Whether it is makeup, shoes or clothes, one can find many products that look the same, work the same and feel the same, but are they actually the same? These products are known as dupes and have caught the eyes of the younger generation. According to USA Today, dupes, or duplicates, imitate the function or appearance of an already existing product but does not use the company’s logo like a counterfeit would. For some, it is not necessarily the brand name but the price tag that has caught the eyes of the consumer.
“Sometimes if I want a reliable product I can continue to use [a dupe] and know that it won’t [perform] bad,” Alexandra Byrd (10) said. “If I need to do something quickly [or if] I don’t have a lot of money at the time then I guess [I will choose] something that won’t really work, but it will be cheaper. The brands that people get dupes off of are usually better than the [original] — for makeup.”
Whether it is highlighting drugstore products or other cheap products in comparison videos, or simply a conversation at the lunch table, the promotion of dupes is steadily increasing. With the rise of online marketplaces and influencer videos, shopping online has also contributed to an increase in dupes. When a content creator gets viewers to click on their affiliate links, they are able to earn a small percentage of sales, or commissions, through their promotion of the product.
“I know that some influencers just do product brand deals and make it look like the product works when it really doesn’t,” Byrd said. “So I try not to overly rely on influencers because I know [where] they are making their money from.”
Since exposure to dupes comes via social media and the ever-changing trend cycle, some brands have caught onto other brands “duping” their products. This can be seen at Lululemon’s Los Angeles “Dupe Swap” event; while promoting their new Align leggings — the cost ranging from $50 to $100 — customers could exchange their Lululemon dupes for free leggings which would retail around $100. Regardless of how much a creator makes off of sponsored videos, some are worried about how dupes affect brands’ profit.
“I think [big-name brands] maybe have lost revenue but I don’t think it has [made] a significant difference to those big-named brands because you are going to still have those people who will never buy dupes,” Aasritha Butti (10) said. “They’ll go with the name brands so I don’t think [duping] makes a huge difference [by impacting the original brand].”
Although the majority of people do not have an issue with duping, some have raised concerns when big corporations dupe smaller or independent brands.
“I think that [duping] will definitely hurt the smaller business a lot more because when you think about it [brands like] e.l.f. [Cosmetics] — they are known for dupes right?” Butti said. “[e.l.f. Cosmetics] might not credit that smaller business as they would a big-name brand. So I think [duping] hurts the smaller business more.”
With sped-up fashion trends and the state of the economy, the rise of dupes has made it more accessible for consumers to get a similar working product at a lower price. In an era of microtrends, it may be more sustainable to buy the cheaper dupes instead of paying full price for something that could go out of style next month. Even if consumers do not follow microtrends, the demographic for dupes are usually customers under 30 years of age.
“Maybe people are making less money, which is prompting them to buy the dupes instead of the original product,” Byrd said. “Maybe the younger generation is trying to save money instead of buying name brands all of the time and being more careful with their money. Because I definitely [think that] that people who are buying dupes are the younger generation.”
Although dupes replicate high-end products, it does not necessarily mean that all dupes are made equally or live up to the standards they present. Take e.l.f. Cosmetics’s Power Grip Primer, for example. It currently retails for $10 and many compare the product to Milk Makeup’s Hydro Grip Primer’s full-size bottle, which retails for $38. Although the two primers are very similar, some consumers, like Butti, question the capability of making genuine dupes.
“I think there is no way for [companies that make dupes] to includ[e] the refined, expensive ingredients and still be able to sell at such a cheap price point,” Butti said. “Definitely the quality of the product is reduced. But I think that the people who buy [the dupes], they’re not exactly going for ‘I want the same, exact thing,’ they just want something similar and they are okay with that because they are getting [the dupe] for a lot cheaper [than] if they had bought it at a big named brand.”