The Birkin Effect: The Story Of A Viral Dupe

You don’t have to closely follow fashion to know about the Hermès Birkin. The handbag, first released by the luxury French fashion house in 1984, has enjoyed its fair share of pop culture references throughout the years, including being a beloved bag choice of celebrities ranging from sports stars to pop singers. The design, named after the late actress and singer Jane Birkin, was even shouted out in last summer’s smash hit A Bar Song (Tipsy), by the artist Shaboozey, which begins with the line, “My baby want a Birkin, she’s been tellin’ me all night long …” 

Arguably one of the most recognizable—and covetable—handbag silhouettes in the world, the hype around the design reached new heights last December when social media went wild for the viral Walmart lookalike bag (cheekily referred to as the Wirkin). Priced at around $80 USD and sold via third-party marketplace sellers on the retailer’s website, the dupe design offered shoppers a silhouette similar to the timeless tote, without the five-figure price tag. It sold out, repeatedly. 

“The buzz around the Walmart Birkin is kind of crazy; you wouldn’t expect something like this to blow up the way it has,” says Courtney Watkins, owner of the Vancouver-headquartered designer resale company Mine & Yours. Indeed, a recent search of the Walmart Canada website yielded a lookalike silhouette available in a rainbow of shades. Made of imitation leather, the dupe was priced at less than $150 CAD. However, while these handbags resemble a Birkin in design, several telltale elements reveal them as replicas rather than the real thing. 

“The craftsmanship doesn’t even begin to compare,” says Watkins. “The artistry behind an Hermès bag is very special. Each one is made by hand, taking hours of dedication, care and skill. The Walmart version is not even a dupe; it’s more of a quick gimmick.” 

Hermès CEO Axel Dumas recently commented on the viral copies during an annual earnings report, noting the brand takes counterfeit goods “very seriously.” Truly, there’s a costly side to counterfeit goods that goes far beyond the purchase price. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the production and sale of fake goods can have “serious economic and health ramifications” for people and businesses. “All too often the link between fake goods and transnational organized crime is overlooked in the search for knockoffs at bargain-basement prices,” a UNODC report reads. 

“Fake bags offer accessibility to luxury culture without the heavy price tag, but they come at a cost—fast-fashion dupes are often made with low-quality materials, under poor working conditions, and can have dangerous effects long before they even reach the consumer,” says Randa Salloum, owner of the Vancouver-based fashion and resale boutique Collective Will. “They also dilute the perceived value of the original, which raises the bigger question of what ‘value’ really means to people.” 

Salloum says an important aspect of the Wirkin conversation centres on the act of copying, a practice she accuses large brands of regularly doing to smaller fashion brands. “It’s easy to criticize a big corporation copying a high-end brand, but the truth is, all of these large businesses are copying all the time,” she says. 

There’s also an environmental cost to cheap designer knockoffs. While a quick Google search yields vintage Birkin bags in near-pristine condition dating back to the ’80s and early ’90s, dupes are often quick to be cast off to the thrift store or garbage. Salloum explains: “People tend to throw away fake bags because the perceived value is so much lower. When someone only spends $45 on a dupe, there’s little to lose; it was disposable to them before they even bought it. On the other hand, someone who spends years saving for their dream bag sees it completely differently. The investment creates an emotional attachment, but the cheap option is treated like a temporary one.” 

Realizing, of course, that a luxury handbag isn’t in the budget for everyone, Edmonton-based content creator Alyssa Lau points to alternative—or ‘alt’—bag brands that offer trendy designs and smaller-batch exclusivity, at a more approachable price. “More and more indie brands are finding their stride in creating stylish and even leading-edge designs with a mid-range price tag,” she says. “That, combined with the power of social media, has catapulted these more accessible designer alternatives into the mainstream consciousness.” 

Lau points to Canadian brand Sonya Lee as a stylish homegrown option, along with labels like Medea, Hereu, By Far, Osoi, Marge Sherwood and Kassl Editions. The draw of these and other alt accessories offerings, is, in a word, creativity. 

“While designer dupes aren’t 1:1 replications of an original design, they are intentionally designed to look like one,” Lau notes. “Designer alternatives rather are more second cousins twice removed rather than identical twins and require creativity to imagine, design and produce. Instead of mimicking a model, alternatives capture the essence of an original design without directly copying its elements.” —Aleesha Harris