Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

These are really great crochet hooks, and a pleasure to work with. Unfortunately, the first time I ordered them (from third party seller Feiw) the hooks I received were counterfeit. I ordered another set right away from Amazon proper which turned out to be genuine, so I was able to take pictures side by side before returning the fakes. In all my pictures, the counterfeits are on the left and the genuine Clover Amours are on the right. The first thing I noticed about the counterfeit crochet hooks is they were packaged poorly. While the box did bear the Clover logo and looked like the item listing pictures, the hooks were all jumbled up in their package. The real Clover hooks have both a properly fitting gray foam base and an upper layer of clear plastic that supports and separates the hooks. The fake ones came in flimsy white foam that was drilled with a row of big holes in the back and small ones in the front, which didn't allow the hooks to be displayed in the rainbow order you see in the listing photos. Not a problem in itself, but a giveaway that something was off. Also, once I sorted the hooks by size I noticed that the 3.5mm and 3.75mm hooks were a nearly indistinguishable shade of bright pink. In the genuine Clover set they are red and light pink respectively. As for the hooks themselves, there are several ways to see the difference between the real ones and the fakes. Genuine Clover crochet hooks have a matte finish on the metal part of the hook, which helps them glide in and out of stitches easily. The fake ones are shiny metal, and have a bit more drag on the stitches. The real Clover hooks have "Clover" stamped at the bottom of the handle on the front, and "Japan" on the back. In contrast, the fakes had the size stamped in black text on the back. The real ones are also slightly shorter, measuring 14cm compared to the 14.5 cm of the knock-offs. Finally, the real Clover Amour handles are very smooth and barely have visible side seams. The imitation ones had noticeably rough joins where the handle meet the hook, and the side seams were much more pronounced.