OK, perhaps this should be in another thread, but the pictures got posted here (by me among others).
I ordered a few pairs from this site -
www.dhgate.com where you can find several Chinese sellers offering 'VFF's'. They have pictures aplenty from all angles. The prices vary, and go as low as 20 USD a pair, shipping varies a lot according to where you live. I really liked the colors, Sprints are my favorite, and they looked real enough to give it a try. Having read the article about 'the third shift' and so, I had hopes they'ld be coming from the same factory. I paid 173 USD for three pairs including shipping, no customs paid.
Let me give you a review below, for those of you that are thinking of buying these on ebay or elsewhere:
First and foremost: they are NOT real VFF's. They are well done, but they have a few flaws that make them inferior than our real beloved product. So if you're looking for original cheap VFF's with a nice color, sorry to disappoint you.
So are they completely worthless? No, luckily for me and others that have paid money for them...
-The soles do look real, so they might have been stolen, or from stolen moulds. A major bummer for VFF-fans wil be the thickness of the soles. They are thicker than original Sprint soles! In fact, they are Flow-soles, but they do look genuine. Of course, some people might be looking for Sprints with thicker soles, and I'm thinking of using them for my parkour/running as might others.
-The fabric is looking quite good, but I will have to judge that after a few months of wearing of course. In some of the shoes, it does look just a bit 'silky', like in 'cheap imitation'. But for the moment it's no worrysome, were it not for the fact that the toe-pockets are too short. If you look at the pictures below, you will see they don't go as deep as in real VFF's, although the sole does. I could have seen that! In the grey/yellow shoe the problem is very discrete. The fabric will not be thorn by the sole, but you don't get the same 'feel' in between the toes. But it's not as bad as it sounds, once you get into the shoes, and start walking about. Perhaps the toes might be popping out of their pockets when making more aggressive moves as you would during parkour for ex, but can't tell you yet... Toe mobility is what you might expect from VFF's with Flow soles. The footbed is 'original'. Interesting detail: all the shoes carry model number 116C on the inside, that's the camo blue Sprint.
Check the pictures for the other cutting defect, the toe line is lower, which you might like or not, it has no practical consequences.
- The straps/fixations are really good quality, although not 100% the same as in real VFF's. I have not figured out yet what exactly is the difference. The loop holes might be smaller or the straps shorter? nothing to complain about in any case.
- The shoebox is original, as are the tags and 'discover alternative' brochure.
So what do we have in short? High quality (real?) VFF Flow soles with a Sprint shoe on top, the toepockets are shorter which might cause problems - yet to be verified - . The colors are really nice, the sizing is perfect, and the fit is good.
In short, I would advice against buying these, unless you are tempted by having Sprints with Flow soles for a particular purpose, or you just want to have black/yellow shoes. I will try to post a follow-up in a few days when having decided if and how much shorter toe pockets are a problem.
here are the pictures:
