Unfortunately, I may have a fake TRX.  After looking at the thread below, I've checked my kit again and found that I have no trx labels on the door mount, and my main unit has two 'professional' labels side by side, while the original should have a diff label on each side.  So, I'm in trouble.

Unfortunately, I bought the unit around July 10, 2010, so it's prob too late to dispute.  Though the original e-bay seller is stil on ebay as a top seller.

If I did not see the thread on the Fake vs. Real, I'd never suspect I had a fake one.  But this leads me to the question - I've done several workouts now where I thought the beam in my garage will crack before the unit.  All of the components appear very strong and I never had any slippage.

I understand that technically, there is always a risk of something failing, even on a real unit.  So, what steps can one take to make sure they have a unit more likely to hold their weight than not?  If I suddenly pull the units in all directions before the workout, will that do the trick?

Unfortunately, I really don't think there are any "steps" to see if the unit you have will fail or be ok during it's use.  Only time will tell.  I know from what i have read and researched, that users of knock offs usually have the buckles slip because of the straps being a sub standard material. 

At this point it is entirely up to you if you want to use your TRX.  I would think at the first sign of the straps slipping, it's time to replace.  Your overall safety is key.

Hope this helps!

which of these does your handle look like?

the ones on the right (with little white edge by the handle) is what mine looks like

 the one on the right is the fake, the version on the left is the real thing. 

BigV76:

the ones on the right (with little white edge by the handle) is what mine looks like

I have been doing a little investigation on this topic myself.

1) I've been seeing an athletic therapist to rehab my aging body.  They are the ones who introduced me to TRX.  I was intrigued by the device, so started looking into getting one for myself.

2) I found one on my local Craigslist, from a guy that said he had buddies who were Personal Trainers at a local gym, and they were ordering in bulk DIRECTLY from Fitness Anywhere....; so the Craigslist guy bought one for himself, and a few others others to resell and make a couple bucks

3) by the time I was buying from him, I had read about fakes and slippage of the buckles; someone else had told me the Fake ones might have less weight or heft of than a Real one; stitching looks cheaper, the straps themselves might be lighter weight or glossier.....labeling might be diffferent, etc....

4) when I met to comeplete the trxn, it felt heavy, and looked realistic....so at the price, I did the deal - he had told me he was only breaking even...but since he was not having much luck selling them at a higher price since cheaper ones were available at the time on eBay.....he decided to sell me one at cost (...by the way, apparently Fitness Anywhere and eBay have made a concerted effort to get the Fakes off the market most recently....prior to this there were plenty of people selling what must have been fakes......using generic pictures.....

5) since then I have been on this site, both for ideas for using the TRX (which is FANTASTIC by the way), as well as keeping up with the "Fake" vs "Real" discussion

6) I have used the TRX at least 7 times for 45min work-outs, it works fine, feels sturdy, and there is no slippage...I figure the more work-outs I ge tout of it, the lower my average cost per use comes down (yes...rationalizing - in case it is a Fake)

7) as far as the handles goes.....My original Therapist, got theirs a little while back, and it looks more like the one on the right, that is the inner cylinder/tube of the handle is smooth, and simply ends, as if you could have cut it off like yours...(HOWEVER it was BLACK).....then of course it is foam wrap...however I went to a local fitness store retailer that sells the TRX and looked at a new one, and it looks more like the handle tube on the LEFT, whereby I mean the tube end is raised or flares up at both ends .... sort of to hold the foam wrap in place....like a thread spool might flare....BOTH of these are Real ones Direct from Fitness Anywhere...

8) MINE looks more like the one on the LEFT, with the raised edge....my door anchor does NOT have a little cloth/material tab just above the main loop - the TWO I saw from Fitness Anywhere for sure, BOTH have this little material Tab that says either TRX or Professional  ...lastly BOTH or my straps, near the handle have a little plastic LOGO rectangle sewn in, but they BOTH say Professional....whereas apparently TRX uses 2 different Logos for each side.....one side says TRX ... and the other says Professional

9) ....so ..either, I have a Real one and during assembly, they are NOT that careful (unlikely)...or I have a well made Fake one....that has not started to slip, and feels pretty sturdy....

10) If the Buckle on mine starts to slip, I will stop using it, and buy a real one DIRECT....if the Stitching on mine starts to go, I will take it to a shoemaker and have him re-stitch everywhere to reinforce.....(I guess he would charge me $20 bucks)....If it is just a question of labels...big whoop......as I said before everytime I use it, my average cost per workout comes down....I am now down to about $14 bucks per use..... a couple more weeks and I will be down in the single digits.....compare that to the HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS (think B__flex) people spend on useless stuff that just sits around.....or the Gym memberships people so many of us rarely use

11) FYI:  on a Google search several weeks back, I came across the option of ordering  TRX's in bulk from China, presumably to sell/resell and there were  SEVERAL "factories" or wholesalers willing to ship them if you bought them in bulk.....perhaps there were a number of factories / companies and their quality varied from one factory to another.....then there is that old story about the Real thing and Fakes coming from the same factory)....who knows......it's like the X files.......this is the TRX Files..... The Truth is out there ....

Good Luck....

wiltx:

which of these does your handle look like?

 

 

I don't know, both of those look a bit off to me. If anything the one on the right is what the handle on a real TRX would look like. Unless of course, Fitness Anywhere changed the design of the handles, which is news to me if they did...

Here is the picture of my handle:

The version on the left was bought new from fitnessanywhere last week.  The one on the right was a fake bought off of ebay.  When I showed a picture of the handle on the right to the customer service rep at fitnessanywhere.com, they immediately told me it was a fake.

If what you're saying is the case, then what was confusing just got a whole lot more confusing.

LOL Yeah, no kidding.

That is interesting. They may have redesigned the material and diameter of the plastic inside the handles then from the one I bought from them just back in April.

Which is certainly possible, being there were a number of complaints from a few people a while back about the handles busting on them after a while. Which in those cases, I don't know if they had real one's or not, it never crossed anyone's mind at the time. Possibly though, because I use and abuse the hell out of my TRX doing downright craziness with it including hardcore plyo like Suspended Lunges with Power in a superset with Suspended Burpees, and my handles haven't even thought of busting to the slightest....

well, so much for telling if it's real from the handles.   lol

 I bought my TRX from Fitness Anywhere about 18 months ago and my handles look like the one on the right. They must have changed the design of the handle in response to complaints of the foam shredding.

then it seems odd that customer service immediately told me I had a fake based on the picture of the handle on the right...

That is rather odd that they would make that determination simply on that basis.

But, I suppose either way you know that you have the real deal now, and that itself helps take out any potential worry that you can be injured from a cheaply designed replica...

Customer service has been trained to spot the fakes and it is more than just the lip on the handle.  If you think you have a fake, give customer service a call.

Fitness Anywhere does not sell wholesale out of China.  If you've found someplace that claims to sell in bulk or wholesale out of China, they are probably fake.

I can only tell you that in my case, they determined mine was fake based on a picture of the lip of the handle.  Which, apparently, looks just like other people's real TRX trainers.

I just can't believe there's no way to tell a real one from a fake without 'training'