Is that a fake Belstaff Trialmaster?

[Seb Lucas]

I've worked for three other high end luxury brands. Same story, customers don't want something that is produced in a low wage country. If you're buying Hermès or Louis Vuitton, you want it to be made in France. Prada, made in Italy. Etc.

I'm not saying you're wrong, it's just a small, anecdotal account and can't be universalized.

 

[Seb Lucas]

One of the brands I worked for once experimented with having some suits produced in China. Although less expensive, they were clearly better constructed than the ones made in Italy. And even though I could easily point this out to customers, the suits didn't sell too well and the China made product line was discontinued after one season.

The thing about consumer goods is that people buy into a narrative, a 'perception' - and for some people "China" will see that narrative comes crashing down. But not for everyone.

 

[Edward]

This is a point I always make in another forum whenever someone asks about fake Burberry trench coats, etc. There's a belief that if you buy a used Burberry coat then of course it's fake. Except Burberry has been a popular brand for 40 or 50 years and have sold gawd knows how many coats, in fact they've probably sold more coats than there's been fakes made of them. And if the questionable coat you're looking at is made of high quality materials, has the right silhouette, the patterns/lining all line up, and the stitching is perfect, then it's just as good as the real thing so who cares?

There's two kinds of counterfeit out there on many things, particularly with Chinese manufacture in mind. One is the full on fake - typically easily told apart. It'll look like the real thing from ten feet, but never feel the same. The "Rolex" you buy for a tenner is never going to be indistinguishable from the real thing at second glance. Then there's the other type. It's not exactly unknown for manufacturers in that part of the world to take on an outsourced order for a hundred pieces, then double up everything and sell the other hundred out the side door. If you buy a pair of 5401 made from the right stuff, with the right labels, from the factory that made them for Levis.... the line between real and fake blurs significantly.

That said... while I don't claim expertise in this particular model, I'm not seeing anything obvious that suggests it's a fake. AFAIK, the metal plate the OP mentions was not common to every single model. The leather being perhaps lighter than expected is something I have often heard from folks buying a new Belstaff from the fashion rather than motorcycling line in recent years. If OP likes the jacket as a garment in and of itself, brand aside, I would suggest just trust it is legit, wear, and enjoy.

(As an aside, ebay is *awfully* suspicious these days; I have a genuine, and expensive, Burberry trench coat I need to sell at some point. Tried a while back on eBay, only to receive a flood of emails asking whether I had a receipt and could I prove it was genuine. I appreciate there are fakes out there charging silly money, but an awful lot of these smelled like people out to try and knock the price down...).

 

[Herresbach]

One of the brands I worked for once experimented with having some suits produced in China. Although less expensive, they were clearly better constructed than the ones made in Italy. And even though I could easily point this out to customers, the suits didn't sell too well and the China made product line was discontinued after one season.

which is kind of ironic given the fact that many expensive Italian brands are indeed made in Italy - but by Chinese tailors. That's one of the reasons why Covid19 hit nothern Italy so hard.

 

[Marc mndt]

which is kind of ironic given the fact that many expensive Italian brands are indeed made in Italy - but by Chinese tailors

that's exactly what I I explained to my customers

 

[bn1966]

Definitely fake Belstaff jackets from no name vendors on Facebook for $40, that’s if they are actually selling anything at all..which seems unlikely

 

[Leyomi]

Definitely fake Belstaff jackets from no name vendors on Facebook for $40, that’s if they are actually selling anything at all..which seems unlikely

Are you sure about that?

 

[Leyomi]

Any other advice?

 

[Seb Lucas]

Any other advice?

About what? There is fake everything from Belstaff to Omega watches. They even fake Seikos... Yours appears real, as per the advice from owners here. It's safe to assume you have bought well, unless you are looking for a cheap knock off?

 

[Edward]

Yes, I don't see any reason to doubt this particular jacket is legit.

One of the brands I worked for once experimented with having some suits produced in China. Although less expensive, they were clearly better constructed than the ones made in Italy. And even though I could easily point this out to customers, the suits didn't sell too well and the China made product line was discontinued after one season.

Interesting - for some, Made in Italy must be the equivalent of "Made in Japan" to many in our niche. The most heavily pronounced country of origin prejudice I ever encountered was in relation to electric guitars. It has waned in recent years as US instruments have soared out of the budget of the average person, but for a long time there was this weird notion in the guitar buying world that the simple fact of US manufacture - even all other things being equal - meant it had to be a better guitar. One guy once - and I don't think he even realised how racist this actually was - tried to claim that you'd get a better Fender style guitar from the US than China because the guy operating the machine was "likely to be a musician" and "understands the culture of rock and roll". The biggest irony here is that Leo Fender was an engineer, not a player, and despite designing such enduring classics, couldn't play a note himself.

 

[bn1966]

Any other advice?

I don’t think the people that fell for the FB Belstaff SCAM received anything at all & had to chancel their credit card. If something that resembled the Trialsmaster was being sold for $40 I’d have been tempted.

 

[Marivo]

Any other advice?

100% real, sold manny of these.