Walmart’s $78 Hermès Birkin dupe is the fashion world’s hottest new handbag — and luxury lovers are fuming
They’re “Wirkin” their fake Birkins.
Fashionistas are clamoring to get their hands on a “Walmart Birkin,” also known as a “Wirkin,” after discovering that the budget-friendly retailer hawks purses seemingly inspired by the costly Hermès handbags.
Authentic Birkin bags — beloved by A-listers and exceedingly difficult to come by — cost a pretty penny, with prices estimated to range from $9,000 at a Hermès boutique to upwards of hundreds of thousands for resale and auctioned pieces.
At Walmart, a convincing dupe will cost you less than $100.
“[For] $80, you can pretend that you got a Birkin,” one content creator named Kristi said in a viral video posted this month, in which she touted her new, emerald-hued handbag.
“I mean, everybody’s gonna probably know it’s not, because who the hell has money to spend on a real Birkin?”
On the website for Walmart, cheekily nicknamed “Walmès,” multiple versions of the “Wirkin” are available. One style rings in at $78 to $102 depending on the size, but has become so popular that it is sold out online — and has sparked an online debate.
TikTokkers have flocked to the chain retailer to snag one — or multiple — of the now-viral handbags, with hundreds of unboxing and haul videos posted under the tag “#walmartbirkin.” Meanwhile, critics of the seemingly unattainable handbag are celebrating what they believe to be the downfall of the ultra-wealthy status symbol.
One creator praised the Walmart bag for making “a Birkin bag cheugy,” or uncool, while another said it embodied the mantra “eat the rich” because of the once-coveted handbag’s sudden mass availability — albeit, as a dupe.
“A bag should not cost more than a house,” one user commented online. “I’m here for the Walmart Birkin bag.”
“The Walmart birkin bag is called a wirkin and it’s for the wirkin class,” quipped another.
“Rich people everywhere will be throwing out their Birkins now,” someone else wrote. “Once a dupe becomes available, that is passable, it devalues their item. I am all for it.”
But not everyone agreed.
Luxury lovers bristled at the counterfeit bag, claiming that the frenzy for the dupe promotes fast fashion and is a “complete disregard” for the craftsmanship and artistry required to hand-make an authentic Birkin, which are stitched together at one of the designer label’s nearly two dozen ateliers in France.
Critics argued that toting a fake was a “humiliation ritual,” while others said they would never purchase a faux bag because they “like quality too much.”
At Hermès, Birkins are notoriously difficult to purchase due to the scarcity, prompting vintage lovers and those desperate for the luxury handbag to turn to pre-loved styles sold secondhand.
While rumors have swirled for years that only customers who spend a certain dollar amount at Hermès will be offered a famed Birkin, the label’s artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas recently debunked the myth.
“It makes me smile that this is — a diabolical — marketing idea that can only come out of people obsessed with marketing,” he told CBS News. “But we don’t have a marketing department at Hermès.”
“Whatever we have, we put on the shelf, and it goes,” he added.
He explained that the creation process is slower because the bags are made meticulously by hand by trained artisans, meaning that they cannot keep up with the rampant demand.
Although, he noted, it’s not impossible for someone to purchase a Birkin, so long as they have the means — and a bit of patience.
“Eventually, it’s gonna happen,” he said.
