Where Do Our Pieces Come From?

Kinship is a marketplace. We connect you with a network of established luxury retail Partners, primarily in Japan.

Every Partner is accepted only after a thorough audit and a full business background check. Our Partner Network includes only established retailers that sell new products. We never sell second-hand items.

When you buy, the purchase contract for the piece is between you and the Partner that supplies it, as set out in our Terms of Service.

How Is Each Item Checked Before It Is Sent to You?

Every item passes professional third-party authentication plus our own quality-control checks. This is the order in which it happens.

1. Sourcing. Your piece is supplied by a Partner in our network.

2. Authentication. An independent third-party specialist verifies the piece.

3. Quality control. The piece is sent to our Hong Kong inspection hub, where our own quality-control team inspects it for condition and defects.

4. Dispatch. The order is sent from the hub, and your tracking details follow by email.

You can cancel any order that has not shipped, at any time, for a full refund.

Which Company Authenticates Your Items?

We do not publish their names.

We engage brand-specific Japanese authenticators. Each has decades of experience in the luxury fashion industry.

We keep both our Partners and our authenticators confidential. Our Partner Network is our company’s proprietary asset, and many businesses in this industry compete over the same stock. Disclosing these contacts would benefit competitors and undermine our ability to operate.

Official BRAND Packaging

All orders come with the original brand's packaging and labels.

What Is the Authenticity Guarantee, and What Happens if I Have a Concern?

Every purchase is backed by our Authenticity Guarantee.

We treat a counterfeit claim extremely seriously. It is a claim against the Partner who supplied the piece as much as against the piece itself, and we investigate it on that basis.

If you have a concern about something you have received, write to contact@kinship.jp with your order number and tell us what you have noticed. We will ask you for:

  • Clear photographs of the piece, its labels, stamps or serial markings, and the original packaging
  • Anything in writing from whoever examined it
  • The piece itself, returned to us so our team can examine it directly. We supply the return label, so you do not pay return shipping.

Our authentication team reviews the case as a priority and comes back to you within two business days.

Where a claim is verified, we investigate the Partner who supplied the piece and remove them from our Partner Network. You are not left out of pocket for a piece that is not as described.