7 Ways to Spot Fake Table Tennis Equipment

Last Updated on May 3, 2024 by Alex Horscroft

Premium products always spawn fakes, and it’s no different in table tennis. While most brands are safe from copycat products, the likes of Butterfly and DHS are not so lucky, with a plethora of fakes floating around.

Nobody wants to fool for a fake, but many unfortunately do. It’s my goal to arm you with all of the necessary information so you never fall for shady sellers. Below I detail 7 useful ways to spot fake equipment.  

My Advice on How to Spot Fake Table Tennis Products

1. Buy From a Reputable Seller

The easiest way to ensure your goods are legit is to purchase from a reputable table tennis seller. There are many to choose from, and with international delivery offered by a bunch, there’s little reason to purchase elsewhere, even if you live in a remote country.

If you live in the US, Megaspin is the best option.

If you live in the UK like me, check out Tees Sport, Bribar, and Topspin Sports.

If you live elsewhere, TableTennis11 and TTNPP are great choices.

By purchasing from a non-trusted seller or website, you expose yourself to unnecessary risk. Of course, they may be selling genuine products, but then again, they may not. At the very least for the love of all that is holy, avoid known scammy websites such as Wish and AliExpress. 

2. Be Wary of Slashed Prices

It’s always a good idea to shop around for the best prices, but if you spot your desired product for sale 25% cheaper than everywhere else, alarm bells should be ringing. 

Take the example below. Here we have a sheet of Rakza 7 Soft on sale for $10.76! The best price elsewhere is $45.95. There’s no point even investigating any further, the rubber is clearly a fake. It’s too cheap for the seller to make money if it were genuine.

Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is!

3. Incorrect packaging

Get to know what the legitimate packaging for your desired product looks like. Then compare it with the product you are thinking about buying. Often fakes will cut corners here so they are easy to identify.

Original packaging sometimes has holograms which are difficult to replicate. Fakes may even come with a lack of packaging, showing no real care has been shown for protection.

4. Misspellings

Fakes are predominantly produced in factories in China — we can use this to our advantage. As quality control is next to non-existent, many products are sent out with misspellings. You can spot these both on the product itself and the packaging.  

5. Color Differences

The correct colors can be difficult to replicate, especially on blades which have many layers of different colors. Compare pictures of questionable products with photos of legitimate ones either from the manufacturer or a trusted website. 

While it’s easier to spot differences in person, you can usually do the job over the net. 

6. Poor Quality

The reason we players hate fakes so much is that they perform very differently from the real thing. If they didn’t, I’d gladly purchase fakes given how much cheaper they are.

Yet the reality is that fakes are made with poorer materials and often thrown together with a lack of skill or care. This makes them easy to identify, especially given the likes of Butterfly have very high levels of craftsmanship.

The moulds of rubbers for fakes are far inferior to the real thing, and as a result, embossed logos and text appear poor. As for blades, they may be of the wrong weight, not symmetrical, or have poor layering. Stamped text may also not be level. 

7. Play With It

The final way of verifying whether a product is legitimate is to simply play with it. You should notice almost instantly if it’s the real deal. Fakes feel cheaper, don’t conform to the real specifications as closely, and are often harder to control and not as fast or spinny. 

I only recommend going ahead with purchasing a product you are not 100% sure about if it’s passed all of the other checks I listed above (excluding point one of course, because that guarantees legitimacy). 

Read More: Best Table Tennis Rubbers

Case Study: Fake Zhang Jike Super ZLC Blade

I thought it would be useful to have a clear example of a fake table tennis product, so I tracked one down (it didn’t take long). 

What we have here is supposedly a Butterfly Zhang Jike Super ZLC blade. There are 7 reasons why this is a fake. Let me explain.  

1. It’s Sold on Wish

First and foremost, this blade is sold on Wish. I can almost guarantee there are no authentic table tennis goods on here. 

2. The Vendor Sells Fashion Goods 

If you’re looking to purchase table tennis goods from an unknown seller, check out what else they have for sale. If it were just table tennis products I’d have a smidge more confidence. Yet this vendor sells mostly clothes. 

3, 4 & 5. Color Difference, Upside Down Logo, No Green Dot

With these screenshots compared, we can see quite a lot wrong. What stood out to me first was the “S” logo. Compare it with the original, it’s all-black and missing the gray and yellow.

Next, we move to the handle. The strips of color running down the center look low quality, but it could just be that the photo is low quality. What’s more certain is the lens. It shouldn’t be on this side. There should be a green dot instead. Oh, and the lens is printed upside down. Doh!

6 & 7. Misspelling + Poor Stamp 

This next photo is also very telling. We can say with 100% confidence this is a fake because the logo at the bottom spells “Butefly” rather than “Butterfly.” Note it’s also of much lower quality. The same is true of the J.T.T.A.A marking. It’s not as noticeable as it should be.  

Closing Thoughts

I hope you learned a thing or two about fake table tennis equipment. They are usually easy to spot, but sometimes it requires a little bit of investigation. I recommend purchasing through a trusted seller, that way you never have to worry about fakes again!

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