GRYPHON STICKS x FAKE v REAL
April 9, 2010 by Life-O-Gyphon
Filed under General GY Blogging, Gryphon Products
Recently there has been talk in magazines and online forums about fake/counterfeit sticks hitting the market. Gryphon sticks are not left out of this vicious area for concern.
Currently there are not many fake sticks that we have encountered on the market BUT the ones we have found are easily noticed and avoided. ALL of the fake sticks are sold over the internet directly from website coming mainly from Pakistan. Add the ease of selling through Ebay and these sticks can be bought anywhere in the world.
The problem with fake sticks are many. You are not getting what you pay for and that principle is very sound. You are being cheated. The sticks under the fake skins are usually a very very cheap stick (in many cases a bottom end stick from a different brand and factory which has been painted over the top with Gryphon like artwork) and will not perform at all like a genuine Gryphon. The moulds are different and if you are after a Pro Mould you will be missing out. If the stick has a fault, there is no place for you to get this checked or fixed, so no warranty.
How can you tell if you get a real stick before you buy?
1/ Buy from a reputable store. Check they have a real phone number, address and email and sell more than just a handful of products. A store in the same country as yours is a good indicator of an Authorised Gryphon reseller.
2/ If the price is cheap, it’s too good to be true. While yes sellers can discount but brand new sticks selling well under any main retailer’s price is a good indicator the stick may not be real.
3/ The Gryphons on the market that have been copied are mainly the PRO Tour and PRO Blue Steel, our flag-ship models. Be weary of buying these online especially unless you know the seller or has been recommended to you.
If you have purchased a stick and feel it may not be real we have created a guide to help you try and identify what you have purchased.
STICK IDENTIFIER PDF Gryphon Fake Stick Guide (313)
We hope that this will help in getting you the right product that you pay for and want.
UPDATE:
We now have a list of known retailers of fake Sticks which will be updated here.
Alton on Sat, 24th Apr 2010 5:58 pm
Purchased a Predator today (Yellow stick). Just under grip printed “Made in Pakistan” in black. Bar code is 9332297013465 with GRY PREDATOR YELLOW 36.5 (08)printed underneath on bar code sticker. On top of grip is round sticker with 36 1/2″ printed.
Q: Genuine or not? Any Gryphon sticks manuf in Pakistan? Phoned other stores (Sportsman warehouse etc) in South Africa and none of their sticks have “made in Pakistan” printed thereon.
Please reply asap
Thank you
Life-O-Gyphon on Wed, 28th Apr 2010 3:13 pm
Hello Alton,
Unfortunately you haven’t logged in with an email, so I hope you check your this site. The Predator stick and a few others in the range are made in Pakistan. We have had no issues with the Predator being copied in the market. As mentioned in the article, the two sticks being copied are the Pro Tour and Pro Blue steel from 2009. That said, currently the predator is not made is yellow for the past two years, although there was a Yellow Predator from 2008. This is very likely your stick and we would doubt greatly that it is a copy.
Sportsmans warehouse is one of many official retailers of Gryphon sticks in SA. If you would like to send any photos of the stick to help further you can contact admin at gryphonhockey dot com.
Many thanks.
puzzled on Wed, 19th May 2010 6:47 am
are’t taboo blue steel sticks made in France?
Life-O-Gyphon on Sat, 29th May 2010 12:07 am
Hi Puzzled. No hockey sticks from Gryphon are made in France
I know there were some hand-made sticks from a few past French players being made in France but nothing large production.
KNOWN FAKE STICK RETAILERS | gryphon-life.com on Wed, 16th Jun 2010 4:23 pm
[...] For more information on identifying a fake Gryphon you can refer to this post. [...]
Dona DeZube on Sat, 19th Jun 2010 9:29 am
I just bought a stick from a reputable dealer here in the US. It’s a Taboo Pro and can’t find the information about it on your site. The stick is darker blue than the Dakota, but lighter blue than the Pro Tour and has red and gray artwork, too. Says IPS Pro Series on the toe. Also says Zylon System.
If this helps, it weighs 575 g and its balance is 390mm and my 13-year-old daughter loved it.
Life-O-Gyphon on Mon, 21st Jun 2010 2:52 pm
Hi Dona,
The stick you are describing sounds like an older Taboo stick. Does the artwork look like an abstract eye and wrap around the whole thing? If so it’s an older model Taboo. It’s been one of the favourite sticks of those of us in Gryphon for years. Good to hear your daughter likes it.
Thanks for the comment.
Ali on Thu, 8th Jul 2010 12:30 am
Hi, Ordered a gryphon tour pro off a website called http://jannatenterprises.com. It was a really good price and i assumed it was end of season stock clearence, but it came in the post today and i immediately knew something wasn’t right. The mold seemed bulkey and heavy and the bend too small, the artwork was fuzzy and it said made in China at the top. So i went on to the website to check that the stick was the same. It wasn’t. There was a picture of the offical tour pro with the white line down the back, whereas the stick i recieved is exactly the same as the red tour pro at the top of this page. When i got on to your website i knew, it had all the tell-tale signs of being fake.
I have emailed the company asking for informaition on how to recieve a refund.
Thanks for the information on fakes, just wish i’d read it sooner, avoid ‘jannatenterprises’!