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I've started to ask people in the climbing community if they bought anything besides the guide or their pants on Amazon. I'm not climbing with any gear from that store.

I've bought a few other things on Amazon that were counterfeit, which is why I cancelled my prime subscription and now look at other stores first. Never ordered climbing gear, but fake jackets are bad enough.

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Some manufacturers do list directly on Amazon. If it's a huge discount I've done this but double check the seller. In general, I'll just use backcountry.com or REI though since I don't have to worry about a fake.

Due to Amazon's co-mingling of products, even if you buy from a reputable seller you might still get a counterfeit.

I ended up buying a pair of replacement snowboarding liner gloves from BackCountry after several Amazon reviews mentioned "sudden decreased quality from the last time I ordered". I doubted Burton quality had suddenly dropped off a cliff, so I suspected the listing was now pointing toward a counterfeit product.

I ordered from BackCountry and loved the gloves just as much as I always had. I don't know if the Amazon listing had truly been hijacked by a counterfeit, but I'm glad I didn't risk it and I tend to try to go to other sites first now.

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