Real Authentication Brings its ‘Founder Advantage’ to Stand Out in the Luxury Authentication Field

Co-founders Anastacia Black and Jenna Padilla leveraged their top-tier fashion and authentication experience to launch a company providing an unmatched level of assurance for their clients.

Real Authentication helps both everyday people and businesses buy and sell premium and luxury brands by providing expert assessments of whether potential high-end fashion purchases are genuine or counterfeit. Shoppers can have confidence in those evaluations because of the Real Authentication “Founder Advantage”: Co-founders Anastacia Black and Jenna Padilla held top-tier buying and authentication positions in the luxury fashion world for years before launching their company almost a decade ago.

Padilla and Black held various positions in the fashion industry before each working at a prominent California luxury retail resale store. They then moved on to a leading national online luxury reseller, where they personally authenticated more than 100,000 items – handbags, accessories, shoes, jewelry and more – in more than 30 brands over three years. In senior positions at the national reseller, they also took on the responsibility of developing brand guides and instructional materials and training new employees in research, identification, authentication and appraisal techniques – greatly valuable for building their expert team at Real Authentication.

As their company nears its 10 anniversary, Real Authentication’s Founder Advantage, harnessing personal experience for unmatched authenticity, has established the gold standard in luxury item authentication and valuation. Real Authentication now certifies more than 170 premium brands in a variety of categories, including handbags, watches, eyewear, clothing, jewelry, shoes, sneakers, scarves, hats and home goods, and serves customers and brands in 95% of countries worldwide.

Real Authentication provides businesses and shoppers with a defense against the surging market of counterfeit goods, estimated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as totaling $4.5 trillion a year, and a counter to the misinformation spreading across social media channels, such as recent viral videos falsely claiming Chinese factories manufacture authentic luxury goods.

Real Authentication leverages both human expertise and proprietary technology to verify the provenance of a luxury purchase. When a shopper submits an item to Real Authentication, highly trained human experts not only analyze production nuances, but also consider variations due to wear, fine details such as hardware engravings, typography, material quality, and much more. This holistic assessment is a level of attention and comprehension that AI-based services simply cannot match.

By reviewing hundreds or even thousands of the same item over and over, Real Authentication’s experts also are able to identify trends in both genuine and counterfeit products, and document those trends for reference and training materials for the company. “Real Authentication is strongly human-forward to help ensure the item is being reviewed with all possible considerations included in the determination,” Padilla said. “Our team has the collective experience of authenticating multiple millions of items both in person and virtually. It’s truly an art form, just as a jeweler is able to identify a genuine diamond by looking at it closely.”

Padilla and Black also remain hands-on in developing new technology to consistently maintain and improve accuracy. Real Authentication’s Smart Database ScanTM technology cross-checks data points from each customer order against the company’s exclusive archive of more than 7 million authenticated images. Used in conjunction with expert review, this technology acts as an extra set of eyes, flagging inconsistencies and enhancing the precision of each authentication.

The combination of advanced technology and the experience-powered Founder Advantage gives Real Authentication unmatched success, with greater than 99% accuracy in determinations provided to date – and improving, rather than diminishing, over time.

Black and Padilla first became interested in luxury authentication as many others have – by shopping for vintage items in thrift stores and reselling them. Black keeps one of her first purchases, a vintage Louis Vuitton bag, as a reminder of their journey. And while that history keeps them connected to their customers, it also reminds them that there is no substitute for experience.

“Without access to a consistent flow of hundreds or thousands of items daily, photographed to include all necessary authentication points, a collector or novice authenticator’s view of authenticity will be limited,” Padilla said. “The launch of Real Authentication gave us that access from day one and has only grown over time,” Padilla said. “ We have been archiving new and historical manufacturing details, market selling trends, and even scammer tactics for almost 20 years now. Our early position in the market provides us with a unique vantage point of the market with huge advantages over any service provider to recently enter
the market.”

That wealth of experience, deep knowledge of the luxury market, and dedication to continuous refinement of its art is the Real Authentication Founder Advantage. For more information, visit realauthentication.com.