Duperheroes - what you need to know about Gen Z's 'Dupe Culture'

Starting in the world of high fashion, and fuelled by social platforms, almost every consumer product now has an almost indistinguishable ‘dupe’ version. Call it a copy, call it a rip-off, but - with more than 4 billion views and counting on TikTok alone -this trend isn’t going anywhere. Brands need to pay attention because consumer attitudes are changing.

Here’s what you need to know about #dupe culture:

The ‘Share Everything’ Era

As evidenced by the ‘Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ signal trending right now, Gen Z love to share deeper musings about what’s on their mind than previous generations (although there is evidence to suggest this has had a ripple effect across other age demographics). Being open about the #dupe that you just purchased is simply the latest sign of this bigger shift.

You, Me and Duperee

Brands such as Mugler are embracing ‘high-low’ collaborations with the likes of H&M in a bigger way and for a longer time period. This shows that traditional rules of luxury brands are relaxing. Perhaps the best example so far is Lululemon hosting a “Dupe Swap”, encouraging customers to bring in copies of the ‘Align’ leggings to trade in for the original. As the Fast Company article states, riding the wave of a trend is smart business: “According to Lululemon, 50% of the people who came to the swap were new customers, and half were under the age of 30.”

Isn’t It Ironic?

People are now using #doupe (26 million views on TikTok) to tell wildly exaggerated stories related to this trend. It’s also sometimes used under #reps (if you sift through the gym selfies). When a term starts to spawn alternative versions of itself and is used ironically, it generally means it’s here to stay.

The lesson? You can’t ignore signals of consumer shifts; you need to embrace them! Whatever message you eventually land and whatever channel it ends up in, start with consumer attention and you won’t go far wrong.

P.S. That Lululemon stunt gave me Diesel-2018 vibes