Is this a audioquest cable counterfeit fake?

There are no serial numbers and no certificates of authenticity (silly slips, anyways - CoA is a gimmick for Franklin Mint type of trinkets to certify that you have genuine worthless junk, lol) with AQ. The solution is simple - send it to AQ for authentication. I'd absolutely bet it comes back authentic. The posted pics are very far from approaching proof of counterfeit. With 0 feedback, OP won't gain many sympathetic ears until he does this. 

I am in Industrial printing, which includes packaging.

The industry, like most others has been hit with supply line shortages. Packaging materials taken for granted for years/decades are suddenly unavailable for the forseeable future. Package producers are scrambling to get any types of materials so consistant feel or color may not be possible. Furthermore, a compartively small company like AQ, that doesn’t order millions of packages every month will get lower priority than those that do.

A package that has slightly different appearance is not automatically going to be a counterfit.

Agree with mwinkc. Also, I’ve personally seen both the aq Columbia packaging and the jacket material change dramaticly between purchases from legit dealers.