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Content about luxury bag “dupes” — or similar products at a more affordable price point — surged on social media in April, according to a new report, with users looking for alternatives to some famous brands more than others.
The recent report from Plot, a management platform for social media teams, found posts about luxury bag dupes increased tenfold between February and April this year. Plot used an AI tool to analyze 1,718 videos on TikTok and Instagram that mentioned luxury bag dupes or similar terms, like replicas or fakes, as well as more than 1,200 user comments.
Plot’s report said Gen Z tends to have a more positive association with dupes than millennials, who also seek out dupes but are more critical of dupe culture. The term “dupes” generally refers to comparable alternatives to a specific product, while calling something a “fake” typically means a product is trying to pass itself off as the original version.
For both millennials and Gen Z, Plot found there were two brands for which dupes were discussed the most: first, Louis Vuitton, and second, Hermes.
BI previously reported that Hermes, famous for its Birkin bag, and Louis Vuitton were the two luxury bag brands most likely to be faked, according to The RealReal.
For Gen Z, the next most commonly discussed luxury bag dupes were for Chanel, which was discussed as much as Hermes, followed by Coach and Gucci, the Plot analysis found. For millennials, it was Gucci and Chanel. The brands didn’t respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Dupes are especially popular with Gen Z, who often share alternatives to pricey products on social media. A Business Insider and YouGov survey conducted in 2023 found that 70% of Gen Z respondents said they sometimes or always buy less expensive knock-offs of brand-name products.
Susan Scafidi, director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham Law School, recently told Vogue Business that the word dupe is being used in place of more negative terms, like copycat or knock-off.
“Not coincidentally, some younger consumers in particular have come to view dupes as a sign of shopping savvy, indicating that the buyer has the sartorial knowledge to recognise the original but the financial cleverness to buy the copy instead,” she said.
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