You can tell if Off-White Jordan 1 UNC are fake if the toe box is overinflated, as original pairs always have a slim toe box. Also be careful with a pair that has the toe box too slim.
1. Medial text
1.1. Left shoe
1.1.1. Thickness
Fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 University Blue have their medial text a lot thicker than it has to be.
The authentic pair has thinner inscriptions.
1.1.2. Kerning (spacing)
Over here, the fake pair has its text looking too thin.
On the fake pair, the “Off-White TM” text is too thin.
The number “5” in the “c. 1985” text is too thick on the fake.
The “USA” inscription looks too thick when compared to the real deal’s “USA” inscription.
1.2. Right shoe
1.2.1. Thickness
Fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC have their medial text on the right shoe too thin.
The lines are too little smudged compared to the retail Off-White Jordan 1 UNC pairs.
The text on the authentic Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC sneakers has to have the right amount of smudging. By smudging, we talk about those lines that go up and down, giving the pair of sneakers the “deconstructed look”.
1.2.2. Kerning (spacing)
The same smudging flaw is visible yet again.
The fake pair’s letters are too thick.
They also don’t have enough space in between each character.
Finding it too hard? Reach out to our Nike x Off-White experts:
2. Perforations
We’ll now check the perforations (the holes) all over these shoes.
2.1. Air Jordan logo
On the fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC, the perforations will be too shallow, revealing low-quality factory equipment.
They can look like they’ve been made with a knife.
Thus, the fake holes have a vertical shape instead of a round one.
The misaligned holes are also a very important flaw in fake shoes.
There is also a possibility in the holes are not as dense as they have to be, and they supposedly have too much space between perforations, but there are too few of them.
2.2. Lace holes
Focus on the last three lace holes of your Jordan 1s.
The perforations around the third laces hole have a smaller density than the holes themselves.
On the other hand, the authentic pair lacks no quality — there are way more holes than on the fake Jordan 1s.
2.3. Suede panel
Fake Off-White Jordan 1 University Blue pairs their holes too deep compared to the real ones.
In some cases, you’ll also see very shallow holes — they’re 100% noticeably smaller than real ones.
In our example, the holes are visibly larger than those on the real Jordans.
3. Heel pattern
This pattern will vary between authentic Off-White Jordan 1 UNC pairs.
On the counterfeit pairs, it seems that the pattern of the sneakers on the rear side is always constant.
On real Off-White Jordan 1 UNC, the pattern is significantly more defined and more “dense” than the elements on the replica Off-White sneakers, and these shapes occur more often.
Fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC sneakers tend to have more mathematically generated prints.
The orientation of these shapes does not matter, because we’ve seen authentic OW Air Jordan 1 University Blue pairs with random or “mathematically-generated” prints.
This pattern appears to be less engraved and more constant every time on the fake Off-White Air Jordan 1s, and you’ll see this pattern of the print pretty much always on the fake Jordans.
4. Footbed (insole stitching)
In order to access the footbed area of your Off-White AJ1 Blue sneakers, you’ll have to take out the insoles.
Fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 University Blue have more stitches.
Usually, fake pairs tend to have more dense stitching compared to the original examples.
See how the authentic pair has fewer stitches on the footbed.
5. Shape
On fake sneakers, the toe box looks more massive than the toe box of the legit Off-White Jordan 1 sneakers.
The fake pair has an over-inflated look for its toe box.
The authentic Off-White AJ1 sneakers will never look as big as the fake Jordan 1’s on the toe box.
A quick mention:
The steps we’ve written so far are the BEST ways to authenticate this item
The next few steps are still reliable methods…
… but they apply to non-top-versions of replicas available for this item
If in doubt, we recommend double-checking the steps we’ve explained above this line.
6. Swoosh attachment
This is about the orange stitching that goes over the Swoosh on the rear side.
The fake pair’s orange stitching over the Swoosh is too tight.
The fake stitching makes the Swoosh get crooked on the rear side.
Authentic Off-White Jordan 1 UNC sneakers never have their orange stitching on the Swoosh this tight.
7. Orange tab
Now, let’s look at the orange tab below the Swoosh as well — still on the back of the shoes.
On the fake Off-White AJ1 UNC sneakers, the orange stitching below the Swoosh logo, and even the one on the Nike Swoosh logo, are both a lot thicker than they have to be on the legit sneakers.
The authentic pair has thinner stitching.
The fake pair’s stitching below the Swoosh logo is a lot smaller as well.
Let’s recap:
Stitching that’s too tight: smaller area occupied by these threads → Fake.
Stitching that’s too loose: bigger area occupied by these threads → Fake.
8. The “85” flap
To access the “85” inscription, pull and open the tab with the Air Jordan logo.
The quotation marks (” “) on the replica Air Jordan 1 Off-White are too thin.
The lines in the quotes themselves are misplaced — they are not straight.
The highlighted number “8” is also thinner than the one met on the original Off-White Jordan 1 UNC.
The number “5” on the fake pair is a lot thicker on the bottom side.
The two holes on the left side of the flap are too small.
9. Swoosh placaement
The fake Swoosh is placed too high.
That’s visible if you look at the distance between the midsole and the logo itself on the bottom side of the shoes, especially on the front.
The space between the bottom of the Swoosh and the sole varies on authentic Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC pairs as well but not so much so that it’s ever very high, as on the counterfeit Off-White AJ1 pairs.
11. “AIR” text
The fake pair’s “AIR” text is placed too low on the midsole.
There is too much distance from the stitching to the “AIR” text.
The authentic “AIR” text has to be perfectly centred on the middle of the midsole.
Coincidence or not, you’ll often see this flaw occurring on the fake Off-White Jordan 1 Chicago as well. Keep an eye out!
11. Rear panel
The fake pair’s stitching is sitting too close to the edge of the sneakers.
On the other hand, the authentic Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC’s stitching is placed less to the edges.
12. Height
Now, try to inspect the height of the shoes from the rear angle.
The fake Off-White Jordan 1s will have different heights from the left to the right shoe.
The authentic Off-White Air Jordan 1 Blue always have the same height on both the left and the right shoes.
13. Insole
The insoles are the material placed between the edges of the sneakers and your feet. That’s why they are called insoles.
13.1. Front side
The fake pair’s text is too bold.
This is most visible on the “R” in the “AIR” text.
On the fake shoes, the letter “R” in the “®” character is not printed properly — it is not clear enough.
13.2. Insole pyramids
As you can see, if you go a bit higher from the “NIKE AIR” printed text that we’ve analyzed before, there are some triangle-shaped elements which we call “pyramids”.
These are flawed too on the fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC pairs.
Fake pairs usually have these pyramids looking a lot taller and higher than the ones on the legit Off-White AJ1 Blue pairs.
See how the authentic pyramids are smaller.
14. “SHOELACES” print
The letters are a lot thicker than the laces on the authentic pairs.
Most visible on the replica Off-White laces’ letters “S” and “L”. They are often a lot thicker than the legit ones.
Fake pairs will have this text fade away very quickly, while the authentic shoelaces’ print will last a lot longer.
The fake “SHOELACES” text is placed too far away from the aglet and this slightly visible here, but since these are the best fakes, it’s not that easily visible.
This is a flaw that’s commonly seen on the NRG colourway of these Off-White Jordan 1s.
15. Midsole
On the fake shoes, the pattern of the materials found on the cream midsole is obviously more pronounced.
The authentic midsole is rather smoother compared to that of the fake Off-White 1s UNC.
16. Box label
This image shows you the “suggested retail” label.
For authentic boxes, the label saying “Suggested Retail: USD $190.00” will not always be there, because it is only attached to the US pairs’ box label, so don’t worry if your box is missing this detail.
However, the dotted line will not be as dense as the one found on authentic pairs:
If the extra label is there, on the fake Off-White box labels, it must 100% not be glued to the box rather, one should be able to flicker it.
Fake Off-White box labels have that area added sometimes but glued to the box.
Shortlist: Tell fake Off-White Jordan 1 UNC in 30 seconds
Inspect the structure and shape of your shoes. Most of the time, the fake shoes will have a bulkier toe box.
Check the pattern of your shoes on the rear heel side. This pattern will vary between authentic pairs. On fakes, it seems to be constant, and on the replica shoes, the stitching looks less dense than the authentic ones.
Look at the perforations on your Off-White Jordan 1s. The perforations made by fake manufacturers will be of lesser quality since the machines they use are not as precise as the ones Nike does.
Verify the Swoosh attachment. The Swoosh might be crooked, and that is a very blatant callout for a fake, something which should never be on an authentic pair. The blue stitching is also a factor because, on the fake shoes, it may hug the Swoosh too tight and make it look crooked.
Analyze the orange stitching on the Swoosh. The orange stitching on the orange tab is significantly thicker on the fakes.
Look at the “85” text flap. The text is significantly thicker on the authentic, and very visible on the highlighted 5 in “85”. The quote marks are shorter as well and have different edges.
Inspect the median text and the text smudge. The text has to have the right amount of smudging. By smudging, we mean those lines that go up and down, giving the pair of sneakers the “deconstructed look”.
Check how the Swoosh is placed. The Swoosh can be placed too high. Also, the space between the bottom of the Swoosh and the sole varies on authentic pairs as well but not so much so that it’s ever very high.
Verify the placement of the “AIR” text. The “AIR” text should be perfectly centred — sometimes with variance on authentic examples but never a lot of variances.
Check the white panel stitching (above the Swoosh on the rear edge). Most of the time, that stitching is sitting too close to the edge on fake Off-White Jordan 1 UNC pairs.
Analyze the height of the shoes from the rear side. Fakes will often have uneven or misaligned leather panels or heights. Always inspect the shoes from this angle.
Look at the insoles of your shoes for any inconsistencies in the print, such as thicker or thinner font and the pyramids’ height. Usually, the fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC’s pyramids are too high and too tall.
Check the “SHOELACES” print on the laces, as most of the time, it has font-weight problems, looking too thick on the fake Off-White Jordan 1 pair.
Inspect the pattern of the midsole. The pattern found on the cream midsole is more pronounced (or sometimes even different) on the counterfeit Air Jordan 1 Off-White pairs.
Look at the box’s label. Different font weights are being used. Most of the time, the fake OW Air Jordan 1 UNC’s box labels will have thicker prints than the ones on the authentic box labels.
Analyze the stitching on the footbed (below the insole). Most of the time, the fake Jordan 1Off-White UNC sneakers will have too much white stitching, while the legit pairs will always have white, black and blue stitching.
There are situations, where you may be unable to go through each detailed step, explained above when you need to authenticate your Off-White Air Jordan 1 UNC.
That is why we have compiled this quick 60-second solution to authenticating your sneakers.
Expert Off-White Jordan 1 UNC authentication
If you need help with the authentication of your Off-White Blue Jordan 1s, we’ve got you covered.
All you have to do is send us high-quality pictures of your OW Air Jordan 1 UNC 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 sneakers are fake or authentic.
That brings us to the end of our guide on how to spot fake Off-White Air Jordan 1 University Blue (UNC) sneakers. We will continue to update this article as better and newer comparisons are put out.
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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.
