• Viral Hermès Birkin dupes are selling out at retailers like Walmart.
• Actual counterfeits, unlike the Walmart bag, have been infiltrating secondhand luxury.
• These are the most commonly knocked-off styles to look out for, and some easy tells. 

An Hermès lookalike handbag available to buy from Walmart has gone viral.

People have been calling the bag a dupe, a term used to describe an item that's similar in appearance to a more expensive product. It does not claim to be from Hermès — and is not branded with the fashion house's name. But the bag, which looks a little like the iconic Birkin bag yet costs less than 1% of the price of a real one, is selling out as people seek the style of one of the world's most coveted handbags for under $100.

A real Birkin has a starting price of $10,000 and can run into the six figures. Buying one directly from Hermès requires establishing a relationship of purchases with the French fashion house and time spent on a waitlist, too.

For those who want an authentic Birkin — or any other luxury bag — the secondhand market has become pivotal, with its value rising to $50 billion last year, according to Bain & Company. With a limited supply of the most in-demand bags, some turn to resale to avoid the wait. Aspirational customers are also taking advantage of better prices as a gateway to luxury.

But the sheer volume of actual counterfeits demonstrates the dangers of buying on the secondhand market, which has been infiltrated by "dupe culture."

Business Insider spoke to Hunter Thompson, the director of authentication and brand compliance at secondhand luxury retailer The RealReal, earlier this year about the proliferation of increasingly convincing fakes.

"In 2024, if it can be faked, it's faked," Thompson said. "Someone wears something one day, and in a few weeks, it's been counterfeited."

Each month, The RealReal prevents about 5,000 fraudulent items from hitting the market and has kept more than 250,000 out of circulation since its inception in 2011. Some are sold by unwitting owners who have been misled, while others are part of a larger network of counterfeit suppliers seeking to make a buck from knock-offs.

"The level of sophistication there has definitely only increased," Thompson said, adding that wannabe sellers are even faking receipts, hoping that proof of purchase will sway someone to accept a rip-off.

Hardware — like the feet of a Birkin, zippers, and pulls — can indicate that something is off, as can discrepancies in logos and spacing. For less obvious inconsistencies, the company deploys a microscopic camera that compares the bag with thousands of others, looking at everything from the grain of the leather to the edges of a brand stamp.

Here are the bags that Thompson said are most commonly faked —and some tell-tale red flags to look out for.

"It changes and stays the same. There are always those bags that are going to be counterfeit," he said. "Anything that's popular is totally game for being counterfeited."

Hermès Birkin and Kelly

If you're in the market for a secondhand Hermès Birkin — priced $6,200 to $350,000 on The RealReal — or Kelly — priced $5,000 to $165,000 — be sure to turn it upside down and check the small pieces of hardware on its bottom.

"If the feet unscrew, it's bad," Thompson said. "That's the first thing I'm checking."

And if it comes with an orange authenticity card: code orange. "Hermes does not issue those," he added.

The stitching is also a telltale sign: Hermès bags are sewn by hand, so it shouldn't actually be as uniform and perfect as a machine-made stitch.

Louis Vuitton: from key chains to trunks

Anything Louis Vuitton — from key fobs to luggage — can be faked, Thompson said, with people perennially interested in the logoed bags.

For Louis Vuitton, the color is a dead giveaway, former employee Shelley Alvarado told Business Insider last year.

"There's a richness in color on the real product that doesn't appear obvious at first glance, but once you compare materials, you can absolutely tell the difference," she said.

Gucci's signature styles

"Gucci, it's across the board and that's one that it's always up there — it always ranks very high in terms of counterfeit percentage for us," Thompson said.

Signature styles like the Horsebit or the Jackie are more likely to be copied than niche ones.

Like with Louis Vuitton bags, the logos are a helpful tool in spotting a fake. For example, the spacing and edges of the letters may be off, or the shape of a monogram.

Prada re-editions

In recent years, Prada has been rereleasing some of its styles from the early aughts, which have become popular — and popular to fake.

The triangular metal Prada logo is an easy tell, Thompson said.

"We're able to see the etching deep in, so we could see if it's striated, for example. That's a big red flag," he said, adding that the company uses its microscopic Vision software to check. With "20/20 vision, you're not really going to see that."

The Row's Half Moon bag

"There's the whole quiet luxury movement — those are even harder to spot," Thompson said, pointing to The Row, and specifically the brand's Half Moon, Alexia, and Sophia bags. "Things are more minimalistic, so there is a lack of identifiers."

Without logos, The Real Real zeros in on hardware, the grain of leather, and the stitching.

Celine's Luggage styles

Celine bags, like the brand's Luggage styles, are more likely to be faked than they were a year ago.

• Walmart has been offering a Birkin handbag dupe for under $100, sparking TikTok buzz.
• The Hermès Birkin, a luxury status symbol, starts at around $10,000 for the real thing.
• The "Walmart Birkin" raises questions about the accessibility and legality of similar-looking bags.

Attention, Walmart shoppers: You can own a lookalike of one of the most exclusive handbags in the world — and for less than $100.

The Hermès Birkin is coveted by many luxury shoppers, and the handmade bags start at around $10,000. The hefty price tag means it's available only to customers who have up to six figures to spare for a handbag (and who are savvy enough to get themselves in the queue).

However, TikTok is ablaze with users sharing a more affordable bag that looks like the Birkin and which is available for purchase online from Walmart.

The bags have been dubbed "Walmart Birkins" or "Wirkins," and they're providing shoppers with the look of luxury at a fraction of the cost. People have been calling the bag a dupe, a term used to describe an item that's similar in appearance to a more expensive product.

Their popularity has also opened up a larger conversation around access to styles that wealthy people are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to own.

On Thursday, TikToker Jessi My posted a video of her holding what looked like two Hermès Birkin bags. In the caption, My used the tags "#walmartbirkin" and "#walmart." Her video had eight million views as of Monday morning and thousands of comments from users praising how similar to the Birkin the "Walmès" bags look.

My said she purchased it on the same day she came across a video by a creator named Imani. In the video, Imani shows off a Birkin lookalike inside a Walmart store. Since her purchase, My told Business Insider that she uses her "Walmès" bags for travel, work, and trips to the grocery store.

"When I received it and saw how great the bag was, I figured others needed to hear about it," My said.

The Birkin bag is a status symbol for the wealthy, and has extensive waitlists and a tricky buying process. Walmart customers can skip the line and purchase a "Wirkin" for $78 from third-party sellers. However, some have questioned how legal it is to sell bags that look extremely similar to the Birkin. As an analysis by The Fashion Law notes, the appearance of Hermès Birkin is protected under trademark laws.

However, Hermès' argument could hinge on it being able to prove that customers could easily mistake a fake for the real thing.

Dasein, the listed seller of one of the Birkin lookalikes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment by BI. Hermès and Walmart also didn't immediately respond. Many of the bags are described as "genuine leather" in Dasein's listings.

Hermès' Birkin and Kelly bags are among the most likely luxury bags to be faked, Hunter Thompson, director of authentication and brand compliance at secondhand luxury retailer The RealReal, previously told BI.

The bags are selling out on Walmart's website — making the cheaper option more difficult to own. Meanwhile, the retailer has real pre-owned Birkins on its website retailing for over $24,000.

Although customers are getting the appearance of luxury, fashion experts say there are clear signs to tell a fake Birkin from a real one.

The zipper design and placement, the undertones of its iconic gold stamp, and even the smell are ways an authenticator can tell your purse is authentic, vintage expert Koyaana Redstar previously told BI.

Correction: December 30, 2024 — An earlier version of the story incorrectly described the Walmart-sold bags as counterfeit.

• Luxury brand Hermès is best known for its handbags, which can start at around $10,000.
• Its artistic director, Pierre-Alexis Dumas, said they were not "expensive," but "costly."
• Expensive is "a product which is not delivering what's supposed to deliver," he told "60 Minutes."

Would you call a $10,000 bag expensive? Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the artistic director of the luxury brand Hermès, would disagree.

In an interview on "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Dumas said the 186-year-old luxury fashion house's bags weren't "expensive" but "costly."

Hèrmes is perhaps best known for its Birkin bag, a tote the brand introduced in the 1980s that starts at around $10,000 but, in some variations, can cost six figures.

Expensive means "a product which is not delivering what it's supposed to deliver, but you've paid quite a large amount of money for it, and then it betrays you," Dumas, 58, said.

He said a "costly" product is priced highly because it is made "properly, with the required level of attention, so that you have an object of quality."

Dumas, who became artistic director of Hermès in 2005 and whose father was CEO of the Hermès group, said each bag the company sell is hand-sewn with its saddle-stitching by artisans trained for the task for years.

The limited resources and time required to complete a product contribute to the final price, which can also depend on size and materials.

Even the rich struggle to get their hands on Hermès bags

Even if Hermès clients have the money to splurge on a Kelly (named for Grace Kelly) or a Birkin (named for British actor Jane Birkin), they might have to wait years for it.

Martin Roll, global business strategist and senior advisor at consulting giant McKinsey, told Business Insider Hermès' brand identity is centered on the scarcity of its product.

Roll said this strategy was critical to the brand's longevity and ability to withstand tougher economic cycles, such as the slumping demand in China that is hitting the luxury industry.

"They know very well that, like all the luxury brands, Hermès could run the risk of being over-saturated," Roll said, adding that the brand's continued family ownership is also an advantage.

"You have that stability in the ownership," he said. "And you have leadership stability."

On "60 Minutes," Dumas dismissed rumors that Hermès artificially drums up the scarcity of its product, saying, "That would require a marketing department, which the Maison doesn't have."

"I always like to say Hermès is an old lady with startup issues," he said.

He also denied that the brand withholds bags to add to their scarcity.

"Whatever we have, we put on the shelf, and it goes," he added.