Macpac quality now that manufacturing is in China

Well TNF counterfeits are very easy to spot plus I'm not sure how anyone can realistically expect a major retail chain to be selling a counterfeit product without the local wholesalers knowledge. Also even if somehow you believed it was counterfeit why would you still not take it back to the store if it was genuinely defective? Regardless of who/where/how it was made you still have a right to redress if it is a manufacturing fault.

I would argue that counterfeits are not easy to spot (to the untrained eye anyway). The stuff I bought has branded zipper pulls and domes, perfect knockoffs of labels, and came with all the hang tags as per the real item (including the 'Polarfleece' and 'Goretex' tags). They've gone to a lot of trouble to make an exact copy.

I have no idea about what the state of fake clothing is in Nepal. However, in NZ the easiest way to spot TNF fakes was the lack of a small holographic tag found by the larger tags for product care. That info is a few years old now so not sure if it has since changed.

sometimes there is little difference. in some cases pirate gear is made in the same factories after the contract run has been completed, the workers may after hours use leftover material to make pirate gear and then sold through pirate channels... the material is essentially stolen and free. the quality control may differ, there may be no quality control..

It used to be that the fake logo was screen printed not embroidered but even that wasnt always so for North face. I have tried to match things on company websites and given up. The Columbia ski pants I bought online not expecting them to be branded are a close match to the ones available on the website and ticked all the boxes from the how to spot a fake page except for the second label whereas the Patagonia jacket I have was well off on several style things but had the right zips and labels. It was bought from the most reputable oldest (and expensive) outdoors shop in Wellington but was clearance. Maybe Patagonia dont list the old models on the website I have no doubt its real but the ski pants are not

FCO were selling the cheap end of the spectrum for The North Face gear, the quality of their different ranges of gear does vary along with the price...

Certainly true Waynowski. For example the jackets they sold were the cheaper laminates (eg Venture) rather than their more expensive ones using Goretex membranes. But, then that was more the market they were aiming at - mum and dad outdoors person rather than serious tramper.