I have sucky news: we all have to start paying much closer attention when shopping for tokidoki bags online now. The realistic fakes are finally here. 
There is good news though, which is that if you examine the new batch of realistic fakes closely, you can still tell them apart from real bags. This post will show you how to do just that (I will also be adding this info into the Guide to tokidoki Fakes).
First, I am going to start out by calling out a realistic fake Spiaggia Trenino that is up on eBay right now. Fortunately for us, the buyer who bought this bag the first time it was listed and already returned it (with explanation to the seller of why it was fake, I might add) was kind enough to send in a ton of photos so that we can all learn from her experience. Thanks, Jo! Please note that I also double-checked all of Jo’s information against the real Foresta Trenino in my personal collection to verify its accuracy.
For starters, here are photos that Jo took of the fake Spiaggia Trenino when she received it:
Kind of scary how realistic it looks at first glance, right? Someone even went to the trouble to put a real ball chain and real tokidoki tags on it. Now, onto why it is fake.
Exhibit A: The fake Spiaggia Trenino does not have “riri M6″ stamped under the zipper head. The photos below show a side-by-side comparison of the underside of Jo’s real Pirata Trenino zipper heads (left) vs. the fake Spiaggia Trenino zipper heads (right).
Exhibit B: The fake Spiaggia Trenino is missing the Made in China tag in the large front zipper pocket, and has a solid black carabiner stretch cord instead of a black & white carabiner stretch cord. The photos below show a side-by-side comparison of the underside of Jo’s real Pirata Trenino’s “Made in China” tag and black & white carabiner stretch cord inside the large front zipper pocket (left) vs. the fake Spiaggia Trenino’s missing tag and solid black carabiner stretch cord (right).
Exhibit C: The fake Spiaggia Trenino has incorrect carabiner hardware in all 3 places on the bag – attached to the stretch cord, and attached to the long strap on both sides. The photos below show a side-by-side comparison of the underside of Jo’s real Pirata Trenino carabiner (left) vs. the fake Spiaggia Trenino zipper carabiner (right). Ignore the color differences (Pirata has gold hardware, Spiaggia has silver) and notice that the fake carabiner only has LeSportsac etched into one side (instead of both sides, like the real bag).
Exhibit D: And finally, the most compelling reason – the print is just not right on the fake Spiaggia Trenino. So that you can all see this better, I created swatches of the same section of the Spiaggia print from a real Spiaggia bag versus the fake Spiaggia Trenino.
Here is the real Spiaggia swatch:
And here is the fake Spiaggia swatch:
Keep looking at the real swatch vs. the fake swatch – you will notice that the colors in the fake swatch are off, AND that the way the characters in the fake swatch are drawn is not quite right (for instance, look back & forth at Bastardino – see the difference?), AND that the spatial relations between the characters in the fake swatch are not the same as in the real swatch (for instance, look how much higher the plane in the upper left is compared to the momo sun in the fake swatch, and how much lower shark boy is compared to where the inner tube girl’s feet are).
*huff* *puff*
I had no idea about Tokidoki bags, until I searched the internet to see what it was all about. It was a fun bag to carry books, and with two smaller bags inside, one for laptop, another for make-up. Now I see I bought a knock off at a city flea market, for $30 cdn. I like it. And, the vendor was surprised at how popular they were when I asked about the bag. I asked if it was from Japan? She imported it from Hong Kong.
Sorry, but I bought it because it was what I was looking for and fun. In no way is this an original Tokidoki bag. There is no way I’d buy and use an every day bag for $200 to $300 cdn. Sorry, and I am sorry for the artwork, creative work and hand craft rip off. Thanks for the info tho.
;0)
I don’t for de Fake tokidoki, untill I found this blog.
This Tokidki Blog turn my favorite, becouse
I can lear more about Tokidoki.
I love Tokidoki, but I don’t want ‘fake tokidokisss!….
Thank’s for the information ,
and I’ll tell to my friends of Japan about this blog.
thank you very much, & sorry for my English……
If anybody can speak spanish , please tell me….
From Japan
Excuse me..
I say..
I did’nt know about the Fake tokidoki, untill….
…or didn’t knew…
Cereza – You’re welcome, and I’m glad that you like this blog!
I can read Spanish too if you would prefer to write in Spanish.
Muchas gracias, entedera mi Espanol?
Hoy he encontrado, pero no en la ebay, sino en Yahoo Aution
This is fake, I think so…yes I do!!! It’s fake!!
http://sg.auctions.yahoo.com/sg/i:Bag:%20TOKIDOKI%20CORRIERE %20CITTA%20ROSA%209523%20SHOULDER%20BAG:251467988
Now I am looking for courrier bag, there is nothing in any
online shop in Japan, so I were looking in the site of USA ,
y por casualidad encontre este falso bolso, que me da
asco!!!
sabe ud. donde puedo comprar la bolsa courrier
si fuera posible en Inferno print o Arancia??
El disenador Simono estara en Japon para firmar con
la disenadoa de Hello Kitty, lamentablemen yo vivo en Narita
y el evento se hara muy lejos de aqui…!!!!
Muchas gracias denuevo por tener en cuenta mi comentario.
Sí, que Corriere es falsificado. Corrieres son muy raro y son vendidos por todas partes.
I found a new seller with 0 feedback selling a couple bags, the pics aren’t so great. What do y’all think?
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZhanxm1128
all Pics looks like stolen from some other people.. mailing from China ??? i wont want to waste my money on that… btw.. the account was made on March 2008..
I think the seller stole the picture from the Tokidoki.it official web site, the transporto zucca picture looks exactly from the one on the official site…-_-
…: bt i still think its cute.
and besides as long as u av the design it dusnt matta if it fake or not. right?
Hannah, designers are here for a reason…… and definitely not to allow others to steal their fruits of labour.
hannah, you should read up on why fakes are bad:
here for example.
“Fake purses are items that illegal manufacturers produce in order to pass the purses off as authentic.”
Yeah!!! The fakes are here!!! Are they cheap? Now I don’t have to pay these jerks hundreds of dollars for a cheap piece of fabric sewn together by some poor sap in a sweatshop!
akizora, unless you are just joking, then you are definitely posting in the wrong area. I totally suppose the real Tokidoki or for any other thing I buy out there. The artist took their time to drew it and made it possible for everyone to buy, if you going buy the fake one, then that’s not very supportitive. You won’t be happy if you made something and people made a copy of it and sell it when you have the original version of it.
You have no idea how the fake fabric are made of.. what kind of chemical is involve.. altho its just ar regular frabic.. you have no clue how they handle it. once you find out its gonna be too late….
btw.. Fake bags does not have *manufacturer production Control*… which means its not approved or examine by anyone to prove its safety..
Yargh. I’ve had a backpack I’ve been using for at least half a year now, my mom had got it for me and we’d both always thought it was real, she buys lots of Sportsac stuff but this was the first tokidoki one…just now found out it was a fake, reading this site.
I don’t know how much she paid for it, but she won’t be happy either. Didn’t think there was quite so much fake stuff out there back then, when I got it I hadn’t seen anyone else with any tokidoki stuff.
A seller on ebay is trying to convince me that she is selling a used authentic bag that does not have the riri engraving under the zipper head. She says not all bags do and she got it directly from the Lesportsac store.
Is it possible to have a real bag and not have the riri zipper. I thought that was the identifying mark.
Can you email me back at dana.sherman@cox.net and let me know so I can tell her.
Thanks.
wow i was going to get my cuzn to buy me a bag on ebay. thank god i read this first. is there any other way to buy a takodaki bag (or other item) in sydney Australia by any chance?
can someone email me at mezmt_93@hotmail.com
much appreciated
akizora – fake products are also cheap pieces of fabric sewn together by poor saps in sweatshops.
i can understand the bitterness for the high prices for bags that are clearly not worth even a minor percentage of what we’re paying, but that’s the fashion industry, for you.
Thanks all for the valuable info! I bought one on ebay last night and then one today. One is from a reliable seller listed here and the other was the only thing the person was selling, but looking at the 11 pics they posted on the auction, along with the pics here, and all the information, it looks real (signature strap, style number and pattern listed, close ups of the zippers, chains, pulls, inside tag with metallic thread, plain zipper pull and plastic zipper in inside and correct interior color as the other page here lists this style). Thanks so much for this site and all the info!!
pretty sure this one is fake but seller swears it is real:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290258033 480&_trksid=p2761.l1259
LOL Stephanie fake or not (it’s definitely fake)…I doubt anyone is foolish enough to pay $85 for flat rate shipping and on top of that have to wait up to 21 days to get their (fake) item. Unbelievable!
help me report this fake:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300258025 044
I think these bags are fake.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LeSportSac-by-Tokidoki-Bella-Style-95 20_W0QQitemZ270276310047QQihZ017QQcategoryZ63852QQssPageName ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LeSportSac-by-Tokidoki-Bambino-Style- 9506_W0QQitemZ270276310427QQihZ017QQcategoryZ63852QQssPageNa meZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/LeSportSac-by-Tokidoki-Bambino-Style- 9506_W0QQitemZ270276310653QQihZ017QQcategoryZ63852QQssPageNa meZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
M&M – Yes, they are all fake.
I only discovered on Wednesday that tokidoki is a brand (clearly i have been living in the dark ages). this summer i saw tokidoki type stuff on the markets at festivals, i think its super, but being poor couldn’t afford to buy anything. i see now that it was most likely all fake (i don’t remember seeing qees on any of the merch i was looking at). looking at the TD website and ebay i have to say, i’m not surprised the fakes are everywhere. perhaps if the TD stuff wasn’t so outrageously priced they wouldn’t fake it so much. i think its such a shame that this beautiful gear is out of reach for so many (me mainly) there is no way i would/could ever pay these prices, particularly knowing thats its all made in china meaning its costing TD pence to make!!! dont get me wrong, i’m not going to run out and buy the first fake piece i find just to spite TD, i just think that the price structure is WAY OFF! especially for chinese rubbish. maybe if they were made in Italy they would be worth half the price. come on – 60 euros for a wallet?!
Has their been a release of fak concerto punk bags?
i hope not.
Mari-
Not that I have seen. Only the org. LeSportsac Tokidoki bags. Those fakers better not ruin the new ones for us too!
I’ve seen the fake of the new line of bags on ioffer.com. Buying from there is mostly replica.
uh in case anyone noticed it that concerto line has LeSportSac on it haha and they don’t even collaborate with LeSportSac anymore o.o
dar-
I have never seen ioffer.com before and… WOW is all I can say! Some of the old fakes really do look real. But the new prints are by a mile fake, hopefully it stays that way too.
tank-while I agree with you that alot of Tokidoki products have a high price point – I don’t think I would go as far as calling it “chinese rubbish.” Alot of high end items are made in china….which doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality is bad…I tend to think it’s more of a cheaper manufacturing issue (i.e. labor, warehousing costs).
Coach, as well as alot of other high priced brands, are made in China and their bags also have a high price point as well. With probably only 20% of the item being leather and the other 80% jacquard fabric. Your paying for the style/brand more than the materials to make the actual bag.
Thanks so much for this, I don’t really have to worry though, I buy my tokidoki from macy’s!
$200 for one on sale, but it’s worth it!
I love tokidoki, and even though I would never buy a fake tokidoki bag, I think it almost serves tokidoki – and other wildly expensive brands – right that their bags are counterfeited.
People today buy branded handbags because of what they represent; not what they truly are. The only thing that makes tokidoki bags unique from something you will find at a discount store is that the print it is covered with. The high price of authentic tokidoki bags is not compensated by good quality materials or handmade craftsmanship. Even though tokidoki is not a world reowned brand yet – which I sense it will become -, its carriers declare that they have enough money to blow on a single handbag that is equal to my monthly grocery bill and appreciate the kawaii design. The only distinguishable difference between the fake and real bags is “riri M6″ engraved into the back of the zipper pull. To consumers, that isn’t enough to dissuade them from buying a fake purse.
The counterfeiters in China saw this as an oppurtunity and began scanning the tokidoki prints, weaving fabric with the prints, and sewing the fabric into bags. Some even take 3-D scans of the bags, making perfect copies. Piracy has advanced incredibly over the years, and many fakes can pass as authentic and genuine nowadays.
For tokidoki to successfully eradicate copying of its designs, it should cut its price to make it more accessible to more people and make its designs more complex. The money-hungry executives at tokidoki should learn that their products are only copied because people find the price tags unacceptable.
Bags are not copied because their prices are unacceptable. Bags are copied because the copiers see a way to fool people in to paying *them* a ton of money. People spend upwards of a hundred dollars on fakes, thinking that they are real, *not* because they think the fake is giving them a bargain.
It’s not like the counterfeiters are saying “Hey! Our bags are fake!” They’re saying “Hey! This is real! Give us $200 for it!”
Counterfeiters are not Robin Hoods trying to give price breaks to the general masses. Counterfeiters are out to fool people and steal their money.
The people who sell replica tokidoki bags online usually sell on ioffer.com or have their own online stores. Usually all of these bags are listed as copies, and are sold for realistic prices.
Counterfeiters used to sell their bags on ebay and labeled them as authentic ones. However, consumers are getting more and more eduacated about the difference between the real and fake merchandise; so the people in China know that if they sell a fake tokidoki bag on ebay, they will have to pay the buyer back. It is also illegal to sell counterfeit items on ebay.
In the big counterfeit markets, like Canal Street in New York City, you can find every style of tokidoki bag immagineable for around $40. Everyone knows they are not authentic. What I meant was counterfeiters make replica tokidoki bags because they know they can make a killing selling them discount to the masses who want the logo covered handbags but can’t exactly afford them.
Fake tokidoki bags can be found all over the markets for 10 pounds british sterling (about $15). They are labeled either Prosportsac, or Le sportsac or La sportsac. They don’t try to pretend and rip off the public. The ink may run or zippers may break or may not last, but it was fun to get one. I have had original LeSportsac bags since the mid 1980′s. Black of course. Handbag, travel bags, key chain bag etc. But I swear by them. The quality of the original is good. some of my LeSportsac bags have lasted me over 20 years. My advice don’t buy online unless you use the original web sites, otherwise go to the market and buy a fake (knock-off) as a fake.
I recently bought another tokidoki bag from the same shop I bought my first bag. My first tokidoki bag is authentic but my second bag (Craezza large hangbag – Concerto)I’m not so sure because the quee doll I have on looks a bit off in color and the images on the doll. The chain that it is attached to is a different color and the head doesn’t rotate like my other one. The decorative chain seems shorter than my other bag decorative chain and this one came with two chains one regular size and one slightly smaller. I didn’t get the card with info on the quee the bag is attached with but instead it have the heart and cross bone tag on it and the carabiner hardware has tokidoki engraved on it instead of leSportsac and the stretch cord is a different color too. However, I do have the riri m6 stamp on the back of my zipper heads, the made in china tag on the inside, the “tokidoki for LeSportsac” black tag sewn in metallic thread. So I was wondering if you can give me some pictures or something that I can go by too see if my bag is a real or fake.
Thankyou
I dont have any pics, Lee, but I have a Carnival Carezza and that’s exactly what it looks like. Tokidoki doesn’t team w/ lesportsac like they used to, so the bags look different. So, no need for you to worry!
lee– its real!
really! YAY THANKS GUYS
well thats a load off my shoulders. now i can safely go back to that shop to buy my tokidoki bags 
I got a tokidoki bag from one of my friends from the philipenes(?) and it is supposed to be a Cammo Playground Black Print but it’s really small and I cant find any that look like it online. Should I post a pic…?
Sure, Silver.
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd80/feathertail02/Snapsh ot_20090128.jpg
and the zippers,
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd80/feathertail02/Snapsh ot_20090128_1.jpg
I didn’t know what it was when I got them, so I just wanted to find out now.
Hi Silver, that item is fake. Sorry.
Oh Well! ^^
I’ve seen in some stores that there’s tokidoki fakes.
Like instead of saying LeSportsac, it says LeSportSaf or LeSporlsac =\
so that’s weird & the printing isn’t fine. However I don’t mind the fakes and the real ones; but I think it is wrong of people lie about the authenticity of the tokidoki bags. If someone can’t afford the real tokidoki bags then purchase the fake ones. If you’d like the real ones, search for ideal places that actually sell the real ones. Many thanks to Simone Legno, tokidoki is genius!
Jesus, they really are getting better at this. Keep up the good work guys! ^_^
Is dreams-come-true-shop a real tokidoki seller? Because I see that it has the right hardware and it has the right zipper thing but I’m not sure about the other stuff. Could someone please tell me if it is a real foresta tokidoki bag? Also, could someone please tell me where to get real foresta that is a buon vaggio, campeggio or cuciolo? I’m really bad at finding the places of where to get real foresta bags.
dream-come-true-shop on ebay sells the real deal. i’ve purchased from them before and they are very fast with shipping
as for real foresta bags, your best bet is ebay considering the print has been sold out for over a year now.