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Fake Babolat Pure Drive

Recently, there have been several reports and articles documenting fake tennis racquets flooding the market especially on the web. Most tennis racquets especially Head, Wilson and Babolat are manufactured under license and in accordance to strict patent and manufacturing guidelines from their respective makers. Manufacturers also maintain a high level of quality control in adhering to precise model specifications. There is also a possibility that some stock were leaked out or stolen finding its way into the black market. But since these are originals, there wouldn't be much of an issue to the buyer. What we would be actually more concerned about are the actual fake or counterfeit tennis racquets that are a replica or mimics the original tennis racquet. I had to see one for myself before I could actually make distinctions and comment on fake tennis racquets, build quality and how close are they to the original. I was fortunate enough to experience and see first hand how a fake Babolat Pure Drive looked like courtesy of Kenneth's dad who managed to acquire a fake Babolat Pure Drive from China for an amazing $10 Singapore dollars!

Before proceeding with this article, I would like to highlight a few things. I am in NO way encouraging the purchase of fake or counterfeit goods. Besides running the risk of prosecution in certain countries, many counterfeit products use inferior and shoddy materials as well as have differences in weight balance/distribution, stiffness and other specifications. All proprietary technologies unique to an original manufacturer's frame such as Babolat's Woofer/Aero Modular/Cortex technology, Wilson's NCode nanotechnology as well as Head's Liquid Metal, Flexpoint and its latest MicroGel technologies will be all missing. What you get is just something that looks almost identical but minus all these technologies that differentiates as well as give each frame, manufacturer and model its specific uniqueness and characteristics.

Which is the genuine Babolat Pure Drive? Read more below to find out?

Type of fake or different grades of fakes.

As with many counterfeit and fake goods. There are various degrees and quality of a counterfeit product. This can be from the actual likeness of the product to the quality materials and workmanship used on the product. As with fake watches, wallets and clothing some fakes can be identified almost immediately but some require a second look. These can be classified by grades, for instance like in watches and wallets there are Grade s A fakes which seem extremely similar and mimics the likeness of the original in quality and appearance. As the class range goes lower, they become generally poor counterfeit products which anybody can easily spot. In terms of tennis racquets, from what I heard there are some really obvious fakes and from one look you could tell it's an outright counterfeit. There are however some really good Grade A fakes that look very similar to the real genuine tennis racquet. These in my opinion are the ones that you could get fooled with.

Can you spot which of the two racquets above is the fake Babolat Pure Drive? The one on the left is the fake. Note the more Elongated head size of the fake Pure Drive.

The subject on display here is a fake Babolat Pure Drive. I wouldn't say this is a class A fake, as if you've played and used a Babolat Pure Drive from the initial look you'll know that it's not a good fake. I must however say that if you're just glancing at the fake Babolat Pure Drive from a distance, and not look at it up close, you'll think that it's the real thing. I have taken a couple of photos comparing the genuine Babolat Pure Drive with the Fake. I think it will be a no brainer for those who are owners of the Babolat Pure Drive. But I must say for SGD$10 it's pretty cheap and looks really good in terms of color and paintwork.

Differences:

In terms of weight, racquet balance and grip size it's totally off the mark and this is where somebody could really get hurt. The strings which came with the racquet reminds me more of loosely strung nylon fishing line then tennis guts. I have not tried hitting with it as most likely you'll be launching the balls to the moon with the low tension and the super light weight of this racquet. It is also very head heavy compared to the near balance weight of the genuine Babolat Pure Drive. The head of the racquet just dropped when I tried to balance the racquet by the throat. The grip size felt something like an even SL0 equivalent to a L4 even smaller than a 4 1/8!

The frame of the fake Babolat Pure Drive (bottom) is much thinner than the genuine one.

The shape of the head is also more oval and elongated compared to the original Babolat Pure Drive standard which is very obvious. The other most obvious difference is the thickness and width of the frame. It is very thin throughout the length of the entire frame as well as the neck of the racquet which gives it away almost immediately. Like I mentioned before, the paintwork is really very good and color is slightly only off from the blue neon paintwork. It looks more like the old paintwork of the first generation Babolat Pure Drive but like I said before the color is very good. The main impressive thing about this fake Babolat Pure Drive was the fact that at the part where the hologram of authenticity should be, there was the words warranty void if hologram is missing that's exactly what's printed on the original if the hologram was removed. Maybe there is no sticker there just to say "Hey look I’ve purchased a fake Babolat Pure Drive"! :)

The fake Babolat Pure Drive even has the "If Hologram Missing No Warranty" printed on it! Even fakes have attention to details! Also take note of the color variation. Build quality & paintwork is also surprisingly good!

For those who have other models of counterfeit or fake tennis racquets, please send me your pictures as well as a short brief of how you found the racquet. Once again I would highly recommend against purchasing such fake tennis racquets. It’s clearly not worth getting a long term injury due to this. If you're really on a shoestring budget go buy the racquet 2nd hand but never purchase a fake tennis racquet. Also try to purchase your racquets only from a reputable dealer on online store unless you already know how to tell the differences between a genuine and a fake racquet.

More Images of Fake Babolat Pure Drive Here.

Yeah, the chances are that the racquet is a face... given it has the distinctly thinner frame... However the headshape looks very much like the OS version of the pure drive... there are other give aways to spot a fake but that head shape is in fact likely the OS style which Babolat carries in its pure drive series. Either way your blog was very interesting and helped clear a few things up for me...

I bought a kfactor six.one tour on eBay. There is the usual discrepancy between Karbon and Karophite.

The fake was more mat, the paint came off when I peeled back the grip. The grip was a Wilson truegrip, rather than the Fairway leather grip, and was a custard yellow colour. The hologram was printed on the frame, and not a sticker, and the grip size label was missing.

The headcover looked good, but I usually bin those anyway.

Seems quite light too, but when I see the guy who sold it to me and I wrap it around his head, he won't appreciate the fact that it is head heavy rather than head light.

Hi my name is Imam from Indonesia. I like what you wrote about fake rackets and I want to share it with readers in Indonesia as i found it is very useful information. So, I would like to ask your permission to, maybe quote a little and put some photos of evidence of yours. Me Myself, has a blog about tennis which is in Indonesian language, please check it out sometimes @ http://prasso.wordpress.com
Thank you

best regards,

Imam Prasso

Hi,

Thank you very much for your blog.
I was about to buy 2 brand new aero pure drive for 85€ each which were originally sold at 35€ each on e-bay.

I still don't know if they are fake or not but taking in consideration the price, I forgot about it.

Thanks
Steeve
France

I have found the secret to this fake babolat. Look at Photo ten or the inside of the raquet and look specifically at the inside paint job. You'll see that on the fake the blue paint stops at the letter L while in the real one the paint stops at the letter T.

This is CY, I recently bought an Aero Drive Pro from Yahoo HK Auction which later was found to be fake. The most obvious sign is the racquet is like what you have mentioned, the racquet is head heavy onstead of head light. The word "technology" on the frame is spelled as "echnology". Paint job on the cover is printed with off alignment. I am really upset of being conned.

this is also true with the babolat pure control team mid plus. I recently bought one on ebay and it has the same exact diferences listed above.

do you think it is from the same distributor?

Hi there, do u think this is a fake?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Babolat-Pure-Drive-Tennis-Racquet-NEW-RPR-349-grip4-3-8_W0QQitemZ250529320026QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Tennis_Sporting_Equipment?hash=item3a54b60c5a

Hi Bryan,

I can't really tell from the images posting on the link provided. Many sellers who post fake stuff use the real images anyway and even if they use the images of a fake, they are so good that you can hardly tell the difference unless you "physically scrutinize" the racquet. As can be seen in my previous post on the Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (cortex) version.

http://www.regentville.com/2009/09/fake-babolat-aero-pro-drive-tennis.html

Everything looks alike until I did a "physical side by side" examination comparing it to a genuine one. You also cannot do a weight balance test by just looking at an image or photos posted by the seller of the tennis racquet.

My advice is pay more to get a genuine racquet. There is no point trying to save a few bucks only to find out that you have purchased a fake racquet. If you still want to get it from an online source, buy it from a reputable online seller or store such as Tennis Warehouse. Sure, you'll end up paying more, but at least you know its the real thing... Hope this helps.

Nawin

This comment has been removed by the author.

Hi. I've just came upon a babolat aeropro fake. can you send me advice on how to proceed to help track this to the criminals selling this crap?

Hi DCUPtoejuice, I would suggest that you get in touch with the local Babolat distributor/reseller in your country or state. They will handle the matter from there.

I had read your article it ha a lot of information and its great.

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  • I'm Nawin from regentville
  • Residing in Hougang Singapore
  • Racquets: X2 Prince EXO3 Graphite 100 (Main) X3 Wilson K Blade Tour 93 (Backup) Strings: Toalson Ultimate 115 Strung @ 48-50 pounds. Plays: Right Handed (Single Backhand). Shoes: mi Adidas Barricade V Apparel: Lacoste & Adidas Favourite Players: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic

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