Dupes on the rise: sticking it to The Man one product at a time
A few weeks ago, I went to a gig. It was great: an evening of chill vibes from The Teskey Brothers.
The most exciting part though, for me, was that as we walked in, I came across ‘my brother from another mother’: Joe Wicks.
Joe is the spitting image of my brother. He could be his body double.
In person, he is lovely, unfailingly polite and down-to-earth. I can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass people pestering you all day long when you are out and about must be, but he doesn’t show it. He’s the consummate professional.
He met my brother, Cameron, at Glastonbury, where my brother was running an area for Oxfam. The two hit it off and I think Joe even asked Cameron to be his lookalike to save him from a bunch of screaming fans.
Luckily, my brother is also one of the nicest people you could meet, a genuinely warm and lovely bloke. I’d argue that if Joe’s fans met Cam, they’d be pretty happy too. He’d be a great dupe.
Fortunately for Joe, dupes are now perfectly acceptable. In days gone by, the idea of a dupe came with an element of shame: you had a “fake”.
You’d put your shit, cheap gin in a fancy decanter, and tell people it was something cool and unique, when in reality it came from Lidl (definitely never done that… sorry guests).
Now though, dupes are cool. There are multiple websites dedicated to them, helping you find a cheaper version of the thing you crave most.
On Dupe.com you type in a URL or a product, then it tries to match it with a furniture dupe.
Dupeshop.com can match you with cosmetics dupes.
On Luxurydupes.co.uk you can find – you’ve guessed it – luxury clothing dupes.
All of this has been amplified and heightened by TikTok, where creators review the dupes and give people confidence that they’re going to be decent.
This is the critical difference in why dupes now work: the confidence that buying a perfume dupe, for example, you won’t end up smelling like day-old roadkill.
Whole brands have been built on the back of their status as a Great Dupe. Take E.l.f: in the US, the company delivered more than $1 billion in sales from March 2023 to March 2024, up 77% over the past fiscal year, according to Fast Company. The brand is well-known for it’s good quality, cheaper versions of more expensive skincare and cosmetics. Offering deals like $6 for a bronzer vs. $42 for the Charlotte Tilbury version.
In the UK, Aldi is well-known for creating sell-out dupes: its Lacura Caviar creams, selling for around $10, are supposedly great dupes for La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Collection, with product prices reaching over $200.
Now, fragrances, once the absolute holy grail of luxury, also face competition from cheaper brands. There is a site in the US called Dossier, which allows you to buy affordable alternatives to some of the world’s most prestigious perfumes.
Most people can’t afford MFK’s Baccarat Rouge 540, which retails for more than $350, but this site offers a version for $49. Dossier was founded in 2018 by Sergio Tache, an investment banker with a background in e-commerce, making perfumes which explicitly mimic big name luxury fragrances such as Le Labo Santal 33, Creed Aventus, and Tom Ford Lost Cherry.
What used to be seen as “trashy” is now seen by some consumers as “savvy”. The upsides of accessing products you want to try, now outweigh the downsides of products potentially lasting for less time or being slightly lower quality.
And, let’s be honest, for most people, if a fragrance lasts a few hours or all day, what’s the difference? And how much more worthwhile is it to spend $200 on a face cream you’ll wash off at the end of the day, compared to $10?
Of course, the argument from those brands creating, producing and marketing the original, more expensive, versions, is that there is a cost associated with dupes. Brands are being ripped off because dupes don’t pay for any of the experience that goes into their product, the craft it takes, or the investment in R&D because they can just nick it from those who do.
The argument is the same in art, music or any other creative endeavour. The artist suffers.
But for consumers, this argument doesn’t really stack up.
Art and marketing are often viewed as entirely separate. Marketing, in particular, is seen as a major profit driver for businesses. These businesses are seen as being closely aligned with global capitalism – “The Man” – than with any kind of artistic expression.
For those living through the cost-of-living crisis and wage stagnation, which has followed closely Covid 19’s disruption of their lives, frankly, finding a way of getting one over on The Man is no bad thing.