How to Spot a Fake Goyard Saint Louis: The 9-Point Authentication Checklist

To spot a fake Goyard Saint Louis, check four things first: the hand-painted Y chevron should have a raised, textured grain you can feel (not a flat print), the heat stamp must read GOYARD / PARIS / MADE IN FRANCE on three discreet lines, the serial number must be three letters followed by six digits where the strap meets the inner pochette, and the bag should feel almost impossibly light. Get those four right and you've already filtered out the vast majority of replicas.

But "the vast majority" isn't good enough for Goyard — because no bag in luxury is faked more relentlessly. According to the 2025 Entrupy State of Fake report, the Saint Louis tote was the single most-submitted bag that authentication systems could not confirm, and one GAM Investments analyst called Goyard the No. 1 most copied brand relative to its size. This is the complete 9-point checklist the top resale marketplaces use to authenticate a Goyard Saint Louis before listing it — and the one you should run yourself before you buy. Compare live, cross-platform Saint Louis pricing on The Back Catalog.

Why the Goyard Saint Louis Is the Most Counterfeited Bag in Luxury

Goyard is a 173-year-old French maison that sells no products online, operates only a handful of U.S. boutiques, and shares almost no information about its own bags. That secrecy is the brand's whole identity — and it's exactly why counterfeiters thrive. With no e-commerce reference photos, no date codes, no microchips, and no public authentication tools, shoppers are left guessing, and fakes flood in to meet demand the boutiques deliberately won't satisfy.

The data is stark. The 2025 Entrupy report found that 18.4% of Saint Louis totes submitted for authentication came back unidentified — counterfeits convincing enough that even AI-assisted systems couldn't clear them. Industry observers have estimated that a majority of Saint Louis totes circulating on the secondary market are not genuine. Between 2014 and mid-2025, Goyard filed 28 counterfeiting and trademark lawsuits in U.S. federal court, yet fakes still pour in from DHGate and Weidian and get marketed openly on TikTok and Instagram.

Translation: if you're buying a Saint Louis secondhand, authentication isn't optional — it's the whole game. (For where the bag sits as an investment, see our Goyard Saint Louis resale market analysis, which tracks its ~173% retail-value retention.)

The 9-Point Goyard Saint Louis Authentication Checklist

Work through these in order. No single point is decisive on its own — counterfeiters have nailed individual details — but a genuine Saint Louis will pass all nine. If two or more fail, walk away.

1. The hand-painted "Y" chevron (Goyardine canvas)

This is the most important tell. Authentic Goyardine is built from three successive layers of etched color applied by an in-house screen-printing process, so the pattern has a subtle raised texture you can feel with your fingertips. The glossy canvas base should contrast against the more matte hand-stencilled detail on top, and you should still see the canvas grain through the paint. Look closely at the Y: each chevron point is oval, not round, and the small white dots lean slightly to the right, with dashes that touch or just overlap. The pattern should run continuously and align across seams.

On a fake, the print is flat — no raised texture — often too perfectly uniform, with round points, misaligned chevrons at the seams, or gold letters that read as a dull brown. As Rewind Vintage's chief authenticator notes, a real Goyardine print is "perfectly imperfect"; a flawless, machine-even pattern is a warning sign, not a reassurance.

2. The heat stamp

Open the inner pochette and find the heat stamp. It must read exactly GOYARD, then PARIS, then MADE IN FRANCE — in that order, on three separate lines, in a clean sans-serif font. Authentic stamping is shallow, even, and discreet. On fakes, the stamp is frequently pressed too deep, with letters of varying size or uneven spacing line to line.

3. The serial number

Genuine Saint Louis totes carry a serial number embossed where the leather strap connects the inner pochette to the bag. The format is precise: three letters followed by six digits (for example, ABC123456), in a small, discreet sans-serif font. If the serial is missing, oversized, obviously stamped, or breaks the three-letters-six-numbers format, that's a major red flag. Note that some genuine vintage pieces predate serials — context matters — but a modern Saint Louis should have one.

4. Hardware and the "G" snap button

Goyard hardware is understated palladium- or gold-tone metal. Examine the engraving under magnification: authentic engraving is sharp and crisp with a consistent depth throughout the logo. Counterfeit engraving tends to have rounded edges and varies from deep to shallow — the signature of cheaper machinery. On the detachable pochette's snap, the capital G should sit perfectly straight and upright with clean, even embossing.

5. The stitching

Stitches should be tight, even, and consistent. A classic genuine detail: a double stitch on the bottom two stitches, located in the middle at the end of each top-handle tab. Thread color contrasts with the canvas on most colorways — except the Noir (all-black) bags, which use tonal black-on-black stitching exclusively. Loose, sloppy, or wandering stitches point to a fake.

6. The interior lining

Turn the bag inside out. The Saint Louis is lined in durable cotton twill, historically in a vivid Goyard mustard-yellow, with the chevron motif on many modern versions. The color should be rich and saturated; washed-out, plasticky, or wrong-colored lining is a tell. The interior should also feel clean and well-finished, not glued or fraying.

7. Weight and construction

This is the tell most fakes can't fake. A real Saint Louis is remarkably, almost impossibly light — the coated canvas is engineered for strength without bulk. Counterfeits, built from heavier coated fabrics and lower-grade leather, simply feel denser in the hand. If you've held a genuine one, a fake feels wrong immediately.

8. Leather trim, handles, and glazing

Goyard's Chevroches calfskin trim is smooth and supple, and the painted edges (the "glazing") are neat and evenly applied. Authenticators flag low-quality leather with an obvious shiny, stiff finish, sloppy or cracked edge paint, and handles that feel thin or plasticky. Run a finger along every glazed edge — wobble or buildup is a fake signal.

9. Packaging and provenance

Counterintuitively, less packaging is more authentic. Goyard uses minimalist packaging and issues no authenticity cards or certificates. If a bag arrives in an ornate box with silky branded tissue, a "certificate," a QR-code tag, or a receipt that's a little too perfect, be suspicious — those are exactly the props counterfeiters from DHGate and Weidian bundle in to manufacture false confidence.

Where to Buy an Authenticated Goyard Saint Louis

Because Goyard won't authenticate for you, the smartest move is to buy from a platform that puts its own guarantee behind the bag — then run this 9-point checklist yourself when it arrives. We've stress-tested the major resellers in our reviews of The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, and Fashionphile, and compared their guarantees in our luxury resale authentication programs breakdown. Here's how they stack up for a Saint Louis PM.

What to Do If You Think Your Goyard Is Fake

If your bag fails two or more checkpoints, take these steps:

• Get a paid authentication. Use a service like Entrupy or a reputable independent authenticator. Goyard itself won't help, so a third-party verdict is your evidence.
• Open a return or dispute immediately. Every platform above offers buyer protection. Document the failed checkpoints with clear photos and cite the specific tells (flat print, deep heat stamp, wrong serial format).
• Pay with a method that has chargeback rights. Credit cards and PayPal Goods & Services give you recourse if a private seller stonewalls.
• Report counterfeit listings. Flag the listing on the platform — it protects the next buyer and strengthens the marketplace's enforcement data.

The Bottom Line

The Goyard Saint Louis is faked more aggressively than almost any bag on earth, and the brand gives you zero help verifying one. That's the bad news. The good news: authentic Goyardine is genuinely hard to replicate at the level of texture, weight, and hand-finished imperfection, and this 9-point checklist gives you the same framework professional authenticators use. Buy from a platform that guarantees the bag, then verify it yourself when it lands.

Ready to shop with confidence? Browse live Goyard Saint Louis listings from every major reseller and compare real-time prices across every major reseller on The Back Catalog's Goyard hub — then put this checklist to work.