Due to comment and suggestion graffiti, I will be banning comments.
DISCLAIMERS:
- I AM NOT AN AUTHORITY ON KAPITAL.
- I HAVE NO ASSOCIATION WITH KAPITAL.
- I NEITHER OPPOSE NOR ENDORSE REPS. I PREFER BUYING GENUINE PRODUCTS, BUT IF YOU’RE ROCKING REPS AND NOT PUSHING THEM AS THE AUTHENTIC ARTICLE THAN WEAR WHAT YOU WANT TO WEAR.
LAST UPDATE: 1/31/2023
If you don’t want to read my little blurb on Kapital, feel free to skip “GUIDE”
There was likely a time a few years ago when you could comfortably and confidently shop for Kapital online without concern over whether the item you purchased from eBay, Grailed, dePOP, Mercari, etc. was a replica. However, as the brand’s existence has effloresced in the global fashion conscious - a development likely catalyzed by the brand’s adoption by various figures in the music industry including but not limited to ASAP Rocky, John Meyer, Pharrell Williams, Frank Ocean, Kanye West, Playboi Carti… - replicas now populate the various online marketplaces that offer Kapital outside of a retail capacity. Whether this burgeoning popularity is a fortunate or unfortunate development is entirely subjective; some, like me, are excited to share the eccentricities of Kiro Hirata’s design philosophies with a whole new generation of Kapital enthusiasts, while others may not find Kapital’s shifting demographic to be a particularly appealing prospect. Regardless of your stance on the matter, Kapital buyers old and new should be aware that replicas of Kapital products do exist, and to be wary of where their money is going.
A brief tangent: I am by no means an expert on replicas. I do not purchase replicas intentionally, and typically lean towards authenticity because of the quality I can typically expect from a brand that I am familiar with. That being said, I do often find myself scouring clothing replica subreddits for insightful photos and discussion on fakes that help me avoid accidentally purchasing a replica. More on this later.
As the market for replicas has grown increasingly larger and profitable, the “niche-ness” of a brand is no longer a deterrent for replica manufacturers.Though the availability of specific items may be limited in the replica market, dialogue between those purchasing reps and those making them has made it so that any item that has enough backing behind it has the potential to hit the market. Scrutiny is warranted for almost every item purchased second-hand, as any item could be the next one to receive a batch of fakes.
So why am I writing a guide on avoiding fake Kapital? Though the disclaimer states that I am not an authority on the brand (and I stand by that declaration) I have purchased a LOT of Kapital. I don’t have a strict grasp on just how much I’ve bought over the year, I can definitively say that Kapital is the brand I own the most clothing of. Somehow, Kiro Hirata’s designs have wormed their way into almost every nook and cranny of my wardrobe, and I have gone out in mono-brand fits excluding footwear (though that is likely to change if I ever find a good deal on popeye boots). I am hesitant to call myself a collector because I don’t always hold on to pieces that I purchase, but I can say with reasonable confidence that I’ve likely had over 150 unique articles of Kapital clothing pass through my hands, though that number is a conservative estimate.
The most difficult aspect of compiling a replica identification guide for Kapital is that Kapital is wildly inconsistent with their branding and labeling. Kapital is divided into two primary lines: Kapital, which offers their main fare of jackets, sweatshirts, pants, accessories, etc. and Kapital Kountry (often shortened to just country both in conversation and on labeling) which ranges between more eclectic offerings that deviate slightly from the wardrobe staples Kapital offers to heavily repurposed, reimagined, and/or reworked items involving hours of hands-on labor and intensive patchwork and distressing. The boundaries between these two lines are miasmic; some items you would anticipate being Kountry might just have the regular Kapital label, and vice versa.
GUIDE
JAPANESE WEBSITES
Yahoo! Auctions Japan and Mercari Japan have a greater selection of Kapital than that of western retailers and, by extension, resellers; however, neither of these websites are entirely devoid of replicas.
One of the more notable examples of these fakes are the 1 Yen auctions; the too-good-to-be-true auctions for coveted Kapital items like their 2021 Souvenir jackets, an assortment of their fleeces, and their gaudy sweaters will occasionally crop up in batches of ten or twelve listings. These are fake. I know this because I won one of these auctions in my naivety and received these cow-print smile slip-on abominations, paying a hefty sum (a bit over retail) for my mistake.
Things to look out for:
- Stock images. Stock images -primarily listings that exclusively have stock images- are dubious at best and flagrant scams at worst. Proceed with caution (or not at all).
- The door. O, the infamous door. Almost every replica auctioned on Yahoo! has the same background of a white/off-white door. These images have been recycled for HUNDREDS of listings, and if you keep an eye on Yahoo! Auctions’ Kapital listings for a while, you’ll develop a familiarity with this door. Other backgrounds I have seen reused are a wooden door, a stairwell, and a wood floor.* These are subject to change in the event that these sellers (or seller with multiple accounts) update their photos.
*Note: While these backgrounds are common for replicas, they are also not guaranteed indicators of a replica. Make sure the item you are buying has photos of washtags, neck labels, and details of the garment if you suspect it of being fake.
- Suspicious sellers. A lot of sellers of replicas will appear innocuous. In my experience, they will always have 50 to 250 positive reputation, with very little to no negative feedback. I hypothesize that these accounts garner feedback using bots, which they similarly use to bid on their auctions. This creates the illusion of communal faith in the seller (multiple bids already on an auction may convince some that the buyer and/or item is reputable) and suckers like me win an auction with a price they have inflated. It’s difficult to provide additional examples of these sellers because these accounts are frequently burned, likely the reason why their feedback never exceeds the mid-200s.
Note 1: Not all 1 yen auctions are replicas. Some are genuine, but all auctions for highly desirable items starting at 1 yen should be scrutinized heavily before you put your hard-earned money towards them.
Note 2: Some of the items pictured on the listings mentioned previously ARE GENUINE KAPITAL; however, the item sent to you likely will not be.
Note 3: Not every reputable 2nd-hand clothing seller on any website is free of fakes. Though these sellers are typically very diligent about parsing through their items, there are occasions of replicas leaking through the cracks. These stores are just as susceptible to replicas as the next person (think about the replicas that make it through StockX’s authentication process) so be wary even if the seller has a lot of positive reputation (2nd Street, Hobby-off/Book-off, Ragtag Online, etc).
REFERENCES:
As mentioned previously, I have owned and continue to own a lot of Kapital. As such, I’ve chosen to compile a collection of neck labels, size tags, washtags, buttons, zippers, and assorted details that may provide some insight into the authenticity of an item. Some photos will have descriptions attached to them for additional insights on the Imgur pages themselves.
NOTE: Unfortunately, this is not a comprehensive collection. I am constantly finding new Kapital items with labels, buttons, rivets, etc. that I hadn’t seen previously. Ideally these references will function as a means of identifying some consistent or recurring aspects of Kapital’s garments and labeling.
Also: My camera quality is not the best, but I can certainly adjust and retake photos of specific labels/things if requested.
Kapital Labels vary wildly depending on garment, age, and other inscrutable reasons. This collection of images is not comprehensive (I’m certain I have seen outliers, like an embroidered label on the interior of a button shirt I saw in a fleeting auction in Japan) but I unfortunately lack the photos to complete it.
Kapital Kountry labels are large, rectangular, and come in either black with yellow text or off-white with black text. From what I have observed, the stitch typically ends on the top left corner, where a loose thread might be present.
Fairly straightforward. Typically stamped on a separate label for knitwear, next to the next label on tops and outerwear, and on the interior right pocket fabric of most bottoms. Comes in “REDUX” and “PROF” varieties.
Kapital wash tags are kind of all over the place. What reasoning is used to determine the variant of wash tag used for each garment is unfathomable to me. General trends are that pullovers will occasionally have the numerical washtag, but there are ample exemptions to that general rule. Ideally, there will be similar items on Grailed or - less-reliably - eBay that you can compare washtags to.
Here are photos of all the primary size tag variants you will find among Kapital garments, though there is an elusive size 5 XXL that exists out there. There may also be an XXS as well, but I may be misremembering. I believe that the black label with gold-tone embroidered characters is the most common size tag used for Kapital garments.. Other oddities have been included towards the end of the album.
Like their labels, Kapital’s denim patches and tags can vary wildly. In addition to the various colors and materials that comprise the variety of patches I’ve encountered in the past, distressing and processing can be increasingly tenuous evidence of authenticity. I do not believe Kapital has ever used Faux Leather (Polyurethane) for the denim patches, but it is not entirely impossible.
Kapital embroidery typically is hand-done outside of a few exceptions.. I believe that the larger embroideries like the skeleton and bone embellishments are made by machine because of how uniform the embroidery is. I have provided examples of both.
Kapital Zippers are typically YKK brand or Universal. Universal buttons are typically used for their heavier jackets, though some of their lighter jackets also make use of them. There is another brand of zipper, Hookless, that I have only seen on one garment, possibly used for their older garments before switching primarily to Universal and YKK.
The most common Kapital rivets are labeled “KAPITAL BRAND,” though there are plenty of variations. I am aware that certain higher quality replicas also have these “KAPITAL BRAND” metal buttons replicated, so there are definitely circumstances that mandate looking at the garments holistically to ascertain its authenticity.
IDENTIFYING REPLICAS:
It’s difficult to compare replicas and authentic Kapital without having them side by side, but I presume that you would not search for and purchase an item you already happen to own and could reliably compare. However, there are often slight (or egregious, depending on the maker) flaws or differences that you can observe. While I would hesitate labeling the authentication process as some glorified spot-the-difference Where’s-Waldo-esque search for these discrepancies, there is some truth to that assertion when buying second-hand. The following identifiers are ordered from most to least obvious.
There are some fairly obvious labels that indicate whether an item is a replica or not. First and foremost is the most infamous, “KAPITAL MAN,” (which I refer to affectionately as Kapital Pour Homme). Incredibly frank and debatably ethical, “Kapital Man” labels and its close constituents in the replica world are the most benign. Though design theft should never be celebrated, the Kapital Man label is forthright in its replica-ness and is difficult to pass off as authentic, whether intentionally or unintentionally, outside of the most unaware consumers.
Here are some examples of differences between fake and authentic versions of Kapital’s most common labels.
When the label looks authentic, it’s time to move on to…
Some replicas use the wrong font for size tags, or they’re too matte compared to the gold thread Kapital typically uses, or they’re entirely absent. Replica manufacturers have been making improvements in this area, however, so additional caution should be taken. If the size tag looks accurate, move on to the wash tags.
Differences in wash tags can range between slight differences in the material used for the wash tag to very slight differences in font width, kerning, etc. Some things to immediately check are the item code, which, through a quick Google search of “kapital [item code],” should lead you to web or image results of the item.
The images for this portion were all shamelessly ripped from r/fashionrepsbst and r/qualityrepsbst. More on using these subreddits as sources later.
A replica’s explicit purpose is to imitate; in the context of clothing, a good replica is an alternative to retail/authentic products -typically- at a fraction of the cost. This cost discrepancy does come at a cost, as it would be incredibly difficult to manufacture an item of the same quality and likeness as a premium product without the same manufacturing guidelines and standards typically held by a brand. While there are certainly exceptions to this statement, the more elaborate an item is, or the higher quality the material is for a product, the greater the discrepancy between replicas and items, so this method of authenticating goods is inefficient, to say the least. That being said, when it comes to items that sometimes garner bids of several hundred dollars, it may be worth your while to do additional research.
Example of Tiger Pull on most fleece tops.
COMMON REPLICAS I HAVE SEEN:
Kapital Kountry Bone Varsity Jacket
ANYTHING BANDANA RELATED (Patchwork Jackets, Shirts, KEEL Vests, you name it)
Gaudy Knits (Virgin Mary in Green, Blue, and Pink, Peace Sign Pullover and Cardigan, Kachina)
5G and 7G Smiley HAPPY Knit Sweaters (Distressed and Nordic versions)
Tiger Knit
Alpine Ring Coat
Skeleton Tees and Crewnecks
Feather Denim Jackets
Fair Isle Skeleton Sweater
Nordic Fleece Anorak
FLEECE ZIP JACKETS/HOODIES/PULLOVERS IN ALL PATTERNS (Damask, Maze, etc.)
Drunken Stripe Pattern Jacket and Pants
Kapital Kountry Skeleton Shoulder/Messenger Bag
Monkey Cisco Embroidered Denim
Smiley Patch MA-1 Bolero Jacket
Gem Embellished Cisco Denim
TsugiHagi Kesa Knit Cardigan
Piano Fleece Sweatshirts
BONE Embroidered Okagilly Pants or Denim
Old Man and the Sea Denim Bucket Hats (both the original and the distressed versions)
SOUVENIR JACKETS (PILLOW PEACE, SHAM BOMBERS, BONE, SULFUR DYED, etc.)
Sulfur-Dyed Souvenir Jackets and PILLOW PEACE Bomber Jackets (Olive with Orange and Silver with Blue Tiger)
And possibly a lot more…
SAMPLE COMPARISON:
Fortunately for you -and unfortunately for me- I have purchased two fake Kapital items that I can discern from the whole of my Kapital shopping experiences. Both of these I paid reasonable secondary market prices for, and ultimately “took a fat L” on both of them. The shoes I mentioned previously were irredeemable in every regard, and were disposed of. The latter, however, was much more difficult to identify as a fake. I had already listed it on eBay and Grailed (it passed the latter’s authentication service) before I realized that what I owned was a replica and promptly removed it from sale. While my $800 were lost to some Mercari seller who burnt their account in the following months (Though if they ever start listing again, do be wary) I figured I would take this as an opportunity to demonstrate how a convincing replica might beguile an unaware customer into making an uninformed purchase.
Replica 40s Wool I-FIVE BONE Varsity Jacket
NOTE: It is entirely possible that a seller has purchased a replica unknowingly and is selling it as legitimate. I almost did myself when I listed the jacket on eBay and Grailed.
OTHER ITEM COMPARISONS:
5G Smiley Nordic Happy Patch Crewneck Knit Sweater (K2110KN093)
DENIM REPAIR SERVICE pt Denim Patchwork Trucker Hat (KR2208XH05)*
*Note: Some of the comparisons here may apply to Kapital’s other mesh-back truckers.
USEFUL RESOURCES:
https://www.grailed.com/shop/6tx44NiUGQ
Thankfully Grailed preserves almost every sold listing posted to the site. Search up keywords related to your item to find comparisons to the item you’re looking to buy.
https://www.kapital-webshop.jp/
Kapital’s webshop usually has detailed product photos of current season items and recent restocks. Though they lack clear photos of labels and washtags, these photos can often be helpful when authenticating based on item features/details.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRHwHEYD8fL/
Jawnflip’s Fleece authentication guide. Not as clear as I would like it to be, but it could be helpful for those looking to buy Kapital’s fleeces.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FashionReps/
https://www.reddit.com/r/FashionRepsBST/
https://www.reddit.com/r/QualityReps/
https://www.reddit.com/r/QualityRepsBST/
Replica clothing subreddits and their various offshoots. Though I have yet to intentionally purchase a replica, I have found myself browsing Replica subreddits frequently in search of references for replica items. These photos range from WTS posts to Quality checks that provide greater insight into replicas and hopefully prevent you from accidentally purchasing one. Additionally, Find lists like this are helpful in identifying whether or not an item has been replicated (also not comprehensive, not a one-and-done kind of process)
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
Unfortunately, this guide is not as comprehensive as I would like it to be because I’m limited to the resources available to me - namely, the Kapital items I have sold in the past and the items I currently have on hand. Hopefully this is at least somewhat helpful for those looking to get into Kapital through second-hand channels, though there is a non-negligible quantity of fakes now circulating the markets.
I made this guide because I purchased that replica varsity and overspent on it by a good margin, considering it was inauthentic. I was honestly shocked by how similar it was to the retail version upon first glance, and I listed it thinking it was authentic before removing it because I grew suspicious of the slight discrepancies.
Kapital will always be one of my favorite brands. I don’t like the fact that I now have to parse through listings with heightened scrutiny, but I have ultimately managed to escape replicas for the most part.
Parting advice:
Never buy from a seller unwilling to take additional photos. It doesn’t make sense why a seller who is actively trying to let go of an item would be unable or unenthusiastic about reassuring customers that their item is genuine.