How far can a photo check go?
A photo check compares the pair in the listing with a pair you know is genuine. Every difference is a question. Some differences have an innocent reason, such as wear, lighting or a small change between two production runs. Others show that the pair was made somewhere else.
Copies vary in quality. A cheap copy often gets the shape, the stitching or the label wrong in ways a clear photo will show. The best copies are made to match genuine pairs closely. Some checks need the shoe in your hands: under ultraviolet light, for example, differences in glue and materials show up that normal light hides. A photo cannot give you that.
So set your goal before you start. From photos alone, the honest results are "this pair has a problem" or "I found no problem". The second result lowers the risk and still falls short of proof.
Which photos should you ask the seller for?
Most listings show the shoes from their best angle. A check needs the angles that are hard to fake. Ask for these 7 before you decide:
- Both shoes from the outer side, at the same distance, in daylight.
- The heel of each shoe, straight on.
- The toe box from directly above.
- The size label inside the tongue, close enough to read every character.
- The soles, flat and fully in frame.
- The box label, if the box is included.
- One photo with a note showing the seller's username and today's date.
A seller with a genuine pair can take these in a few minutes. A seller who refuses, sends photos of a different pair, or sends only pictures from the brand's website has given you an answer.
What do you compare the photos against?
You need a reference: photos of the same model, in the same colourway, that you trust. The best reference is the brand's own product page for that style code, or a listing from a shop the brand sells through directly. Find the code first, using the chapter on style codes, so you know you are comparing against the right product.
Avoid using another marketplace listing as your reference. It may show a copy too, and then you are checking one copy against another. If the brand no longer shows the colourway, use photos from a shop that sold it new, taken from its own product page.
Put the reference and the listing side by side, at the same angle. Look at one detail at a time, in the same order every time, so you do not skip one.
Which details are hardest to copy?
The overall shape. A shoe is built around a last, a foot-shaped form that sets the shape of the toe box, the curve of the heel and the height of the collar. A different last changes the shape everywhere at once. Compare the toe box from above and the heel from behind. These are the two views where a wrong last shows first.
Where the logo sits. Look at where the logo starts and ends in relation to fixed points, such as the lace holes, the heel seam and the edge of the sole. Size alone is hard to judge in a photo. The position against other parts is easier, and copies often get it wrong.
The stitching. On a genuine pair the stitches on one panel are even in length and follow the edge at a steady distance. Count the stitches along one short edge on the reference, then on the listing. A large difference is worth a question.
The label. Compare the fonts, the spacing and the layout of the size label with a genuine one. Check that the code on it matches the colourway in the listing. A label with the right code on the wrong colourway is a common mistake.
The materials. Suede, leather and mesh are the hardest details to judge in a photo, because lighting and camera settings change how they look. Treat anything you notice here as a reason to ask for another photo.
Which differences are innocent?
Two genuine pairs of the same shoe are not always identical, and a check that treats every difference as a fake will accuse honest sellers.
Large brands make the same model in more than one factory, often in more than one country. The country printed on the label can change between two genuine pairs, and small details such as the exact shade of a sole or the thickness of a stitch can change with it. A shoe that has been in production for years also changes between runs.
Wear changes the rest. Leather creases, suede flattens, soles turn yellow, and the heel shape softens. Compare a worn pair with photos of other worn pairs where you can, and give the shape more weight than the surface.
The useful rule is to look for a pattern. One odd detail usually has an innocent reason. Three odd details on the same pair, together with a low price, rarely do.
How do you spot a listing that uses someone else's photos?
Some listings show photos of a pair the seller does not have. Run the main photo through a reverse image search, meaning a search for other pages that use the same picture. If the photo appears on the brand's site, on another marketplace under a different seller name, or in an older listing, the seller has copied it.
The tagged photo, with the username and today's date, answers this question directly. It is the one photo a seller cannot copy from somewhere else.
What does the price tell you?
Check what the same model, colourway and size is selling for on resale sites before you look at the listing's price. Resale prices change by size, so compare the exact size. The chapter on resale prices explains why.
A price far below the going rate for that size needs an explanation. Sometimes there is a good one: the pair is worn, damaged, or the seller needs money quickly. When there is no explanation, the low price is the strongest warning sign in the listing, stronger than anything you can see in the photos.
When should you stop checking and get help?
If the pair is expensive, or if you find a problem you cannot explain, stop there. You have three options that are safer than trusting your own eye on a set of photos.
- Buy through a resale platform that inspects pairs before sending them. Read how its inspection works and what happens if a pair turns out to be fake, in its own terms, before you buy.
- Pay a specialist authentication service to review the photos. It will give a more informed opinion than a quick check, and it is still an opinion based on photos.
- Pay with a method that lets you dispute the charge if the pair is not as described. Check the rules of your card or payment service first.
Snagfit helps with the step before all of this. It shows you where a shoe is sold and what it looks like in current listings. It does not check sellers or authenticate pairs, so a listing it finds on a marketplace still needs the checks on this page.