The price point for a shiny new pair of lululemon groove pants certainly isn’t as high as something like a Fendi Spy bag or a Balenciaga Motorcycle bag - however there are still people out there who make their living by creating lululemon knockoffs. These pants are not of the same quality, and it’s certainly not worth your time or money to support this kind of business. Thus, we’ve come up with a quick and dirty list to help you avoid buying a fake lulu.
Remember, the easiest way to avoid this is to only by lulu at a lulu store. Buying on ebay or kijiji is a risk already - and who wants to spend their hard earned cash on a pair of pants that is going to pill and unravel instantly. A real pair won’t do this.
And so, how to spot a fake:
1) Remember that the lululemon logo is not always in the same place. To stay ahead of fakes, lulu changes up the placement of the logo on its pants. So studying the logo placement is actually a pretty hard way to tell if that new pair of “grooves” you bought is real or not. The logo on groove pants is reflective, but on some products it is stitched on, and on others it is a non reflective, symbol-less dance logo. Make sure the logo looks like a lulu logo, and isn’t upside down or slightly distorted. But keep in mind that the placement doesn’t matter - we’ve seen authentic lulu logos in a lot of different places over the years.
2) Flat seams! lululemon uses flat seams! If you run your hand along the inside of the pant you’ll notice that the seams are tacked down and are flat. This should go cause no room for chafing. Cheaper knock offs don’t spend the time or energy on this.
3) A gusset! Does your pant have a little triangular or square piece of fabric sewn into the crotch? It should!
4) Watch for product features. Familiarize yourself with the various product features of each lulu garment. Does your new pair of grooves not reverse or is missing a key pocket? This is a tell tale sign that you’ve bought a fake.
5) The tear out tags are intact. All new lulu merchandise has a tear out tag on the inside. This tag lists the size, country of origin and fabric details. It easily rips out once worn, but all new products should have one.
In reality, the number of real lulu products out there by fair outweighs the number of fakes. Just be aware when buying off ebay or online. We’ve seen a whole assortment of knock-off lulu, some of it looks pretty close to the real thing, other pieces are obvious junk. If you are really concerned, only buy at your local lululemon store or through one of their dealers.
I had noticed my new Lululemon jacket had LCB on the zipper instead of the authentic Lulu logo. Also the toggle had the logo, but made of a hard plastic instead of the gel-like plastic. Is this a fake?
Hi Erin! What do you mean by LCB on the zipper?
Some current lululemon items are coming out with strange toggles (hard plastic like you said) and actually these are simply old lululemon toggles that they wanted to reuse rather than waste!
I know my classy jacket has one of them on it … I’ve noticed a few other pieces as well.
Hi! I bought a pair of camoflage still pants on kijiji sold as lulu pants. The logo is nowhere to be found. not behind the left knee (like my other stills), and the waist ties are sewn closed (does not have the metallic lulu closers like my other lulu drawstring pants). The fabric looks and feels like luon, and the print seems authentic (the black/grey/purple camo). The seams are flatlocked. There is no gusset, but there isn’t in my store-bought lulus either. What do you think? Thanks!
Hi, another warning. Someone on ioffer is seling groove pants for 25.00. Ebay sellers bought them and now they have flooded the market. Like you said earlier, they do not reverse. Sellers are marketing these as “factory seconds”. Stay away from goove pants that do not reverse on ebay.