How Knockoffs Became SO Popular

dupes clothing items that look just like their designer Alternatives would cost a heck of a lot less that is the official definition if you're an old person like myself you probably remember a time when buying knockoff products was a big fashion No-No but today Tick-Tock fashion influencers can't stop talking about the imitation versions of everything so what the hell is going on [Music] now knockoffs have existed in basically every industry but they became a major part of the Fashion World in the early 1890s European fashion houses set the fashion trends at the time so American designers would travel to Paris attend fashion shows with the intent of copying and designs and bringing them back to North America now you might think that stealing European designs sounds hella sauce but knockoffs were not actually seen as a bad thing at this point they were advertised as copies of Paris designs to make Shoppers feel more fashionable from the beginning they were seen as a way to make fashion more accessible since only the wealthy could afford to buy luxury items right off the Runway so of course the only people who had a problem with the knockoffs were the wealthy who wanted to maintain their exclusive exclusivity European fashion houses even saw knockoffs as something of a smart marketing tactic to help spread their Brand's awareness throughout the world so some of them would actually lice since to sell their designs and exact fabric to American manufacturers but this brief moment of Harmony would only last so long department stores began putting the designer clothes right next to the American knockoffs accentuating the extreme price difference while seemingly appearing exactly the same for most people the obvious choice was to buy the less expensive option but for some buying the authentic and more expensive version became a status symbol and suddenly the cheap stuff became the low class option do you smell that that's classism maybe to really cement the divorce between these look-alikes and the designer Brands they started putting their logos on their clothing and in the late 1900s wearing something with that designer fashion logos brand slapped across it as a Standish symbol encouraged the idea that authenticity was good and those knockoffs were bad and so here we are today with a new wave of knockoffs gaining popularity not because people think that they are real but precisely because they are fake but before we get into that we have to clarify the difference between a knockoff and a dupe which is a Nifty thing that I learned in the process of filming this video now the terms are often used interchangeably but experts not myself will tell you that they are not the same thing a knockoff is an item that is a direct copy of a designer item and they even put the designer's label on the fake item to pass it off as real so when you see a fake designer handbags being sold on the sidewalk somewhere or online and they they actually have the real logo on them that's a knockoff a dupe is when a company like Xi'an takes the design of an Ugg Boot and just puts their label on it they aren't trying to pass it off as a genuine Ugg boot but they also aren't trying too hard to hide the fact that it is a fake Ugg boot for a cheaper price plugs if you will anyway this distinction between knockoffs and dupes is important because what we're talking about today is not copycats trying to pass off as the real deal today we are seeing the rise of dupe culture now Xi'an is not the first brand to make their own thugs back when Uggs first hit the market and blew up the brand Bearpaw made a exact replica around the same time the fact that dupes are being made is not new but the current acceptance of them is now around the time that my generation was growing up in the early 2000s wearing authentic Crocs instead of the scabby no-name brand was like a big deal now wearing a dupe is like a badge of honor I genuinely only had anxiety about whether or not people were going to notice that my Crocs were the off-brand ones foreign checks out and I didn't actually wear them that much I just wore them at home as a result guys like my life was hard so what's happening today that's bringing back these doppelganger products well wouldn't you know it's those freaking kids on the freaking internet again if you spend any time scrolling through the fashion side of tick tock you will come across thousands of videos of fashion influencers sharing their Amazon dupes of current High fashion trends but of course you can't just explain everything away by saying those darn kids nowadays foreign there's a few really interesting factors making this all possible first as we have seen with current gen Z style what goes around comes around in the fashion industry things that were once considered ugly are now cool again like low-rise jeans and bucket hats the same thing seems to be happening with counterfeit Goods they were good and then they were bad and now they're good again it's a never-ending cycle that will most likely change again just like cargo pants will hopefully be ugly again soon God willing the second big factor here is that we are living in the era of real-time fashion which you'd know all about if you watched our Xi'an video and if you haven't you should go watch it basically the idea is that we can conceptualize build and deliver fashion items within a matter of days instead of going to a store to shop you can literally scroll on Tick Tock order a dupe of a luxury item for like ten dollars have it delivered to your house the very next day but probably the most interesting reason why dupes are popular today is what they symbolize today buying the dupe is seen as subversive instead of using a designer brand as a status symbol buying dupes is a way to reject High culture and establish your street credibility wearing the knockoff product is about showing that you don't buy into all that marketing BS that you aren't about that high culture your street you're cool and you don't need a fancy brand name to show off your Swagger so now Brands doing these Recreations aren't even trying to pass off their dupes is the real thing they're proudly saying this is a dupe of an item from an overrated designer brand and it's made them the newest form of fashion so the idea here is by throwing your dollars behind dupes you aren't supporting designer Brands which a lot of people are okay with because you know designer Brands right as we explained in our luxury goods video luxury fashion prices have gone up because of the brand name status symbol not necessarily because the quality of the products have actually improved so if a dupe item costs a lot less and is still somewhat comparable in quality to the designer item then the list of reasons to opt for the real thing just gets shorter and shorter which leads us to our next question are dupes good quality the answer is uh no dupes are the epitome of fast fashion the lowest of the low if fast fashion is a race to the bottom these things set a speed record quality is the lowest priority for these Brands because you quite literally bought this product just because it looked like another product if you purchased Shan and Amazon dupes you can probably attest to the fact that these clothes do not last that long and they are literally designed that way and here's where we get into the irony of buying these products you're rejecting luxury fashion these corporate Elites pushing the classes products by buying poor quality products made by underpaid labor in countries with known human rights violations using exploited natural resources all to flex on your friends from my perspective it looks like you're jumping out of the pan and Into the Fire maybe put in like a Chef Ramsay meme or something I don't know now from what I can imagine there is two different types of dupe Shoppers the one who turns a blind eye to these issues in the name of fashion that is Affordable and the ones who are well aware of the issues but keep buying dupes because quote there is no ethical consumption under capitalism basically if you're being asked to choose between bad and bad you pick the one that seems less bad and doesn't completely bankrupt you but of course that's depressing and there is a better way the part of the conversation that often gets overlooked when it comes to dupes is the fact that they don't only affect expensive designer Brands there's this whole Market of smaller mid-range clothing brands that function and behave a lot like designer Brands used to before they got into bed with fast fashion and these companies have smaller product lines they produce less clothing and they're often way more sustainable and ethical than both fast fashion and luxury designer Brands the business model of these Brands is slow fashion they're not trying to compete with fast fashion in their other huge Brands but guess what those Brands like shin and Asos swoop in and steal their designs and sell them for the price of a Whopper meal Whopper Whopper Junior double triple Whopper now listen I'm not going to sit here and say that Uggs or any of these hype Beast brands or whatever are great or even that they deserve your money but at least they do hold some kind of public responsibility for their products do products are made by faceless nameless companies that can basically get away with just about anything you can imagine even the most well-known sites for this stuff like shin Amazon Asos are still owned by billionaires who already have more money than they need and will still treat their garment workers like but listen I know that if you're buying dupes to fit in with your friends you're probably already gonna miss the point on this one and honestly your friend group sounds lame as hell the real way to get subversive is to get off the classes fashion hamster wheel that keeps you broke and buying stuff that you don't need and maybe just buy consciously instead you know like second hand or just keep the stuff that you do have or repair things or you know maybe get creative do a little Hands-On DIY stuff I love it when I just accidentally dab in these videos God but listen if you like this video and you hate dupes and you just want to live a happy life make sure that you like this video subscribe to the channel and we'll see you next week for another episode [Music] thank you

Channel: Future Proof

Views: 165,038

Keywords: knockoffs, dupes, designer, clothes, counterfeit, knockoff, knock off brands, dupe brands, designer goods, designer brands, designer clothes, sustainable clothing, ethical clothing, sustainable, sustanability, secondhand, thrift, thrifted clothing, secondhand clothes, education, educational, explainer, business, brands, brand review, futureproof, future proof

Id: 0oAUsW4BhhQ

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023