:

“it nside out” — instead of “inside out”

“Slight shrikage” — instead of “slight shrinkage”

It’s also worth noting how the spacing between letters is suspect. Enjoy yourself a nice quick evening read just to make sure you stay safe when buying a Bape hoodie from a reseller.

The “WGM” patch stands for World Gone Mad, one of Bape’s famous slogans. Here, we’ve got quite a few examples of fakes, ranging from high quality to low quality versions.

Let’s start with an equal pink camo real vs pink camo fake Bape hoodie comparison.

Please note that this is a high-quality replica. What you will always want to keep an eye out for is the quality of the way these letters were manufactured.

Highlighted on the fake W and on the counterfeit G are two spots that betray the lower-quality machines used in the fake factories — no authentic Bape should come with those uneven details.

Last but not least, the “M” letter is visibly bolder on the fakes. We’re looking at a well-made replica which fixes other flaws we’ll see below but comes with a new flaw of its own: a bolder “M”.

The fake here is more obvious than the previous legit check comparison: misaligned letters, poorly-cut shapes and imprecise materials are easily giving away this fake.

I will assume there’s no need to explain the fake vs real comparison in this case, so we’ll move on to a higher quality replica. If you feel like we need to expand on this, drop a comment and we’ll do our best to cover it.

One last thing you need to keep an eye on is the way the letters outline is cut. Notice on the fake “G” how an extra bump is present in the highlighted area.

Leaving that letter aside, also highlighted is the space between the W pillars. That space is sometimes too narrow on the fake Bape hoodies, though it’s a minor aspect.

99.99% of the time these letters will have extra bumps, loose threads or any other inconsistency that will enable you to stop a fake Bape hoodie.

I’ll just want to attach one last picture showing another inconsistency for a replica Bape hoodie, since some of them vary wildly.

Last but not least, very very few fake hoodies might come with almost proper stitching, like the one below. I’d argue even the one below is not perfect but notice please how the “G” letter is not properly aligned.

Upon closer inspection, the “G” letter is sinking, when compared to the other two.

Before I get into the actual fake vs real comparison for the zipper of this hoodie, one thing to mention is that, once again, compromises are made when it comes to this detail of the clothing piece.

Bape uses YKK zippers, which are one of the (if not the) most popular types of zippers across the world.

However, YKK zippers are also replicated. As a consequence, they will jam often or simply not work as smoothly as they’re supposed to.

People who have bought the counterfeit versions have confirmed that sometimes these zippers break after a couple of uses.

If you have any other high-end designer/streetwear piece, you’ve probably seen how smooth a qualitative zipper works. Keep in mind that for face-to-face meetings or simply when your hoodie arrives, if there are still doubts.

Nonetheless, let’s get back to our Bape hoodie.

Two things have to be briefly mentioned here.

Number 1: the “5” on this zipper is smaller on the authentic zipper. It’s a less important tell, hence its lower position on the list, but an important one.

Fake manufacturers truly don’t care about the quality of the zipper, so small mistakes like these become go-to tells for us, when authenticating the Bape Shark/Tiger Hoodie.

Number 2: The shape of the bottom zipper is slightly different. Refer to the picture above to for a better understanding.

Analysing the Bape Hoodie real vs fake sleeve tag comparison allows us to see, once again, different levels of craftsmanship. On this specific fake tag, we can point out:

The lack of the ® symbol

A different stitching was used

Any Bape sleeve tag that’s missing the ® symbol is automatically a fake.

Let’s have a look at another version of the fake Bape sleeve tag we’ve found:

The ® symbol is indeed there, but the font used is different. Pay attention to that tell and, once again, to the stitching job’s quality.

There are a few more tells that we've covered in the article but for the level of attention to detail the repfam has got, these above should work just fine. If you find anything wrong with the guide — by all means please find wrong things and write them in the comments. Looking forward to fixing them (but obviously please tell as well why it's wrong).

Much love to the repfam,

Ch Daniel and Ch David❤️