Louis Vuitton Authenticity Check: How To Spot Fakes (2024)

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Ch David
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Last Updated on January 9, 2024 by Ch David

Whether you are a fan of fashion or not, you’ve most likely heard of LV or of Louis Vuitton in the past – it’s that brand with the notorious brown pattern with yellow flowers and “LV” letters all over. This is basically the most famous fashion house all around the world.

As you may know, Louis Vuitton is one of the most revolutionary brands when we refer to fashion, especially in the subdomains of high-end designer items, bags, clothing, shoes and accessories.

As cool and as popular as LV is, there’s a huge amount of replicas out there, and when you want to get yourself a new Louis Vuitton product, you most likely want to know whether it is authorized or if it is a counterfeit.

That’s why we’re here. We have compiled this ultimate guide on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton products so that you’d easily know whether the item you’re looking at is a real or fake LV.

Throughout this post, we are going to link more steps on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton bags – these steps are what we consider to apply to most of the models of LV’s bags.

At the same time, for the rest of the product types, we are going to rank the 1 or 2 authenticity factors (depending on the item that we’re talking about), as the whole story on how to authenticate these specific items can be found in the library of guides.

Speaking of which, we have a free forever library of guides on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton items, and if you want to see a detailed real vs fake LV guide for your item, please have a look here.

Don’t worry, it isn’t hard at all to spot fake Louis Vuitton items, especially because we are going to link reference real vs replica LV images that will give you a major idea of what the best fakes look like, as well as what do the real products look like.

So as to keep this organized, we are going to start comparing and telling you the flaws of the fake products by LV’s most popular types of products, in the following order: bags, clothes, sneakers, sneakers (hey, that’s the same as the title of the post!).

How you can tell if a Louis Vuitton is real

  1. Bags: Check the “LOUIS VUITTON ®” inscription engraved in leather. Fake bags always have thicker text.
  2. Footwear: Verify the inscriptions on the soles. Fake shoes always have too little space in-between the text.
  3. Clothing: Look at the wash tags. A fake Louis Vuitton always has very thick prints.
  4. Accessories: See if there’s any “LOUIS VUITTON” logo and see the quality of stitching/engraving.

As we’ve previously mentioned, we are going to start the fake vs real Louis Vuitton guide with the bags, and after that, we’ll talk about the rest of the product types as well.

How to verify a Louis Vuitton bag

You can verify a Louis Vuitton bag and see if it’s real or fake by checking the “LOUIS VUITTON ®” logo. Fake bags always have thicker text than authentic ones.

1. Interior labels

When it comes to the interior label, all of the LV bags state the following: ® LOUIS VUITTON made in *country’s name*.

Louis Vuitton Bag Authentication Guide
1.1. Square label

Back to our interior labels, for your reference, in the image below you can see the most common style of the interior label seen on almost every LV bag, and the example in this image is the real vs fake LV Metis bag.

As you can see from the replica vs authentic Louis Vuitton Metis bag comparison image above:

  • The threads on all sides of the label at way thicker and bulkier than the authentic bag’s thinner stitches.
  • All of the lines of text on the replica Louis Vuitton Metis bag are too thick.
    • The fake bag’s “® / LOUIS VUITTON / PARIS / made in” text is too deep into the leather

The country of manufacturing the bag doesn’t affect the thickness of the text on the label.

So, whether your bag’s interior labels state that it was made in France, Italy, Spain or other countries, the thickness of the characters should be just like the one in the authentic example above.

Of course, little variations (but very few) should occur from one authentic bag to another, but since Louis Vuitton cares a lot about the quality of their items, the text should be very, very close to the one in the legitimate LV Metis bag image above.

1.2. Rectangle label

More precisely, the label which we have to talk about right now can be seen on bags such as the real vs fake Louis Vuitton Neverfull bags.

  • The fake Louis Vuitton Neverfull bags commonly have the “LOUIS VUITTON / PARIS / made in France” text too thin.
  • The letter “N” in the “VUITTON” print is crooked at the bottom of the fake bag.
  • The letter “m” in the “made” text, is too thick on the fake LV bag.
  • The fake bag’s surrounding stitching is thinner compared to the authentic example.
1.3. Printed label

Lastly, the third type of interior label is the printed one, and this can be seen especially on the tinier bags such as inside the Louis Vuitton Multi Accessories bag’s coin purse.

The replica coin purse has its text pretty much totally crooked and badly font-weighed:

  • The letters in all of the lines of text are too thin, as they don’t have perfectly curved and perfectly straight-shaped sticks to craft the letters.
  • On the fake bag, not only are most of the letters too thin but there are a few letters that are too thick:
    • The “O” in the “LOUIS” text is too thick.

With this being said for the interior print of the coin purse, let’s move on to the next step of the guide on how to spot fake LV Pochette bags.


Is it too hard? Let our expert LV authenticators do it for you:

2. Strap details

Depending on your bag’s model, you are going to see some inscriptions on the strap.

While not all of the bag models have this inscription, we’ve ranked this as the second step since the most popular ones do have this text, such as the Keepall, the Speedy and many other bags.

2.1. Inscriptions
  • In the “®” character, the circle is too big and too thick on the fake LV Keepall bag.
  • The fake “LOUIS VUITTON” text has the letters “L” and “N” too thick.
  • In the “made in France” text, the letter “m” is thicker and bigger on the fake Keepall bag.
2.2. Stitching

The only difference from above is that the Neverfull bag has narrower straps, hence why they look different from the Keepall bag’s straps.

  • The fake bag has its stitches improperly weighted.
  • The fake bag has its stitching looking too thick,

3. Date code

Proceeding to the third method on how to authenticate Louis Vuitton bags, as you may know, over 99% of the real bags have a little tab on the interior side, and this tab states two letters and a few numbers.

This tab says the location and the date of manufacturing your Louis Vuitton bag.

  • The real bag’s serial number uses a different font for the number “1” character compared to the one used on the replica bag.
    • This is because the stick of the “1” that’s too long on the fake bag.
  • The visibility of the fake Louis Vuitton Keepall serial number is worse, and the authentic serial number is more opaque.

Second of all, if you look at this website, you can see a list that tells you the precise combinations of the date codes which the authentic bags use.

There you can input your bag’s code in order to see whether yours checks out or not to the date code’s check.

Note: This won’t tell that you have a real Louis Vuitton bag, as fakes also get the serial number right sometimes. Though, if the code doesn’t scan, then you’re 100% looking at a fake LV bag.

4. Monogram and Damier prints

For the fourth method of the guide on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton bags, we are now going to talk about two of the most notorious LV patterns, the classic Monogram and the Damier prints.

4.1. Monogram print

In the image containing the fake vs real Louis Vuitton bag above:

  • The flowers and the “LV” classic logo on the fake bag are improperly shaped.
  • The flowers and the “LV” logo are too thin and small on the fake bag.
4.2. Damier print

Moving to the Damier print, let’s have a look at the “LOUIS VUITTON PARIS” text inside the squares of the print.

  • The fake bag’s “LOUIS VUITTON PARIS” print is often thinner and too big inside the squares.
  • The authentic LV bag’s print has to be a bit thicker and smaller.

5. Zipper

  • The fake bag has its “LV” inscriptions on the two zippers too thick.
  • The fake letters come out of the metal too much.

On the other hand, the authentic Louis Vuitton bag has its “LV” letters on the zippers looking thinner, and they do not come out of the shoes as much as the fake bags’ zippers.

6. Keychain

The LV bags have their keychains engraved with the “LV” and with the “LOUIS VUITTON” inscriptions, depending on what side of the metal keychain you are looking at.

6.1. The “LOUIS VUITTON” engraving
  • The replica Louis Vuitton bag has its “LOUIS VUITTON” text looking too boxy and thick.

On the other hand, the authentic LV bag has its “LOUIS VUITTON” text on the keychain looking bigger and thinner than the fake bag’s text.

6.2. The “LV” engraving
  • The fake bag’s keychain has its inscriptions looking too thin, as they fit too little deep into the metal.

As for the legitimate Louis Vuitton bag, you can notice how its inscriptions are thicker since they fit deeper into the metal.

7. Hardware shininess

  • The fake bag has its chains looking too shiny.
  • while the legitimate bag has chains less shiny than the fake bag’s chains.

8. Buttons

For the eighth method on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton bags, we are going to look at the buttons since they also have the classic buttons “LOUIS VUITTON” inscription as well.

  • The fake LV bag has its text at the wrong font weight.
  • The fake bag has its “LOUIS VUITTON” text looking too thick.
  • The spacing between the fake bag’s letters is too little.

On the other hand, the authentic bag has its text thinner, and the amount of kerning between the letters is bigger than the one between the fake bag’s letters engraved into the buttons.

How to tell if Louis Vuitton clothes are fake

You can tell if Louis Vuitton clothes are fake or real by checking the wash tag’s prints. Bolded and very thick inscriptions always indicate a fake.

From t-shirts to hoodies, jackets and many other clothes, Louis Vuitton always comes up with lots of creating clothes that stand out and shine from the rest of the brands.

Let’s check out the guide!

1. Neck & Waist tag

The neck/waist tag, depending on whether you have a top or a bottom – these are one of the very reliable ways to tell fake LV clothes.

In the image with the fake vs real Louis Vuitton items above:

  • The replica item has its “LOUIS VUITTON” text looking too thick, and the authentic one has thinner prints.
  • The fake LV item also has its letters too wavy, meaning that the orange threads are not placed straightly. Hence, the fake letters look bumpy.
  • The word “PARIS” on the counterfeit Louis Vuitton t-shirt is too thin.

On the other hand, the authentic Louis Vuitton item has its “LOUIS VUITTON PARIS” text properly shaped, as all of the threads are placed in straight lines, so the text is visibly nicer than the one on the replica tee.

2. Wash tag

In the picture with the real vs fake Louis Vuitton t-shirts above:

  • The fake tee has its text on the wash tag at the wrong thickness.
  • The replica t-shirt’s “MADE IN ITALY” text is too thin and narrow.
  • The “Iron inside out” and the “Wash inside out” text is too thick. The letters are also placed too close to each other.
  • The “RM …” text on the fake LV tee is too thick. Most visible in the letter “R”.

On the other hand, the authentic Louis Vuitton t-shirt has its “MADE IN ITALY” text looking thicker and wider than the one on the fake item.

The legitimate Louis Vuitton item has its “MADE IN ITALY” text thinner than the fake one as well.

How to tell if a Louis Vuitton belt is real

You can tell if a Louis Vuitton bel is real by checking the “LOUIS VUITTON ®” text engraved inside the belt. Fake LV belts always have their text thicker than a real belt’s inscriptions.

1. Interior inscriptions

Check out the full guide: Louis Vuitton Initiales belt.

  • The stitching richness on the left side is different from the authentic belt to the fake one.
  • The fake belt has less stitching on the left rear side.
  • Overall, the text font is thicker on the fakes, and the “®” is also different.

This heat stamp that we are talking about refers to the print that can be found on the rear side of your Louis Vuitton belt.

2. Buckle inscriptions

  • If your Louis Vuitton belt has this text on the rear side of it, then it is a counterfeit.
  • This kind of text should never ever be found there.

No authentic LV belt was produced with this text there.

How to authenticate your Louis Vuitton wallet

You can authenticate a Louis Vuitton by checking the “® LOUIS VUITTON PARIS” text inside the wallet. A fake LV wallet always has thicker inscriptions than a genuine product.

Check out the full guide: Louis Vuitton Sarah wallet.

In the Louis Vuitton wallet fake vs real image above:

  • The fake “®” registered trademark symbol at the top of the text is too thick.
  • The fake wallet’s letter “R” is not centred in the middle of the circle.
  • In the “LOUIS VUITTON” text, the fake letters “L” and “N” are too thick, the rest are too thin.
  • The fake “PARIS” print is also too thin on the fake LV wallet.
  • The “made in France” is too thin. Thoguh, the “e” in “France” is too thick.

The authentic Louis Vuitton wallet has all of its letters on the last rows of text at the same font weight as well, unlike the fake wallet.

How to spot fake Louis Vuitton sunglasses

You can spot fake Louis Vuitton sunglasses by checking the text printed inside the temples. A fake pair of LV sunglasses always has very thick inscriptions, and sometimes even very thin ones compared to a genuine pair.

For our example, we’ll the compare the real vs fake LV Millionaire sunglasses.

1. Left temple

As for the first step of the guide on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton Millionaire sunglasses, we are going to look at the temples for their inscriptions.

Keep in mind that the authentic sunglasses must also have all of their inscriptions at the same thickness.

Check out the full guide: Louis Vuitton Millionaire.

In the image with the real vs fake Louis Vuitton Millionaire sunglasses above:

  • The fake item has all of its inscriptions at the wrong font weight.
  • The fake product ID Code’s print is too thick and big (leftmost side).
    • Due to the symbols being too thick on the fake pair, you can see how there is too little space between the characters.
    • Since the letters on the authentic LV Millionaire 1.1 are thinner, you can see how the letters and the numbers have less space between them than on the fake item.
  • All the other inscriptions on the left temple of the fake item are too thick.

With this being said for the first step of the guide on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton sunglasses, let’s move on to the next way.

2. Right temple

In the image containing the fake vs real Louis Vuitton Millionaire sunglasses above:

  • All of the letters, numbers and other symbols are too thick on the fake item.
  • The fake text uses the wrong font for its text.
    • The letters in the “PARIS, FRANCE” text and the line below are too big.

As for the authentic Millionaire LV sunglasses, you can see how their characters are smaller than those on the fake piece.

How to spot fake Louis Vuitton earbuds

Yes, it may sound a bit strange for those who don’t know this, but Louis Vuitton makes… AirPods?

Not quite. Louis Vuitton also makes earbuds with their own label and as similar as they may be to the popular Airpods, the Louis Vuitton Horizon earphones are a unique product of their own that stands out in terms of quality and in terms of the coolness factor.

Check out the full guide: Louis Vuitton Horizon Earphones.

  • The fake pair’s “LV” inscription looks too thick.

Surprisingly or not, the authentic Louis Vuitton earbuds have their “LV” inscription thinner, slimmer and finer than the thick text sen on the replica LV buds.

How to tell if your Louis Vuitton shoes are real

You can tell if Louis Vuitton shoes are real or fake by checking the sole’s text. A fake pair of LV shoes always has thicker inscriptions compared to the real ones. Otfen, there’s also not enough space between the letters.

We’ve finally reached another one of the most popular product types that LV crafts, and that is the shoes/sneakers.

Sneakers usually seem more complex when it comes to legit checking them, but trust us, it is pretty easy to authenticate Louis Vuitton trainers.

1. Stitching

  • There is some missing stitching on the sides of the LV print and the crossing line on the fake sneakers.
  • The authentic stitching is more detailed and present on every side of the LV print and the line that’s across the sneakers, while the fake pairs miss this.

At the curve of the line that’s across the sneakers, the stitching is somehow stopping on the fake pair, and on the authentic LV Virgil Abloh sneakers, the stitching continues.

2. Insole

For your reference, this time we’ve taken the real vs fake Louis Vuitton Archlight, which is also another really popular pair of LV trainers.

  • The fake pair’s copyright “®” print is placed a lot closer to the “LOUIS VUITTON” print.
  • The fake shoes have the letter “L” placed too close to the letter “O” in the “LOUIS” text.
  • On the “VUITTON” print, you can see how the letters look a lot thinner than they have to be.
  • Fake Louis Vuitton Archlight shoes have their “PARIS” with spacing issues: the first two letters are too close to each other.
  • The shape of the letters seems to be different from the shape of the authentic Louis Vuitton Archlight’s insole text.

Expert Louis Vuitton authentication service

If you need help with the authentication of your Louis Vuitton item, we’ve got you covered.

All you have to do is send us high-quality pictures of your Louis Vuitton item and we will get back to you with the results within 24 to 48 hours. The results will also come with a report on why we believe your LV product is fake or authentic.

With all of this being said, we’ve reached the end of our guide on how to spot fake Louis Vuitton items by just looking at the few main spots. We hope this guide is helpful in your Louis Vuitton authentication.

Need our opinion on your item’s authenticity? It’s a service we provide.

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Alternatively, use our free resources: written guides and video tutorials.

Thank you for reading this,

Ch Daniel and Ch David

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About the Author

David is the co-founder and co-CEO of Legit Check By Ch. David's experience: 5+ years of creating educational content in the fashion industry. 6+ years of authenticating luxury items. Currently, David is the Head Editor of the LCBC Library, where 1,000,000+ words have been published, in free guides, for over 1,000 items.
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