There are a lot of people out there offering fake Hydro Flasks for sale. Usually for a discount but not always.
It can be really difficult to tell which Hydro Flasks are real and which Hydro Flasks are fake.
There were some videos online but I figured if I'm going to explain this properly I need to intentionally buy some fake Hydro Flasks.
So I bought 2 fake Hydro Flasks plus an extra real one to add to my collection so I could do an in depth dive into the differences.
The easiest way to spot a fake Hydro Flask is to look at the logo text or the text on the bottom of the bottle. The color and size options can also tell you as many fakes come in colors or sizes Hydro Flask never made. You can also consider pricing, seller reputation as well as look at the packaging to tell real from fake.
In this article we are going to go into detail into the different things you can look out to identify a fake Hydro Flask or a real one.
I've started with the most obvious differences and worked my way down to some more subtle and smaller differences.
1. Logo Text
Looking at the logo text on the bottom of the Hydro Flask you can see some obvious differences between the real Hydro Flask brand and the fake Hydro Flask brand.
The fake Hydro Flask font looks obviously different and there is a sizeable gap between the y and the d in “Hydro”.
The r in the fake logo has a more obvious upper curve and the s in the real Hydro Flask is wider than the s on the fake one.
The real one looks exactly how you would expect the logo to look, while the fake one looks like it has spacing errors which you wouldn't expect on such an expensive branded item.
2. Bottom Text
The bottom of the Hydro Flask is one of the biggest giveaways for telling a real Hydro Flask from a fake one.
I did a full article and video on the differences between the bottoms of the Hydro Flasks.
In short:
- Real Hydro Flasks have the text printed in upper and lower case letters whereas fake Hydro Flasks have the text etched in upper case letters.
- Real Hydro Flasks have “HydroFlask.com” “Made in China” “TempShield Insulation” plus a product code and size. Whereas fake Hydro Flasks just have a size plus “18/8 STAINLESS STEEL” and “DESIGNED IN BEND, OR” on the bottom.
3. Color/Size Options
Many of these fake websites or eBay sellers are selling colors or sizes of Hydro Flasks that have never actually been made.
Any time you see a Black and White Hydro Flask you know it's a fake because Hydro Flask have never made those colors.
I personally bought 2 fake Hydro Flask in ombre (2 tone) colors.
While Hydro Flask DID make these colors in the past they only ever released them in the 40 oz size.
However, I received these colors in a 32 oz size. Hydro Flask never made these colors in the 32 oz size so it's obvious it's a fake.
Also when Hydro Flask released limited edition ombre colors they had different colored lids and different paper sleeves. Click here to learn more about if Hydro Flask made ombre colors.
4. Price
One of the reasons people get suckered into buying a fake Hydro Flask is the price.
Hydro Flasks are expensive and so it makes sense that people want to save some money when buying one.
Why pay $45 when you can pay $30 or even $20-25 for the same product?
However, Hydro Flask place tight restrictions on how much dealers are allowed to sell their products for and they have a “minimum advertised price”.
Retails are not allowed to advertise their products under this price, which keeps the Hydro Flask brand from being heavily discounted.
Hydro Flasks do go on sale from time to time, but they aren't continually sold at a large discount like some of these stores would make you believe.
5. Seller Reputation
Another clear indicator of whether or not your Hydro Flask is real or not is the reputation of the seller and how likely it seems that they would sell you authentic products.
HydroFlask.com is obviously likely to be the most reputable seller. It's highly unlikely the brand themselves would sell you a fake product that can hurt their brand.
They are in the business of selling the real thing so if you buy directly from the brand then you're almost guaranteed to get a genuine product.
See the discounted items on sale at HydroFlask.com
Amazon is also a reputable seller. The company works directly with Tall Ridge as the exclusive seller on Amazon and they have their own Amazon store.
Click here to see the authentic Hydro Flask Amazon store
There are loads of other reputable sellers out there too. Generally these are companies like REI which have stores throughout the country.
It could also be smaller local speciality stores that sell rock climbing equipment or fishing gear or camping gear. These stores likely have a direct relationship with Hydro Flask and sell authentic products.
See Hydro Flasks for sale at REI.com
What you want to avoid is dodgy online stores that either try to mimic Hydro Flask by using their logo or dodgy ebay sellers.
Most Hydro Flasks on Ebay are fakes and below you can see an image of obviously fake Hydro Flasks.
I know for certain the red and white as well as the black and white colors have never been made by Hydro Flask.
6. Lid – Rubber Seal
The lids are really quite difficult to tell apart. Looking at them from the top there is little to no way to tell them apart.
The fake companies have done a really good job imitating the lids of the Hydro Flask.
However I did spot 2 small differences in the lid.
The first the the color and shape of the rubber gasket.
In the authentic Hydro Flask the rubber gasket is a see through/white color whereas on the fake Hydro Flasks the rubber gasket is black.
The second thing I noticed is a separation of the inner and outer plastic of the lid on the fake Hydro Flasks. This separation didn't exist on the real Hydro Flasks.
7. Packaging
Real and fake Hydro Flasks come backed in different ways.
My real Hydro Flask got delivered in a brown cardboard box and it came wrapping in a white recyclable Hydro Flask branded sleeve.
The 2 fake Hydro Flasks got delivered in thin white cardboard boxes and were wrapped in bubble wrap, not the in the white recyclable Hydro Flask sleeve.
8. Printed Leaflet
The real Hydro Flask got delivered with a printed leaflet inside that had some details about how to take care of your Hydro Flask as well as some safety instructions.
The fake Hydro Flask didn't come with any printed leaflet at all.
9. Printed Sleeve
The external printed sleeve that wraps around the Hydro Flask is also different in the real one and the fake one.
These are hard to tell apart and you probably wouldn't notice unless you had both of them side by side.
The real Hydro Flask has more metallic writing and also features 3 different languages whereas the fake one only displayed english.
The real Hydro Flask sleeve was just plain white on the inside of the sleeve whereas the fake Hydro Flask had items printed on the inside of the sleeve. Almost like they took the info from the leaflet and put it on the inside of the sleeve.
With the real Hydro Flask the sleeve was stuck on with a small bit of glue. With the fake Hydro Flask the sleeve was just slid on and no glue was used to keep it on the bottle.
10. Barcode Sticker
The barcode stickers on each of the bottles are extremely similar except the fake Hydro Flasks have some giveaways.
On the fake Hydro Flask barcode sticker:
- It said copyright 2016
- It said “Lava” which is a different color to the bottle I got
In fact both fake Hydro Flasks had the “Lava” barcode even though they were 2 unique colors.
11. Inner Base Bubble
This is starting to really get into the nitty gritty and small differences but I noticed that in the real Hydro Flask (green) the inner bubble was slightly larger than the fake Hydro Flask.
I'm not sure if this has something to do with the way they were manufactured and could be a way to identify a real Hydro Flask from a fake one.
12. New Neck Design
New Hydro Flasks have a different neck design to the older Hydro Flasks.
They feature a longer flat stainless steel strip at the neck of the bottle compared to the old rounded stainless steel neck.
The fake Hydro Flasks still use the old design.
However, Hydro Flask still sell some of the older designs and the necks are basically identical to the fake ones so this is not an easy way to identify a fake compared to a real Hydro Flask.
13. Ice Retention
I thought ice retention would be an easy way to tell the difference between a real and a fake Hydro Flask.
However, when I did my fake vs real Hydro Flask ice test I found that they performed almost identically.
Fake Hydro Flasks are still vacuum insulated and can still hold ice for an extremely long period of time.
There was no noticeable difference between the performance of a fake Hydro Flask and a real Hydro Flask. The differences were tiny.
R Trademark Doesn't Represent Authenticity
Newer Hydro Flasks have shrunk their logo picture and removed the (R) from both the logo symbol and the logo text.
However, older Hydro Flasks used to have this (R) so it's not the best way to tell the difference between a real Hydro Flask and a fake one.
Where To Buy Real Hydro Flasks
If you want to make sure you get an authentic Hydro Flask then you want to buy from an authentic dealer.
Personally I have bought all of my Hydro Flasks directly from the brand themselves.
Very few places actually offer real discounts except during discount periods and this is one of the ways you can be assured you're getting a real Hydro Flask.
Go to HydroFlask.com and see all the real authentic Hydro Flasks
Alternatively, if you prefer you can also shop for Hydro Flasks on Amazon.com.
You may ask “Are the Hydro Flasks on Amazon real?” and the answer is yes they are.
Tall Ridge is the exclusive seller of Hydro Flasks on Amazon and they simply represent the brand on that platform. Hydro Flasks bought from Tall Ridge on Amazon are all authentic. Read more about real Hydro Flasks on Amazon.
Some people prefer Amazon, especially if they already have Amazon Prime.
The prices are usually similar to Hydro Flask's website but sometimes there are different colors available on Amazon than HydroFlask.com
See the latest prices of Hydro Flask bottles at Amazon
