Beware of fake and cheap fursuits!
I go on ripoff fursuits, why you shouldn't buy these suits, and look for their original suiters that are commonly ripped from scammers!
It hasn’t been mentioned to death already by a lot of furs, but PLEASE DO NOT BUY THESE SUITS! You’re better off saving money from popular and reputable makers and thus supporting the fursuit makers and guaranteeing far better quality in the suits and an overall great experience!
Why?
Cheap knockoff fursuits have been popping around on Chinese e-commerce sites such as DHgate, Alibaba, AliExpress, etc., and those new to the furry fandom are none the wiser--which is why it's important to speak out about it and educate those unaware but feeling intrigued in getting a fursuit one day. I’d recommend a video by MintyChipMocha talking about this subject matter.
The "Green Husky" Fursuit (Daisuke Miles)
Source origin possibly from donthugcacti.com; taken from an eBay listing
This is probably the most commonly ripped-off character with the title and tags describing him vaguely as a “green husky” as one of their keywords. Finding the original suiter was an interesting one, even Google’s reverse image thingy didn’t work! But then I remembered looking at this character on WikiFur, so I Googled “green husky wikifur”, and I found it!
This “green husky” character is identified as Daisuke Miles!
Yes, Odin addressed the suiters name on a video of his but I’d like to add on top of that, the WikiFur article hasn’t been updated since 2013, and his FurAffinity, LiveJournal, and even Twitter accounts have been disabled or removed making him hard to track down the original suiter.
No wonder why it’s so difficult to track its origins! I have no idea why he decided to leave the internet in 2015 as indicated by the Wayback Machine, but I’ve managed to find his YouTube channel still intact!
The "Rainbow Husky" suit (Abel)
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11445045/
Yet another commonly ripped-off suiter, but the actual suiter’s name is Abel! The fursuit maker happens to be made by ino89777 (yes, her!)
At first, I manage to find the origin of this post from 10 years ago from Celticwindwolf on FA - who claimed to found him 2 years ago at Sakura-Con. But my luck seemed to be on my side when I found this image linking to a FA post from 9 years ago, about a harness made for Abel.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14110364
But that’s all I can find about this suiter. No traces of social media whatsoever, not even searching “abel rainbow fursuit” helped too… If anyone has found any traces of this suiter, let me know by contacting me on Telegram!
But however, side-tangent, I happen to find two suiters with a similar rainbow design. While looking at an archived FA profile of Daisuke Miles, I happen to find this character tagged in his “best buddies” section, and I found a profile with a similar character, Skittles, a fruit husky suit made by a now-defunct fursuit maker Mixed Candy in 2012.
Source: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/8084355/
There’s also a similar suiter with a rainbow design, Charm Husky!
https://twitter.com/CurlingRainbow/status/1540361022073995266/photo/1
I instantly recognized the striking rainbow character design as this fella has been on my desktop wallpaper for almost 4 years!
The H3H3 DHgate Fiasco (Cosmic Wuffy, Lucky Coyote)
Of course, we cannot forget that both Ethan and Hila Klein are wearing counterfeit suits from DHgate!
Thankfully, from a now-deleted tweet possibly from Ethan, the suitmaker informed Ethan about the ripoff fursuits they wore:
The characters featured in the first tweet were Lucky Coyote and Cosmic Wuffy! With the latter being, in my opinion, the more recognizable figure in the fandom.
Rivalo Wolf
Rivalo is one of the “wolf” suits also commonly being ripped off, heck, it has gotten to a point where she has to address it on a Facebook post about these aforementioned bootleg suits of her.
There was an incident where a young girl wore a knockoff Rivalo suit at Anthrocon and requested that people leave her alone, as she was likely unaware of the situation and simply wanted to participate in the fandom. Rivalo hopes that people will eventually learn and develop their own original characters.
She questions whether obtaining a trademark for his fursona would be enough to protect his identity as a furry, but despite the frustration, they urge people not to harass those who purchase the bootleg suits, as they are likely unaware of the situation and should not be blamed.
Quartz Husky
Quartz Husky was a YouTuber that used to make informational videos about the fandom and has collaborated well known other furry YouTubers—with, at the time, 150K subscribers, he’s been subject to his fursuit being ripped off…
Domain names to watch out for!
Before we begin there are specific domains such as fursuitsforsale[dot]com which has been notorious for selling low-quality suits.
This is most likely an extreme measure, but I’d recommend blocking/blacklisting domains such as:
dhgate.com
aliexpress.com
fursuitsforsale.com
furrymascot.com (mentioned in the video I referenced above)
and other sites that fit this category—the least thing we can do is remind new furs to steer away from these knockoffs!
In conclusion
If you have the patience to get a fursuit one day, I recommend starting with a partial suit and working your way up to a full fursuit.
One thing is for certain: you should not purchase these suits from specific sites. Instead, commission a trusted maker or even take the time to learn how to make your own suit from scratch. There are plenty of helpful tutorials available!
There are also alternative options to fursuits, such as dino masks. These are more durable than cheap, knockoff fursuits and can be customized to your liking. The possibilities are endless!
While some people have tried reporting these cheap, infringed suits, it is often fruitless due to differences in copyright laws between China and the U.S. The best course of action is to warn and spread awareness to newcomers to the fandom, so we can help mitigate these types of scams and support artists!
For further reading, Froggybutt made a blog post on Furry Animo that goes more in-depth on fake furry merch, as well as fursuit parts.