If you are ready to spend some money to buy yourself some Prada sunglasses – you better make sure you get the right ones. As you can probably imagine, the fashion industry is filled with faux products, and one area where faux products dominate is eyewear.
Brands like Prada have a major influence on the eyewear industry, which means that they’re also quite often copied. Why? Well, some people just don’t care. They would rather spend $50 on five pairs of glasses than spend $250 on a single pair. However, they also want those glasses to look good, so they buy fake Prada sunglasses, and they call it a day.
However, some eyewear “manufacturers” weren’t quite pleased with their minimal profits, so they started selling their counterfeit goods at the original price tag. Now, that wouldn’t be the problem if they weren’t quite good at stealing and ripping off Prada designs, and if some people haven’t spent a lot of money on a pair of cheap, plastic sunglasses that do you more harm than good.
Now, we can’t really do anything about the faux Prada sunglass manufacturers, but what we can do is teach you how to spot a fake. Sounds interesting? Okay, then. Let’s start!
Take A Look At The Build Quality
Unless you’re buying your sunglasses from Instagram – we urge you to take a good look at the build quality. There’s only so much you can do in terms of build quality if you skimp on quality materials as most counterfeiters do. They just mimic the design and the colourways, but they don’t go the extra mile. So, the build quality of their glasses usually sucks.
Genuine Prada sunglasses women love to wear will feel great in your hand. They’ll feel sturdy, the hinges will feel smooth but stable, and the materials will just feel premium. They won’t bend or creak as you open and close them, and if you try and shake them – they won’t wobble. If the sunglasses pass this test- there’s a good chance they’re real. Or at least a really good copy. But we don’t want a copy.
Look At The Logo
At first glance, Prada has a very simplistic logo. And that’s kind of true. However, it also isn’t. If you take a closer look at the logo, you’ll notice that the R isn’t the same as the other letters. The letter R in the Prada logo has a distinct cut-out that most people aren’t really aware of.
So, if you’re sceptic about your sunglasses being fake – just take a look at the logo. If the logo’s sharp and you notice the “cut” in the R – it’s not a fake. On the other hand, if you just spot a regular R – that’s definitely a fake.
Watch Where You Shop
Of course, not everyone can order directly from Prada’s website. If you’re ordering internationally, you’d have to wait, deal with shipping costs, customs, and not to mention risk getting your expensive glasses damaged.
So, if you want to know that your sunglasses are real – buy yours from a reliable source. There are probably many stores where you live that sell genuine Prada sunglasses, but if there aren’t any – you can always order online from a store like https://pretavoir.co.uk/collections/prada-sunglasses.
Inspect The Box And The Packaging
Another thing to take a good look at is the packaging or the box that came with the glasses.
Prada sunglasses will come in stylish, high-quality packaging. The glasses will most often come in a high-quality cardboard box (similar quality to iPhone boxes), and inside of it, you’ll find your glasses, alongside some extras.
As far as the extras go, you’ll want to take a good like at two things – care instructions and the size tag.
Instructions will always come printed in “dark more”. You’ll get a folded, black piece of paper with white print on it. It’s usually three pages long, and you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to – but just take a look at it. If it’s black with white letters – you’re probably good.
The size label, on the other hand, is your regular size label. It has a barcode, Prada logo, some information about the sunglasses, and of course, the size. The latter is what you should be focusing on. If it says Small, Large, M, XL, or something like that – you’re dealing with a fake. On the other hand, if it says 36 or 52 – that’s probably a genuine Prada.
Take A Good Look At The Lenses
Lenses are always a good indicator of whether glasses are real or fake, as they almost always have some kind of marking on them. In Prada’s case, their glasses come with a Prada logo on the left lens and a serial number on the right.
Now, the Prada logo will also be found on the fakes, so make sure you take a good look at the R like we already told you. If the R checks out – it’s probably a pair of genuine Prada sunglasses. Most fake glasses come with the regular R, as it is too much trouble to etch the R with the cut-out.
As for the serial number, you’ll rarely ever find it on the fakes. It just doesn’t make sense for them to string some random numbers together just to try and fool you if you already know how to identify the glasses, so they just leave the right lens clear.
Inspect The Arms
The arms, just like the lenses, have a standard “look” to them.
On the inside of the right arm, you should see a Prada company logo, followed by “Made in Italy” and “CE” inscriptions. All Prada sunglasses are made in Italy in the Luxottica factory, and the “CE” means that the glasses were made up to EU standards. Once again – inspect the logo!
The inside of the left arm should read something like “SPR01R 57◻19 2AU-3O1 145 3N”. So, let’s break this down. The “SPR01R” stands for sunglasses, Prada, and a 3-digit serial number. The “57◻19″ are the length of the lens and the nose bridge in mm. The “2AU-3O1” would be the colour code. And, the “145 3N” are the length of the arms in mm (145) and the lens category and strength (3N).
Suppose you want to check any of these, like, for instance, the measurements from the inside of the left arm – feel free to do so. If you have a real pair of Prada sunglasses – they should match perfectly.
Conclusion:
There you have it. If you follow this mini-guide, you’ll be able to easily differentiate the real Prada sunglasses from the fake ones without any issue whatsoever.