diff --git a/hack/travis/gofmt.py b/hack/travis/gofmt.py
index 1bb062e2f667f10993ac1e63f9c9b1d71e686851..dc724bc90ec8aa52351e155d5a53c85eedbb9e48 100755
--- a/hack/travis/gofmt.py
+++ b/hack/travis/gofmt.py
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ files = subprocess.check_output([
 exit_status = 0
 
 for filename in files.split('\n'):
+	if filename.startswith('vendor/'):
+		continue # we can't be changing our upstream vendors for gofmt, so don't even check them
+	
 	if filename.endswith('.go'):
 		try:
 			out = subprocess.check_output(['gofmt', '-s', '-l', filename])