R11 FCT Sleeve Adapter: Fakes

After the original R9 FCT sleeve (1st generation), it's been pretty difficult to tell (genuine or fakes), as these people who makes them sleeves puts in extra effort to perfect them. Fake FCT sleeves that are reproduced by counterfeiters are no longer straight bore; they are now able to adjust. So its not as easy to tell them apart anymore.
You may get a sleeve that is not straight bore and you go "oh I bought the real deal". THINK TWICE

Just a couple of weeks back my friend Nick was asking me: "Why are there china sellers on eBay selling the R11 FCT sleeves at rock bottom price? They can't be real can they?"
I replied "I am not 100% sure if its the real deal, but hey, this guy is selling over 130pcs in less than a month....compared to my pathetic 1 a day. However, I can't compete with the china sellers' prices. It would be below cost for me"
Nick was puzzled and decided to do some digging on his own. Obviously, his sales are equally as affected as mine.

My friend Nick decided to buy a sleeve from a china seller; to have a look.
When he received it, he told me there were differences. He then shipped the 'china guy' sleeve to me.
Kudos to Nick for the effort.

The first thing I looked out for were the basics:
Number printed above (production number)   CHECK
Slanted and not a straight bore sleeve             CHECK
Ok, so at first look, its decent. A casual person would be happy with this purchase.

I looked deeper into it. The differences I see are very fine. You'd need a seasoned eye to look out for it. Which proves the improvement of counterfeit technology and equipment. LOL

To look out for these: (click on pictures to enlarge)

1) The fonts were different

 Fonts are slightly different, the line is slightly thicker on the china guy sleeve

2) The color on the china guy sleeve is chili red; the real sleeve is like a glossy red
3) The china guy sleeve is slightly longer
4) The base depth line on the china guy sleeve is longer

As above, you can see that the real sleeve has more 'slant' compared to that of the china guy's

The slant determines the adjustments of the club

5) The lines on the teeth are more significant on the real sleeve and seems more 'natural and consistent

6) The top part of the FCT sleeve where it forms a curves:

The real one is deeper; china guy's sleeve is quite shallow and not as deep 

The real FCT sleeve forms a curve nicely downwards; china guy's is flat straight

 You can see that on the top part of the Real FCT sleeve where it curves, it curves downwards too; the china guy's sleeve curved surface is flat

7) I measured the depth of the sleeve (How deep your shaft goes into the sleeve)

Real sleeve: 6.957 inch

China Guy: 7.031 inch

Hope this is helpful as the old guides to spotting fake FCT sleeves from the 1st generation R9 series are no longer helpful with spotting them for the R11. The fakes are so nicely done now.

So china folks selling them at rock bottom price? Think again...and again. Unless you don't mind that 2 degrees become 1 degree. LOL!

Shoutout to Nick; thanks for your initiative on this

*After consulting a few friends, they told me that the china guy's sleeves are counterfeits.
Part of the mould of the sleeves were stolen and they tried to do their own copies. That is why although their sleeves has slant, it is minimal and not 100% accurate