When a tip mushrooms or comes apart after a couple of weeks, the name printed on top usually takes the blame. Sometimes that name never belonged there. This post is for the player whose tip already let them down: how to tell normal wear from a failure, how to find out whether the tip was ever ours, and what to look at before the next one goes on your cue.
The player who almost switched brands
Here's a story that happens more than you'd think. A player buys what they believe is a KAMUI tip. Their installer puts it on. Two weeks later it mushrooms, or delaminates, or it plays dead from the first session. The player is frustrated. They tell their league teammates. They switch brands and never come back.
KAMUI never made that tip. It never touched our factory. At CSI Expo 2023, I met a player before we lost him for good.
It was CSI Expo 2023. A concerned player came to me showing his pool cue tip and the condition it was in. The leather looked very rough, and the top of the tip was missing — that small layer on the top of the tip. It was gone. I asked him where he had purchased his tip, and at that time Amazon had several bad sellers putting out counterfeit tips.
What I did for the player surprised him. I asked him to follow me to one of the authorized tip installers, and I asked the installer to take the tip off but to tell me if the tip cuts like my leather. Within the first touch, the tip installer said, "No way." I felt really bad for the player, because what he was trying to do was save money, but he had been duped out of the real product by a seller on the internet who was not authorized to sell the KAMUI brand. I put a new tip on his pool cue at no charge.
The worst thing for me to see is a player lose all hope and love for pool because of the bad people in it. The player was very appreciative, and I could see a new hope in that player's face — that he will forever be a fan of KAMUI. The player is our customer, nobody else in the sales chain. If we can make products that can improve a player's ability to enjoy the game, grow and excel, then we have done our job. But because we are avid players too, we are never satisfied with the products we produce.
A counterfeit that fails takes two things from you. Your money, and your confidence in a brand that has spent more than 20 years making tips for players who want the same response from one install to the next. KAMUI has been at that since 2003. When the fake gives out, players don't blame the counterfeit. They blame KAMUI.
Wear is normal. Failure isn't.
Every tip changes over time. That's natural. What matters is knowing whether you're looking at wear or at a failure.
A genuine KAMUI tip wears down. Chalk abrasion and scuffing take its height down a little at a time, and as it gets lower you may notice the feel, flex and feedback start to change. When it drops below your own performance sweet spot, you replace it. That's a tip doing its job.
Counterfeits tend to go a different way. KAMUI tips don't fray, mushroom or fail the way counterfeit tips often do. A copy isn't made from the same materials or with the same care in construction, and sooner or later that shows up on the table.
So if your tip spread at the edges or started to separate long before it wore down, don't write it off as bad luck. And please don't write off KAMUI yet. Find out what was actually on your cue.
Find out what you were playing with
This part takes about 30 seconds. Find the serial on the band of the tip, the ABC-123 shape, and enter it at kamuibrand.com/sn. If you haven't run a check before, my last post, How to Verify Your KAMUI Tip in 30 Seconds, walks through it step by step.
If it comes back real and checked only once, it was a genuine KAMUI tip, and I want to hear what happened. Get in touch with us at KAMUI USA (details at the end of this post).
If it comes back fake, it didn't come from our factory. If it comes back real but checked many times, the number on it may have been copied onto fakes. Either way, the next question is where it came from.
Then think about where it came from
When the result is fake, the site asks where you bought the tip. Please fill that in. It takes about 20 seconds, and the report goes to KAMUI Japan.
That answer matters more than people expect. KAMUI assigns a serial number to every tip for quality control and fraud prevention, and the number lets KAMUI judge more than authenticity. It can also show when a tip was made and where it was meant to be distributed. Put that next to where you actually bought it, and KAMUI Japan has something to work with.
When I asked players to help us go after the people selling fakes, these are the situations I asked them to report. KAMUI tips offered at a price that seemed too good. Tips sold on a website, on Amazon or on any other marketplace. Or someone installing a tip who seemed reluctant to let you verify the serial.
None of those proves a tip is fake. The serial is what settles it. But if one of them was part of how you got your tip, put it in the report.
KAMUI Japan has warned about the same pattern with an older product. Imitations of the KAMUI cue case, which is out of production, turned up on auction and e-commerce sites in Japan, and KAMUI's advice was to take extra care with individual trades on auction sites and other secondary markets, even with secondhand goods. I'd give the same advice about tips.
Look at what your tip came in, too. Every KAMUI tip line now comes individually packaged and sealed. The photo below shows four of them.
If what you received didn't look like this, ask questions.
Before the next tip goes on your cue
Here's where the price question really sits. A price that seems too good isn't a reason to panic. It's a reason to ask where the tip came from before it goes on your cue, not after.
The clearest way I know to start with a tip you can trust is to buy it from us at kamuitips.com. It arrives sealed and ships straight to you. For players who care about precision and consistency, knowing the source matters. It's one more detail handled before the game begins. Then check the band anyway.
Don't let a fake make the decision for you
Counterfeiters are counting on you not knowing, not checking and not saying anything. Every report with a purchase location in it helps prove them wrong.
You're part of a community of players who have kept this sport alive for decades. If a tip with our name on it let you down, I'm asking one thing: find out whether it was ever ours before you decide about KAMUI.
If you're not sure what you have, or a genuine KAMUI tip didn't hold up the way it should, tell us. Reach us at KAMUI USA through the Contact Us page at kamuitips.com, or call 877-GO-KAMUI (877-465-2684). I'd much rather hear from you than have you give up on the brand.
Be Real. Buy Authentic.
Thank you for being my customer,
John Bertone
KAMUI USA
Last reviewed by John Bertone, November 8, 2026.