Black Market

Barnmate showed me her recent purchase yesterday and it left me a little confused. It was supposedly a second run model of a Prestige. It looked..off. She only paid $450 for it but it didn't fit her horse. For kicks and giggles I tried it on Ries as someone suggested a Prestige might work well for him. I even sat in it on a saddle stand.

But I couldn't get over the feeling that something wasn't quite right about it. I inspected it and remembered my training from the tack shop I worked at to determine the quality. The stitching seemed decent, but there were little cuts of quality. There were areas where the leather wasn't trimmed and just some small half-asses mistakes. 

And the leather. It was described as "calf skin". The top side felt soft-ish but the underside felt like plastic and it didn't take to oiling. Barnmate also said when she cleaned it some of the dye came off on her sponge. Seemed fishy. I consulted with my tack extraordinaires L from Viva Carlos and Carey from Me Jump Pretty One Day and got their opinions. Carey is double checking with the tack buyer at her store but I think it's a fair assumption to say its a knockoff.

It was semi comfortable to sit in, but the panels seemed foam and not wool. the stitching details of the fluer de lis is just not quite as articulate as the stock photo, and lets be real, it looks kinda cheap and ugly. Not to mention the black cantle instead of cream? 

Have you come across any questionable knock-offs?  I saw some knock-off PS of Sweden bridles..wonder how they fare...