I'm cool now.... sort of...

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'd be lying if I said the idea hadn't crossed my mind, but then my integrity is worth more than That, even though I would have clearly labelled them as fakes.

Def

[Mechanickal]

I'd be lying if I said the idea hadn't crossed my mind, but then my integrity is worth more than That, even though I would have clearly labelled them as fakes.

Def

And think of the MTO store's reputation!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Absolutely.

Folks know where to get the cheap knockoffs if they want them- they don't need to spend the extra $$ that I'd have to charge to resell them and/maintain an inventory.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

The real Tread arrived last night and I have been looking over the two of them since (with a short break to sleep!) and I really am astounded.  This is going to be a hell of a comparison, and one really has to look deep to find the differences.  The packaging is almost identical, and the differences in the product are very subtle!

In fact, just to ensure they don't get mixed up, I have had to do the reverse link mod on the fake!   

Pictures etc soon....

Def

[magentus]

 

[SteveC]

The real Tread arrived last night and I have been looking over the two of them since (with a short break to sleep!) and I really am astounded.  This is going to be a hell of a comparison, and one really has to look deep to find the differences.  The packaging is almost identical, and the differences in the product are very subtle!

In fact, just to ensure they don't get mixed up, I have had to do the reverse link mod on the fake!   

Pictures etc soon....

Def

Are you sure you haven't mixed them up already   

[Grant Lamontagne]

The real Tread arrived last night and I have been looking over the two of them since (with a short break to sleep!) and I really am astounded.  This is going to be a hell of a comparison, and one really has to look deep to find the differences.  The packaging is almost identical, and the differences in the product are very subtle!

In fact, just to ensure they don't get mixed up, I have had to do the reverse link mod on the fake!   

Pictures etc soon....

Def

Are you sure you haven't mixed them up already   

You joke about that, but it is harder than you'd think to keep them straight.  But, I found a few telltale signs, although some of them will surprise you....

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Just to recap....

Months ago I bought a fake Leatherman Tread in black for $50.  Now I have a legitimate Leatherman Tread, also in black, and while I aid considerably less than the $312.00 price tag on it, you can rest assured that it was still several times as much as the fake.  But, it's worth it for the real thing, right?  After all, the Leatherman brand is built in the USA and quality is the defining factor, while the knockoff is.... well, it's a cheap hunk of China made crap, right?  Let's find out.

First off, let me once again point out that while it has been a very successful model for Leatherman, I am not a big an of the Tread.  I want good, solid, real tools from Leatherman and this seems like an overpriced gadget, designed to generate hype in a brand that has lately not given us much in the way of cool new, solid, real tools to rave about.  That having been said, if I was really that disinterested, I would not have bought either a fake or a real one, so that proves that there is something pervasive about it.  Or, I'm a junkie.

The first thing you notice is the box- it will take a very close observation to spot what is wrong here.



The real Tread is on the left and the fake is on the right.  Notice that the colors on the fake are brighter and that the image is slightly larger.  These are not differences you are likely to notice without having the real one to compare to, but you can also see that the image and logo are slightly off center on the fake box, and perfectly centered on the real one.  I will admit that I didn't notice the offset logo on the fake until both boxes were side by side and Megan pointed it out. 

The end panels of the boxes are virtually identical as well, with the real box having slightly smaller Leatherman brandings than the fake, although again this is not something one would notice without having both for comparison.



Flipping the boxes over we see that the real box (again on the left) is virtually identical to the fake one.  In this case there has been a bar code and price tag added to the real one, but I am not sure at what point they were added, and so I wouldn't count on that as an identifier.  Both have trademark info, although it does slightly differ- however one is marked 2015 and one 2016, and as any collector knows, the wording and placement of these types of marks often change from year to year on legitimate products, and so should not be considered an identifier either.



Opening the box we see the presentation is virtually identical.  To make it easier to identify the fake, I have added some green paint to the logos and reversed the connecting links everywhere except where the ones between the strap cutter and the clasp, because the links impact the cutter ends when inverted.  Everywhere else they seem to be fin when inverted.



Pulling the Treads out of the box gives us another clue as to which one is real and which one is fake.  The real Tread fits perfectly onto the elongated foam oval while the fake sort of sits loosely on it's shorter, fatter one.  The real one seems more like it was designed to fit (which it was) while the fake appears to have been a setup for another product (possibly a fake watch or different bracelet) that was used out of convenience.  The foam in the real Tread box is also much more dense than the cheaper foam found in the fake.  If you can gain access to the inside of the packaging, this should be one of the first telltale signs of whether the Tread you are buying is real or not.



Getting rid f the packaging, the two Treads look and feel remarkably similar.  They move the same and the finish is almost identical.  At first glance they are almost impossible to tell apart.  If you are one of those people that can look at the above photo and claim to instantly know the difference without the cues I have offered (links and paint) then I suggest you chalk that up to my poor photography skills.  I have been spotting fakes and working with companies to identify them for about twenty years now, and I see no appreciably difference in finishes or feel.



Ordinarily the various bits aren't as well formed or the assembly is substandard, but in this case there is very little to distinguish the fake rom the real thing.  The cutouts and screwdriver ends are just as precise as the real McCoy.



I mentioned above the discoloration on the sides of some of the links, and if you look at the above pic you see the Leatherman also suffers from the same issue, only not as pronounced.  I am assuming both use a similar process to blacken, however Leatherman either uses a slightly better version of the process, or merely has a more skilled person doing it.  I'm not sure this would be an indicator on a natural stainless finish, butt it certainly is obvious on the black version.



It is also possible that the fake uses a lower grade of steel, which may be evidenced by a lower density, so I put both on the scale to see how they stacked up.  As you can see, there is a slight variance in weight- 1 gram to be exact.



I wouldn't count that as an indicator either- for those not familiar with the metric system, 1 gram is a drop of water.  It is a negligible amount and my scale could easily vary by a gram from one item to another... and in fact the difference may be even smaller, as my scale won't do portions of a gram, meaning one may have been 173.6g and the other 173.4g, and both were rounded off.  It is such a small variance that I'm sure any two legitimate Treads fresh off the assembly line would vary by this much or more.



Getting into the nuts and bolts of it (literally) we can see another noticeable difference- the screws for the real Tread are only black on the head and neck, while the threads are left uncoated while the fake one is black all the way down.  I would imagine that Leatherman doesn't coat the threads because of concerns of shed paint gumming them up.  But, the process of only coating half of a screw that is about a quarter of an inch long takes some effort, which is probably why that's one of the corners that the knockoff manufacturer cut.  You can see that the real Tread's screw is also slightly more robust, and it will not fit in the hole on the fake, while the fake screws can turn awkwardly into the holes in the real Tread.



The connecting links themselves are also interesting.  They are almost identical, except the finish on one seems a bit better able to withstand use while the other seems to rub off a bit.  What might surprise you is that the one that has the finish removed in the above picture is the brand new in box, still factory sealed until I got it and handled it enough to take these photos, while the finish on the fake still looks perfect despite a few months of wear.



The same goes for the other side of the connecting link, and if there was any doubt about which one was which (maybe I confused them at some point) I would like you to have a look at the Tread itself:



Even though my camera focused on the cutter instead of the side of the link you can see that there is no black finish on the ends of the links where the connection links attach, while the fake has black ends.



I will probably end up deconstructing these both eventually and comparing each link with each other one, but for now trust me when I say that the links themselves are almost indistinguishable between the fake and the real Tread.



The text and injector pin marks from the casting process are just as pronounced on one as they are the other.  I doubt anyone here could identify the real ones from the fake ones without the other for comparison, and worse, I doubt most of us could sort them out 100% from a pile of real and fakes.  In both of the above photos, the real Tread is on top and the face is on the bottom.



Getting to the business end, as noted previously the clasp on the fake features too ball bearing detents to hold it closed while the real Tread only has one.  This may be the easiest way to identify the fake from the real Tread, as it should be easy enough to pick out from photos, and is certainly easier than pulling screws out to see if they are the same color all the way through.  You'll also notice that the real Tread seems to be just as scratched and scuffed as the fake, again despite the fake having been worn for months and the real one being factory fresh.  Not a good sign for the Tread.



You will also notice something else- what I'd originally thought was a glob of black paint on the fake is actually a bottle opener icon, which is more defined on the real one than the glob-ish look on the fake.



Getting back to the ball detent, I have to wonder why Leatherman went with only one detent, while the fake one has two.  Is Leatherman's ball detent that good that they only need one or did the cheapo decide it was just easier to use two?  This is one of those things that needs time and testing to decide on, but I will say that the fake has never inadvertently come loose on my wrist, even when bumping into things, which is something I do often.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Oops, hit the wrong button.... I wasn't done yet.... 

There's one more thing to point out and that was something I hadn't picked up on until I was putting everything away.  Again, I don't know if this would be something that would be noticeable on the natural stainless version, but here it is anyway.



The scribe on the real Leatherman is uncoated.  My guess is that this is a high carbon insert on the real Leatherman and just moulded in on the fake.



So what does one conclude from all of this? 

Well, the real Leatherman is superior for a few reasons, such as the (theoretically) better ball detent, (slightly) thicker, uncoated screws and real scribe, but the fake hits back with what appears to be a better coating and, let's face it, a hell of a lot better price.  Is the real Tread worth roughly 4 times the price?  That's for you to decide.  All of this is just there so that you can make the right decision and not pay full price for what turns out to be a fake.

Def

[dks]

the price should give you a good hint on whteher it is real or not

[pfrsantos]

Seems very easy to spot the real one. The links have the curve on the outside.

[Grant Lamontagne]

the price should give you a good hint on whteher it is real or not

Until someone starts buying $50 ones and tries to resell them for $150.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Seems very easy to spot the real one. The links have the curve on the outside.

 

Def

[pfrsantos]

Seems very easy to spot the real one. The links have the curve on the outside.

 

Def

Well, ok, people may start turning them around... but for now it works, right?

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Seems very easy to spot the real one. The links have the curve on the outside.

 

Def

Well, ok, people may start turning them around... but for now it works, right?

 

It came the normal way.  I turned them around to make the fake easier to identify in the photos.

Def

[Mechanickal]

So far for reading through Santos...
Now go sit on the naughty step.

And thank you Def, for your thorough write-up

[RF52]

Great comparisson write up

Sent fra min FRD-L09 via Tapatalk

[microbe]

Great thread about the Tread, counterfeit and real. I need to dig up my spare bits and take a few screws out of my black 2015 Tread to compare with the posted pictures.
Keep up the good work! 

[pfrsantos]

Seems very easy to spot the real one. The links have the curve on the outside.

 

Def

Well, ok, people may start turning them around... but for now it works, right?

 

It came the normal way.  I turned them around to make the fake easier to identify in the photos.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Using the guide above I decided to do some eBay research to see if I could spot fake treads from seller photos.  I selected Treads that are currently under $100, which I suppose should make it easy, but you never know, they could be estate sales, used, someone needing a quick buck or the bidding could have just not gone all the way yet.

Starting with this one:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LEATHERMAN-TREAD-Multi-Tool-Bracelet-Stainless-Steel-NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-Boxed/183134776103?hash=item2aa3aeeb27:g:Ay4AAOSw5E9arwaG

The box and instruction booklet are a dead giveaway, at least according to my samples.  The fake one has a large booklet, while the real one has a smaller one.  The 4th picture also shows the Tread is visibly loose on a lower quality, egg shaped hunk of foam.  Looking t the Tread itself, we don't get to see the carbide scribe clearly in the pics, although to be honest I am not sure how obvious it will be on a silver Tread.  Sadly I have plans to pick up a silver one soon to add to this comparison.

Knowing what I know at the moment, I am about 99% certain that this is NOT a read Tread.

The there's this one:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LEATHERMAN-TREAD-Multi-Tool-Bracelet-Black-NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-No-Box/183142169997?hash=item2aa41fbd8d:g:3uAAAOSwu4hatArj

Being black it plays into my wheelhouse, since that's where all my experience is.  There's no packaging with this one to tip us off- is it a used one, or is it a fake?

The first thing I noticed was the lack of crazy colors resulting from the blackening process shown above.  That puts a point in this one's favor, perhaps showing that it is real?

Without being able to see the scribe or the open clasp from both sides, this is a very difficult one to guess.  Given that it is coming from the US, one has to wonder about this one, and based on the pics alone, I would honestly go 50/50 on this one, and I would contact the seller for specific pictures to determine it's legitimacy. 

My larger conclusion is not to bother, as it is the same seller as the obvious fake above, and so I'm quite certain this one is fake as well.  My reasoning is that if this person is selling one fake, what are the odds that they have real ones. 

Then this one came up:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LEATHERMAN-TREAD-Multi-Tool-Bracelet-Stainless-Steel-NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-No-Box/183137127458?hash=item2aa3d2cc22:g:yX8AAOSwu4hasEAM

So the obvious issue is that it is the same seller as the previous one, and so this one is most likely a fake as well, but that's not really the point of this exercise- it's whether or not a fake can be positively identified from photos, and so far I have one yes and one no- the second (and third) so far are only guilty by association, with no real "smoking gun" so to speak. 

Like the one above, there are no clear pictures of the scribe, but there is a clear (ish) photo of the clasp, showing the ball detent on one side.  We know that the real Tread has a single ball, while the fake has two, so I pulled out my real one to check.  Unfortunately, the image show in the auction shows the side where the real detent is, and so this is inconclusive.

However, given the price and the same seller that we know sells fakes, I am forced to conclude that this is yet another fake.

Then this last one, from a totally different seller:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-TREAD-Stainless-Steel-Multi-Tool-Bracelet-Multi-Tool-As-LEATHERMAN-Black-NO/173220074623?hash=item2854b8947f:g:wZwAAOSwqURaq9jF

The cheesy photos give this one away as a knockoff, as does the fact that they obviously have many, and the seller is in China.  Getting past that thought, and looking at the photos we see that most of the "in use" style photos really don't help, but if you scroll down you will see the Tread stretched out followed by a bunch of individual links.

The stretched out photo appears to only have one ball, although that may just be the angle, as the clasp photo shown below clearly shows two.  If we go a little deeper into the single ball photo, we notice that the ball we can see is on the wrong side of the clasp, compared to the real Tread.

Looking at the opposite end of the stretched out photo we see the scribe, although it is difficult to tell if it's real or not, although if I had to guess I would say molded in because it does not seem like the darker grey one would expect from carbide.  That is just 100% a guess though, as I don't have a silver Tread to compare it to (yet) and so I am guessing it is just molded in.  Looking at Link #4 in the deconstructed section we see it is even listed as a carbide glass breaker, which in itself is odd, as Leatherman calls it a scribe.  It seems odd to me that a seller would do this much research on a real Tread, then post wrong info like that.

Although this is the most obvious fake of the bunch, I am considering buying it because I think the description itself is almost worth the money they are asking!

No matter be the captive in the City long, man bones of wild genes all have never been forgotten.  They are eager to explore and develop a thirst for adventure, eager to release the hot blood.  Letterman portable multi function tool, to meet the man of tough temperament vision and longing, functional and practical,

I hadn't realized that David Letterman designed a tool similar to the Tread.... and they are right, the an bones in my wild genes are eager to release the hot blood, but that is probably because I like to do dumb things and am kind of accident prone... 


 
Tomorrow I will have a look through some of the more typical priced Treads and see if I can spot any fakes there, but so far it doesn't seem like there are any deals to be had on legitimate Treads or whether some sellers are putting real Tread prices on fake Treads and selling them off.  I'll also report the above fakes to both Leatherman and eBay once you have all had a chance to look at them.

Def

[twiliter]

You know that guy's a badazz, who has a camcorder anymore? 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I had a quick look at a couple of higher priced models, and I'm not sure I would believe them.  For example:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-LEATHERMAN-TREAD-Black-Stainless-Steel-Bracelet-Multi-Tool/202103732470?hash=item2f0e5238f6:g:e-QAAOSwvTpZ~eoc

This one shows what appears to be real Treads in the photos, but as the model is the same one as above, and is obviously a stock photo I would be concerned as to whether it was a legitimate product or not.

However, the ball detents that you see are consistent with real Treads, and you can clearly see the different colored carbide insert on the otherwise black Tread.  My guess would be (especially since the seller is in China) that this would be fakes at (almost) real pricing, which is, in my opinion much worse than fakes at fake prices.

Def

[shark_za]

Very interesting tread I mean thread.

Just had a look at a super cheap one on the bay, compared to my silver.

The ball bearing detent seems to have a collar around it on the fake while mine does not.
The finish on the clasp sides seems to be very bad while the original is very well smoothed out.

[ReamerPunch]

What an ugly situation.

[shark_za]

Original

[Striker]

Wow. Lots of great information, Thanks. It really doesn't inspire any confidence to know you're buying a legit tread off of ebay or similar.

[Poncho65]

I missed the comparison the first go round apparently That is crazy how well made the fake is I would never had known the difference Someone who only had the fake would surely never know either Great job sleuthing around on this one Grant

[Grant Lamontagne]

For the record, one of the fakes is getting close to real pricing:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/LEATHERMAN-TREAD-Multi-Tool-Bracelet-Stainless-Steel-NEW-FREE-SHIPPING-Boxed/183134776103?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908131621%26meid%3D9e5006fdcf2e47c4b48b9d712bc12a41%26pid%3D100678%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D183142169997%26itm%3D183134776103&_trksid=p2481888.c100678.m3607&_trkparms=pageci%3A34897428-2e98-11e8-8ab8-74dbd180e981%7Cparentrq%3A52e566ce1620aa14438f99e7ffff5f50%7Ciid%3A1

I'm off to report them to eBay now.

Def

[ThePeacent]

I would honestly go 50/50 on this one, and I would contact the seller for specific pictures to determine it's legitimacy. 

My larger conclusion is not to bother, as it is the same seller as the obvious fake above, and so I'm quite certain this one is fake as well.  My reasoning is that if this person is selling one fake, what are the odds that they have real ones. 

well, maybe he was curious and got a fake, then a real one like you did, and just like you he found little use for them so is selling both   

[Grant Lamontagne]

He (or she) is selling a lot more than one or two, and many at real Tread full price.

Methinks it is time I started pushing more info out there about fake Treads. 

Def