How Walmart and Amazon Fuel the Dupe Economy

And set rules for creators and publishers who promote them.

If anything proved the power of dupes, it was the “Wirkin.” At $80 compared to the Birkin’s starting price of $12,100, the internet rejoiced in its uncanny resemblance to the real thing. This week, a $42 Hermès Kelly dupe being sold by Amazon is getting written up in outlets like People, the Daily Mail, and the New York Post. (It appears to be sold out, but if you want to track this or any other product’s price or in-stock status, the app Carted sends you alerts when things go on sale or get restocked.)

The Wirkin fervor will only continue to drive demand for dupes as consumers and media outlets look for the next viral sensation. While the legality of certain dupes is questionable, I recently learned how Amazon manages to keep the dupe economy going with the help of publishers and creators.

When I complimented a friend on her The Row jelly sandals over the summer, she told me that essentially the same shoes could be purchased for a small fraction of the price on Amazon. This gave me the idea to ask

Emilia Petrarca

to write about Amazon dupes for Back Row. Her story explained how Amazon carries jelly flats and other shoes that are barely distinguishable from The Row’s, along with earrings that look just like a Bottega Veneta runway pair. Dupe buyers who spoke to Petrarca for the story marveled at how close the items were to the real thing.

Being an independent journalist as media downsizes all around us means finding a new business model for this work since many publishing companies can no longer support it. In effort to make Back Row a stronger and more sustainable business, I decided earlier this year to join affiliate platforms, which many Substackers and influencers use to monetize their content. Many online retailers use these programs to pay publishers a small cut of sales of items their readers purchase through affiliate links. I assigned and published the dupes story out of journalistic interest, but figured it didn’t hurt to throw affiliate links in the piece.

Shortly after the dupes story went live in Back Row, I received an email from Amazon that the piece was not compliant with their policies for members of its affiliate program. The email linked to their policy forbidding creators in their program from calling the items they sell “dupes.” It states:

As an Amazon Associate you must not use wording such as “dupe,” “fake,” or “faux” in connection with a brand or knowingly promote counterfeit products or products that infringe the intellectual property rights of others.

…Amazon does not allow the use of the terms “dupe,” “fake,” or “faux” in connection with a brand name to describe an item. For example, you may describe something as a “faux snakeskin” bag or “fake fur coat,” but you may not promote the sale of a “fake Goodthreads shirt” or “Goodthreads purse dupe” if the item is not produced by Goodthreads.

Counterfeit goods that replicate a brand’s logo are illegal, and Amazon and Walmart have to take measures to ensure their third-party sellers aren’t using their platforms to sell such goods.

Dupes that don’t replicate brand logos or trademarks, however, are legal in the U.S. We used to call them knockoffs and they used to be frowned upon, but in today’s age of extreme income inequality, finding a great dupe has become a badge of honor. Here’s how Amazon tells affiliates to talk about dupes (I did not notice language about “dupes” specifically in Walmart’s affiliate program fine print, though Walmart forbids counterfeit sales):

Q: I’d like to recommend something that’s stylistically similar to my audience (e.g., if you like these Amazon Fashion t-shirts, you’ll also like these). Is that ok?

Yes – you may use the following with your audience: “shop the look”, “inspired by”, “similar to”.

In response to the notice from Amazon, I swapped the affiliate links with regular Amazon links and informed Amazon over email. However, Amazon replied saying that this was insufficient and asked me to unpublish the story altogether. I wasn’t going to unpublish a journalistically sound and relevant story because Amazon asked me to, so I replied and pointed out that Amazon dupes stories were all over the internet and I failed to understand why they were singling out this one even without the affiliate links. Amazon replied saying they were closing my account.

It should be noted that communicating with the Amazon Affiliate program is like calling Verizon. You have the same conversation over and over again without your questions being answered, and the emails tend to come from a nameless, faceless entity rather than human beings. Trying to get responses tailored to my questions from the affiliate program’s online chat was equally fruitless. There is no phone number to call. You may as well try to solve your Amazon affiliate problems by walking into a sand dune.

It didn’t matter much to me to lose the account, but I wondered how many other publishers and creators Amazon had told to unpublish their content.

Publishers are clearly profiting off of dupes stories, which helps Amazon profit off of dupes. Cosmopolitan has a story that ranks well in Google with affiliate links called “13 Best Designer Dupes on Amazon That'll Make You Feel So Sneaky.” Instead of saying “Birkenstock clog dupe” it calls a shoe that is just that “The Clog Dupe.” An Ugg dupe is called a “pretty platform boot dupe.” Self has a story called “20 of the Best Lululemon Dupes on Amazon” that appears to feature Amazon affiliate links and gets to exist despite saying “Lululemon Dupes” in the headline. Vibe also has a roundup of “designer dupes” that expressly tells readers what the dupes are duping.

If you search “Chanel bag dupe” on Amazon, the site won’t return results. But if you search “Chanel bag”… you get dupes:

Since the machinations of the online dupe market felt like a story to me, I sought comment from Amazon PR. A spokesperson got back to me promptly saying she would look into it. A few days later, she told me that the message about my account closure had been sent in error and that it had been reinstated. I also received a notice from the nameless affiliate entity that the removal of the links was sufficient for compliance.

But what if I wasn’t a journalist who thought to go to a spokesperson for comment? It’s impossible to know how many creators who financially depend on the Amazon program (most people don’t earn much from it, but some creators can earn thousands each month) have changed or removed their content at Amazon’s request.

Fordham Fashion Law Institute Director Susan Scafidi took a look at the Amazon policy for me, and explained in an email, “A dupe that is ‘substantially indistinguishable’ from an original can sometimes still be a counterfeit, even without a logo, if the overall shape or some other element of the product is so distinctive that a consumer doesn't also need a label or logo to recognize the source. The shape of a Birkin, Christian Louboutin's red soles, and a combination of key elements of Converse Chuck Taylors are all registered as trademarks in their own right.” She noted that these items are exceptions, however, and most clothing designs are not legally protected in the U.S.: “[I]t's an expensive and time-consuming process to prove to the Trademark Office and potentially to a court that a particular design meets the criterion of recognition. In trademark law, rich companies get richer.” (This helps explain why Walmart took the “Wirkin” off its site — that bag looked just like a Birkin. Scafidi said Hermès CEO Axel Dumas stating that “no one thinks they are getting a real Hermès bag” when they buy a Wirkin could undermine the brand’s case the next time a copy comes along, since trademark battles rely on establishing consumer confusion.)

Scafidi added, “If Amazon allows associates to call their products ‘dupes’ or to use similar terms, then arguably Amazon is knowingly participating in and benefiting from those sales and could be held responsible if the items turn out to infringe on the brands' intellectual property.” So, enforcing this policy with creators enables Amazon to continue selling dupes.

I asked tech journalist

Taylor Lorenz

who writes User Mag here on Substack what she makes of Amazon’s ability to influence affiliate members’ content. “The problem with all of these types of programs is creators are a hundred percent at the mercy of these platforms,” she said. She pointed out that lots of fashion content online is now tailored specifically to drive Amazon sales, which means that “so much shopping and fashion and brand content on the internet now is shaped by the policies of these platforms.”

Lorenz noted that while I balked at unpublishing a post because Amazon asked, many creators who aren’t journalists and whose income depends on online content simply act at the behest of platforms. “I know creators that do unpublish content all the time in order to be compliant with weird policies, usually around content moderation,” she said. “These platforms very much have the upper hand.”

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Loose Threads

• Thank you to the Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles and Samantha Bee for discussing Back Row’s story on Melania Trump’s chances at getting the cover of Vogue on their podcast.

• People seem to like Daniel Lee’s latest Burberry show more than his earlier collections. Your thoughts?

• Stars are thirsty for unique vintage gowns to wear to the Oscars. “Everyone is requesting ‘iconic, wow, glam,’ and, my favorite, ‘rare,’” Johnny Valencia, owner of Pechuga Vintage, told Nylon.

• Designers Luke and Lucie Meier are leaving Jil Sander. No successor has been named.

• I did not put “Dsquared2 has most viral moment of Milan Fashion Week” on my 2025 bingo card — and yet!

• Gap made a custom look for Timothée Chalamet, who’s been campaigning for his best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. If you want to read fairly extensive remarks about it from Zac Posen in a press release, Harper’s Bazaar has you covered.

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