What is Fake Chrome Hearts?

What is Fake Chrome Hearts? Fake Chrome Hearts 101 for newbies.

As earlier explained, Chrome Hearts is a leading designer and manufacturer of sterling silver gothic styled biker jewelry. Chrome Hearts is a luxury brand of gothic jewelry, and can be described as a boutique-scale version of Tiffany in terms of the way it prices its products; they never come cheap.

As such, an entire market has developed to meet the needs of enthusiasts, fans and lovers of Chrome Hearts gothic styled jewelry. The industry which sells replica Chrome Hearts or fake Chrome Hearts is referred to as the Fake Chrome Hearts or Replica Chrome Hearts market. In recent times, Chrome Hearts has faced challenges from competitors with the talent, resources and ability to deliver equally intricate, beautiful and well-crafted luxury gothic style jewelry to bikers and other rock-culture lovers at a fraction of Chrome Hearts prices. Today, consumers are given a wide range of alternatives to original Chrome Hearts jewelry. This is an article about such alternatives, which we (unsuitably) refer to as Fake Chrome Hearts or Replica Chrome Hearts.

How Chrome Hearts jewelry is replicated by fake Chrome Hearts manufacturers

Fake Chrome Hearts or Replica Chrome Hearts gothic jewelry typically comes in two distinct forms.

1) Top Grade Chrome Hearts-inspired jewelry: At the top of the hierarchy lies Chrome Hearts-inspired jewelry. In this form, photographs are taken of Chrome Hearts ’ classic designs, and such designs are used as the base upon which alternative jewelers model and design their own gothic jewelry pieces. Such pieces, like Chrome Hearts gothic jewelry, are made from pure sterling silver, and are crafted and polished by hand; hence, no two pieces are ever identical. In truth, it is wrong to refer to such pieces as fake Chrome Hearts gothic jewelry. Since such designers are genuine jewelers in it for the long term, they respect Chrome Hearts intellectual property rights. Their designs, while closely inspired by classic Chrome Hearts designs, are never exactly identical to the Chrome Hearts originals.

These so-called Fake Chrome Heartsare alternatives of the highest possible grade. They walk a fine line in seeking to closely recreate the look and feel of Chrome Hearts originals which consumers love, while never overstepping the boundary into piracy. This is what we do at Punksilver.com. We offer pure sterling silver Chrome Hearts-inspired designs which closely resemble the look and feel of classic Chrome Hearts pieces.

2) Low Grade silver plated replicas: This segment of the Fake Chrome Hearts market exists in territories where intellectual property rights are less vigorously enforced, such as China, Thailand and Vietnam. Bootleggers visit Chrome Hearts boutiques all over the world, take photographs of the latest Chrome Hearts designs, develop the photographs and use them to make moulds which they claim replicate original Chrome Hearts designs perfectly. Such acts are an outright violation of Chrome Hearts’ intellectual property rights; acts we do not condone at Punksilver.com. We make close impressions, but never outright replicas.

One other important note is that when bootleggers are willing to violate copyright laws, they are clearly short term businessmen, and typically also have no qualms about cheating customers by passing silver-plated copper jewelry off as sterling silver. They often even price their low grade silver-plated copper fakes expensively to bolster their claims. A simple chemical polish removes the thin surface layer of silver, revealing the underlying copper. Unfortunately, such bootleggers don’t typically provide quality guarantees. Or they sometimes claim to be distributors or partners of Chrome Hearts. The truth is that Chrome Hearts does not sell its gothic jewelry online through online stores. Chrome Hearts sells its jewelry exclusively through its own physical boutiques, and has no sales affiliates or distributors. Beware of such claims.

Other bootleggers are more honest about the silver coating, and rightly price their items at standard costume jewelry prices ($2 to $10 per item). You, as the consumer, would then have to decide if what you want is a piece of real sterling silver jewelry or a cheap silver plated fake.