Well, it may be that the bicycle manufacturer (Stevens, in this case) uses different end caps and cables . but as far as I know the cables are Shimano OEM. The end caps used contain an extra tiny o-ring to keep out dirt. Maybe this is an 'improvement' by Shimano and can be found on XT shadow equipped bikes as well, I don't know. Anyway, shifting improved significantly when I change out these end caps for standard Shimano (the old standard) ones without the o-ring.