How to spot fake Nike sneakers

• Swoosh shape and placement

  Photo: Lateral side

  The Swoosh should be a smooth, even curve. On fakes it is often too thick, too thin or set at the wrong angle. Check both sides: they should mirror each other.

• Stitching around the Swoosh

  Photo: Lateral side

  Genuine pairs have tight, even stitching of about 10 to 12 stitches per inch. Fakes use longer stitches to save thread, which leaves visible gaps.

• Air unit

  Photo: Lateral side

  On models with a visible Air window, the unit should be clear and sit squarely in the midsole. Fakes often have smaller, misaligned or cloudy units, or painted rubber with no real depth.

• Tongue label font

  Photo: Tongue label

  The text on the tongue tag should be clean and crisp with an even weight. Bleeding ink or mixed font weights are common on fakes.

• Midsole colour

  Photo: Lateral side

  Air Force 1 midsoles are a warm, creamy off-white with a matte finish, not optical white. Many fakes use bright white or glossy rubber, which stands out next to a genuine pair.

• Box label

  Photo: Box label

  The style code follows the format XXXXXX-XXX, for example CU8591-001. The print should be sharp, in one consistent font, with no fuzzy edges.

The chip shows which photo in the check captures each tell. SneakerAuth runs 93 checks on every Nike pair, these included.