Across all three brands, the same four things give a fake away: the weight and hand of the fabric, the density and neatness of the stitching, the crispness of the print or embroidery, and the wash care label inside the garment. The wash tag is the single most useful item, because it is the part counterfeiters care least about and reproduce worst.
Before you look at the garment at all
Most bad purchases are decided before anything is inspected. Three signals do more work than any stitch count:
- Price. These brands sell out and hold value. A current piece at a steep discount is not a bargain, it is information.
- Availability. Corteiz in particular built its reputation on restricted drops. Unlimited stock in every size is not how the brand operates.
- The seller. No trading history, no returns address, stock photos lifted from elsewhere. Any one of these is enough to walk away.
If all three look wrong, the garment inspection is academic.
Corteiz
The tells most consistently cited by authentication services are the wash tag, the neck tag and the front print.
Authentic pieces are made from noticeably heavy, structured fabric. A Corteiz hoodie should feel substantial and warm in the hand. This is the first place counterfeiters cut cost, so a hoodie that feels thin, papery or rough is an early warning that usually turns out to be right.
Stitching on genuine pieces is tight, even and lies flat. Fakes tend to show loose threads, uneven seam lines, or stitching that puckers rather than sitting smooth. On the tags, look for sharp lettering with correct, even spacing. The internal wash care label should be clean and easily legible, not blurred or crowded.
Trapstar
The wash tag is the most reliable single indicator on Trapstar pieces.
Beyond that, the logo is the giveaway. Authentic Trapstar logos are clean and precisely spaced, with no smudging and consistent letterforms. Fakes commonly use a subtly wrong font, uneven spacing between characters, or shapes that are close but not correct. Compare against official imagery rather than against another resale listing, which may itself be fake.
Embroidery on genuine pieces is dense and does not fray at the edges. Fabric should feel sturdy and substantial rather than light and slick.
Broken Planet
Broken Planet is most reliably checked at the print.
On authentic pieces the lettering is clean-edged. Fakes very often show what authenticators describe as hairy or fuzzy letters, with stray fibres and threads around the edges of the type, and a scratched rather than smooth print surface.
Spacing is the other tell. Genuine pieces carry more space between lines of text; counterfeits tend to compress the text together. On stitched elements, authentic pieces use slimmer stitching with finer lettering, whereas fakes typically use denser, smaller stitching with visibly thicker text.
What none of this replaces
Counterfeits improve continuously, and any published list of tells is a snapshot. Superfakes exist in all three of these brands and some of them defeat every visual check above.
The only genuinely durable protection is provenance: buy from the brand directly, or from a seller who is accountable to you and will take the item back. If you are buying secondhand and the piece matters to you, a paid authentication service costs a fraction of the garment.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest way to spot a fake Corteiz hoodie?
Start with the wash tag and the fabric weight. Authentic Corteiz uses thick, structured material and clean, legible internal labelling with evenly spaced lettering. Thin fabric and blurred or crowded tag print are the most common failures.
How do you legit check a Trapstar hoodie?
The wash tag is the most reliable indicator. After that, examine the logo closely for font accuracy and even spacing, and check that embroidery is dense and clean rather than frayed.
How can you tell if a Broken Planet hoodie is real?
Look at the print. Fuzzy or hairy letter edges with stray threads indicate a fake. Authentic pieces also carry more space between lines of text than counterfeits do.
Are cheap Corteiz and Trapstar pieces always fake?
Not always, but a steep discount on a current piece is a strong warning. These brands sell out and hold value, so heavy discounting is unusual enough to justify closer inspection of everything else.
Can you always tell a fake by looking at it?
No. High-quality counterfeits defeat visual inspection, and the tells change as fakes improve. Buying from an accountable seller who will accept a return is more reliable than any checklist.