How to spot fake Stone Island?
"Hey guys, is this item legit?"
If it looks too good to be true..
Step 1. The Certilogo Check
What is Certilogo.com?
Your new best friend.. Its an authenticity verification service connected to multiple luxury brands to authenticate designer items. It is often seen as the gold standard of authentication and will verify your Certilogo with the brand's direct database. You can check your Stone Island certilogo here.
How to use it
If your Stone Island item has the certilogo, then open up your phone’s camera and hover it over the QR code. This will then open up a browser tab linking you to the certilogo website and you will be taken through a series of questions followed by the authenticity result.
You’ll first be asked if you are checking the item before or after purchase. Select “After” if you already have the item in hand. Checking before purchase is extremely difficult if you don’t have the item in hand as you will be asked to upload photos from various angles of the tags.
You will then be asked where you found the product. If you purchased from a shop, select “In store”. If you bought it brand new from an online retailer you can select “Online”. If you purchased the item pre-loved, it’s best to select “It’s a gift”. This is due to the fact that online marketplaces such as Depop, eBay and Vinted aren’t included in the list of recognised retailers, much like smaller independent sellers.
Next you will be asked to upload a photo of the label. You will then get an instant result on the authentication of your Stone island garment. Sound simple? It is! But you still need to pay attention..
The Certilogo Result
If the result is “Authentic”, then it’s almost certain that the item is real (sigh of relief). However..we hate to tell you there have been cases in the past were fake items have unfortunately scanned as authentic. How can this happen? When a new batch of fakes are brought into the market they are all produced with the same code. At first they may scan authentic, but once everyone begins to scan their item the certilogo system recognises this code has been overused and the result will then change to fake. This is why you need to be aware of the additional ways to check your item's authenticity!
If the result is “Anomalies” this means the item could either be fake, or the certilogo has been scanned by several people already. If you list on a marketplace and lots of people try to check it’s real, it’ll flag as an overused certilogo and can damage the unique code. This is why you should ALWAYS cover your certilogo when selling an item online and only give the certilogo code when you have a certain sale.
If the result is “Fake” then the journey ends here.. The item is extremely likely to be a fake, miracles do happen but we’ve never come across an authentic item that has scanned as fake before.
But do all Stone Island items have a Certilogo?
Certilogo is a fantastic way to check authenticity, but we know smartphones and QR codes didn't exist in the 80s.. So with a brand as old as Stone Island, not all items come with a certilogo label. Stone Island added the certilogo technology into their items in Spring Summer 2014 as a way to combat the rising counterfeit market.
Should my item have a Certilogo? The Art Number on your item's wash label will answer this. At the end of this guide we have provided a cheat sheet with all the art numbers and season they're from. In short, any art numbers that begin with “60” should have a certilogo.
If you have a Stone Island that was produced after SS’14 and there is no certilogo present, then your item might be fake. There are some retailers who cut certilogos off authentic items, but this makes it extremely difficult to identify whether the items are authentic. We can't tell you what to do, but we highly recommend you avoid buying items that should have a certilogo and it has been cut off. Regardless of whatever story the seller gives you, certilogos are often cut off to hide something. Instead, buy from transparent sellers like ourselves.
Step 2. EXTRA ways to authenticate Stone Island
The authentication journey isn't over yet. Some of the older items (produced before 2014) don't have a certilogo and so can't be scanned using certilogo.com, but we'll explain more later.. Whether you're extra diligent, or aren't able to use the certilogo scanner, follow these easy steps to authenticate your item and help you get a good nights sleep.
Art Number
A great way to identify if a Stone Island is fake (but not necessarily real) is to google the Art Number. This is an 8-9 digit code given to each specific Stone Island model, regardless of colour and size. In the example below we have an authentic Stone Island Membrana Jacket with the Art: 581540223. Google this number and you will see that the images of our item match the images that Google provides. The colour is irrelevant so don’t worry if it’s different to yours but the model should always match.
The Notorious Lamy Cover Stampato
This is an extremely popular inside label used on fake jackets. The only authentic Lamy cover stampato jacket is the Supreme x Stone Island collaboration jackets with the floral print as shown below. It should not be present on other pieces. These inside labels allow you to identify the particular material used by Stone Island. The jacket below this a Lamy Velour hooded jacket. It’s got the wrong inside label and it also has the certilogo cut out. We can therefore come to the conclusion the item is a fake. Underneath those images we’ve shown the real version with the correct name from an established online retailer.
What if my Certilogo has been cut off?
Then there's an extremely high chance it’s a fake. Some small retailers sell authentic items without the certilogos to hide their supplier. When buying an item from market-places and private sellers, we always recommend you buy with the certilogo intact. While you might get a cheap price initially, further down the line having no certilogo seriously impacts the value and desirability of the item. Not only is there a chance your item is fake, but it will be extremely difficult to sell in the future.
The Baumwol blooper
Got a vintage item? An easy way to spot a fake, in particular the infamous jumbo cord overshirts, is the incorrect spelling of Baumwol on the wash label. “Baumwol” means cotton in German but the fakes are spelt “Baunwol”, a small yet crucial mistake that would never be made by a luxury brand! See below:
222..Too many two's
The infamous art number ending in 222. An example is 571540222. 99.9% of the Stone Island jackets available online with art numbers that end in 222 are fakes. Some authentic jackets (e.g. Soft Shells) end in 22, but never 222. Always be wary if you have a jacket with a number that ends in 222 as it could be fake and you should use other methods of authenticity identification.
The Devils in the Stitching
Grab your magnifying glass for this one.. Stone Island know their way around a sewing machine and all garment stitching is perfectly straight and neat. They sew wash labels into garments in multiple ways, but one of the most common methods used is the double rail of interlocking weave stitching - as we’ve shown in the image below. This has been used on items since the early 90’s and the counterfeits never get it right. The example below shows 3 messy lines of stitching attached to a fake certilogo, whereas the authentic version underneath features the clean chainlink stitching that’s perfectly aligned along the length of the jacket side.
The Wash Label
The Grid below shows a selection of authentic Stone Island items and their wash labels, ranging from early 90s to 2022. Each one of these are real and you can use this table to compare with your own items.
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On authentic Stone island items, often the art number label will take on some of the garment colour as it’s attached before the final dying process is carried out. We can see this colour transfer in at least 4 of the wash labels shown (e.g. no.1 is slightly pink and no.7 is slightly blue). -
Over the years, Stone Island continues to update it’s wash labels for many reasons (staying ahead of fakes, advancements in authentication and material technology & changes in suppliers).
Bonus Tip: Find out what year your Stone Island is from.
To find out what year your Stone Island is from, you can use the Art number at the bottom of the wash label. An example shown below has the Art number: 581540223.
In the image above, we’ve broken the Art number down into 4 sections (A, B, C & D) to help you identify your Stone Island garment.
A – This is the first 2 numbers of the Art. In this case “58”. This tells you the year the item was made and if it’s from the Spring/Summer or Autumn Winter collection. If the second number is an odd number (1,3,5,7,9) then it’s from AW. If the second number is an even number (2,4,6,8) then it’s from SS. In this case, as the second number is an 8, we know it’s from the Spring/Summer collection. To calculate what year the item is from, we can use the cheat sheet below. To save space, we’ve only included the SS numbers. The AW number would be the odd number between each year. Eg/ If 30 is SS’99 then 31 would be AW’99.
B – The second 2 numbers of the Art number represent the particular product line the garment belongs to. In the example above, these numbers are “15”. Some numbers and product lines include;
- 15 – Main line from Stone Island. Any normal badge, special process or ghost pieces.
- 19 – Shadow Project line from Stone Island. Any item that has a Shadow project badge.
- 25 – Special Edition ranges. This normally covers collaboration pieces such as the Nike & Supreme collabs.
- 16 – Stone Island junior range
- 14 – Stone Island denims range. (Badgeless)
- 18 – C.P. Company range (only applicable to early 2000’s pieces)
- 65 / 28 – Stone Island employee store or MFO (Made for outlet) products.
C – The 5th digit tells you the what type of item you have, for example is it a shirt, jacket, jumper, t-shirt etc. In the above example, it’s “5” which is code for coats/jackets.
- 1 = Shirt / Overshirt
- 2 = T-Shirt
- 3 = Trousers
- 4 = Coat/Jacket
- 5 = Jumpers
- 6 = Sweatshirts / Pullovers
- 7 = Long jackets / Trench Coats
- G – Gilet / Bodywarmer
- Q – Coat/Jacket
D – The last digits represent the particular colours and trims. There are too many of these to note and we don’t believe they hold anywhere near as much relevance or ability to identify the item as the first 5 digits.
Congratulations - You're now an authentication expert!
Now you should be able to authenticate your Stone Island item and the red flags to look out for. Spotting fakes can be a daunting task, but with these easy steps you should become an expert in no time. If in doubt, all items at Garmz Factory have been authenticated by our expert checkers and you can buy your next piece from us with confidence.
