Anybody have The North Face Surge

[Clemsonfan15]

I recently bought the Surge by North Face online. I just got it today and think that it might be a fake.

Some of the stitching doesn't look right and the UPC tag doesn't match up.

The straps are also really hard.

I'm just curious to see if anyone on here has the Surge or any North Face backpack for that matter. The hard straps are really throwing me off.

 

[Uneek]

I got the TNF Surge back in 2008 from Backcountry.com.

The ends on the zipper pulls have the TNF logo on it.

I've heard the shoulder straps have changed over the years. The shoulder straps are stiff if you're trying to squeeze the starps width wise. They're pretty soft when it comes to bending around the shoulders. The straps are different on my Surge than my brother's Hot Shot. If you have a TNF store in your area, take a look there.

Mine is made in Vietnam. It's has the a red looped TNF tag on the left side in the main zipper compartment, if you're looking at the front of the bag. There are three white tags below the red TNF tag. The biggest one is a looped tag on top with the material types used for construction, then a slightly smaller looped one with the care and cleaning directions below it and a flat white one on the bottom. The material and flat tags have T196/T595 on it.

TNF quality has gone down since they were acquired by VF Corp and gotten more commercialized. If it comes down to outdoor clothing, I give the nod to Arc'teryx.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Stiff describes these shoulder straps pretty well. Like you said they are really stiff width wise. I wouldn't call them soft squeezing them the other way though.

"The North Face" stitching on the very front of the bag has little threads connecting each letter to the next.

I think they got rid of that red tag and started putting in holograms. I have a hologram and my tags say T196/T595 too. Actually they say T196/T595 on two different tags.

It also says AJUX 103.

It seems well made except for The North Face stitch and the hard straps. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Ha.

 

[WhiskeyCop]

I recently bought the Surge by North Face online. I just got it today and think that it might be a fake.

Some of the stitching doesn't look right and the UPC tag doesn't match up.

The straps are also really hard.

I'm just curious to see if anyone on here has the Surge or any North Face backpack for that matter. The hard straps are really throwing me off.

I am assuming that you did not purchase this item from TNF? If no, then where? You could call TNF customer service and maybe they can verify if where you got if from is an authorized retailer.

On a side note, I recently bursted the bubble of a large retail store when I noticed their large stock of lower priced Denali jackets were fakes and passed this on to a friend and former coworker who now works for Cosumer Protection at the Attorney General's Office. Needless to say, when they showed up with a search warrant and thier supplier was there with a large shipment... The sh*t kind of hit the fan. The dead give away for me was the stitching on The North Face and of course the low price.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I got it from Ebay. I couldn't pass up the low cost, which can be a sign of a fake as you mentioned.

How would they verify it. Different tags and stuff like that?

Another thing I noticed is that the clip on the wast strap is upside down. It says "The North Face", but it's upside down.

 

[WhiskeyCop]

How would they verify it. Different tags and stuff like that?

Yes. Number of tags, location, color, etc. On my newest TNF jackets, one has 5 tags on a lower seam 3 black 2 white, and another has 7 tags in the neck, 5 black and 2 white. The 1st white one typically has the season (ie F10-fall 2010) the style and color codes? And RNI #'s. The second white tag is the hologram. This example is for a apex anda fleece and each product is different. So TNF knows what has what as I have never looked at their back packs.

Check out http://www.thenorthfaceguru.com/

 

[Clemsonfan15]

Gotcha.

You called this number: (888) TNF-1968 | (888) 863-196

I think I'll call tomorrow.

 

[Johnny Utah]

I am assuming that you did not purchase this item from TNF? If no, then where? You could call TNF customer service and maybe they can verify if where you got if from is an authorized retailer.

On a side note, I recently bursted the bubble of a large retail store when I noticed their large stock of lower priced Denali jackets were fakes and passed this on to a friend and former coworker who now works for Cosumer Protection at the Attorney General's Office. Needless to say, when they showed up with a search warrant and thier supplier was there with a large shipment... The sh*t kind of hit the fan. The dead give away for me was the stitching on The North Face and of course the low price.

i'm interested in this large retail store that is selling fakes! can you spill the beans?

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I've been wearing it around today with my 15" Mac Book Pro and some binders along with a rain coat thrown in. The straps aren't bothering me at all. Maybe I just made a big deal out of nothing.

I guess I'll still go ahead and call though, just to make sure.

 

[WhiskeyCop]

i'm interested in this large retail store that is selling fakes! can you spill the beans?

Pm'd

 

[Uneek]

Stiff describes these shoulder straps pretty well. Like you said they are really stiff width wise. I wouldn't call them soft squeezing them the other way though.

"The North Face" stitching on the very front of the bag has little threads connecting each letter to the next.

I think they got rid of that red tag and started putting in holograms. I have a hologram and my tags say T196/T595 too. Actually they say T196/T595 on two different tags.

It also says AJUX 103.

It seems well made except for The North Face stitch and the hard straps. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Ha.

The stitched "The North Face" logo on mine has the little threads connecting the following letters, "TH" in North and "CE" in Face. The rest of the letters and the arch are individually stotched.

 

[durrell]

A little late, but I have a TNF Sweeper backpack and none of my letters are stitched together. Pretty sure it is real, as I bought it from Altrec.com.

And for what it's worth, it's the best backpack I've ever owned. Lasted me through my last 2 years of college and IT work/traveling for the past two years.

My straps are somewhat stiff, but they're very comfortable. I guess stiff can be different for everyone. I'd be concerned about the stitching, too, especially if you paid full price.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I only paid $60, which is about half price.

On y'alls waist strap is the "North Face" logo correct side up? On mine it is upside down.

Some of the stitching came apart one one of the shoulder straps today. This leads to believe that it is definitely fake. I'm in the process of trying to get my money back.

 

[durrell]

Mine doesn't have a waist strap.

Tags:

Logo:

 

[Uneek]

The TNF logo on the waist strap is arranged at the same orientation as a belt buckle.

 

[V8Limited4wd]

Most north face on ebay are fakes, I made the mistake of buying a summit series goretex which turned out to be VERY fake and got a refund minus shipping both ways. You should get a FULL refund for every penny and make the seller pay return shipping if they want their fake crap back. I only buy from an authorized seller like altrec or backcountry whenever they have their sales.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I'm in the process of trying to get my money back. The seller agreed to give me a refund if I shipped it back. I don't want to have to pay shipping back and I don't want to get screwed if they say I never shipping it back.

I opened up a PayPal dispute to hopefully try and solve this problem.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

I got some good news today. I got an email on that said my dispute had been closed. I was worried at first, but when I checked on it I found out that the seller had refunded me my money.

They also said that I did not need to send the bag back. That makes me believe that it is in fact fake. Do y'all agree?

 

[V8Limited4wd]

thats good to hear, and yes it's a fake. you should also report him to ebay for selling fake north face.

 

[WhiskeyCop]

thats good to hear, and yes it's a fake. you should also report him to ebay for selling fake north face.

Better yet, contact TNF customer service and they should be able to put you in touch with whomever is in charge of their counterfeit division and you can pass on the eBay user name and contact information. I would do this prior to contacting eBay as eBay will not pursue them criminally as TNF will, but just shut down that account which will probably hinder TNF's investigation. You may want to seek TNF's opinion on this.