‘Bought all the colors’: The girlies are obsessed with Costco’s $13 dupe of Lululemon’s $118 Scuba jacket

Costco has been making headlines in recent weeks for a variety of reasons, but the current trend comes from fashion-conscious athleisure wear TikTokers finding Lululemon Scuba sweatshirt dupes at the wholesaler. 

Girlies are loving the Costco Lululemon Scuba dupe

The official Scuba sweatshirt has become a staple of the fitness-meets-streetwear aesthetic, beloved for its ultra-cozy fleece, oversized fit, and signature high collar with thumb-hole sleeves, but the $118+ price tag puts it out of many people’s budgets. Luckily, as folks on TikTok have pointed out, there is a solution and it comes at a much more reasonable price of around $13 at Costco.

Costco’s reputation for selling shockingly good knockoffs isn’t new, but TikTok has taken the hype to another level. Every year, the app revives the dupe discourse, sending shoppers into a frenzy over budget-friendly alternatives to designer items.

Users have been flooding TikTok with side-by-side comparisons, showing Costco’s dupe colors and styles that seem to almost perfectly match the original, more expensive, sweater.

Costco’s success in the dupe game isn’t just a lucky coincidence. The brand has built a reputation for offering high-quality, low-cost alternatives to trendy products—sometimes so close in quality that people speculate they come from the same manufacturers, such as Grey Goose and Lululemon’s “buttery-soft” leggings.

Origin of the ‘dupe’ as a concept

The growing popularity of dupes isn’t just about saving money; it’s a full-fledged cultural shift. Items once considered cheap knockoffs are now lovingly referred to as “dupes,” a term first coined by cosmetics enthusiasts in the early 2000s when high-quality beauty products would sell out quickly and they needed to find the next best thing.

Influencers and savvy shoppers now proudly share their best budget-friendly finds. According to an article from 2023 in Washington Post, “Such items used to be called knockoffs. They used to be embarrassing. [...] They used to be the way to fit in, not the way to stand out.” 

“Influencers and aggregators crow about their finds as ‘an incredible dupe for Hailey Bieber’s party dress,’ or ‘a perfect dupe for Kate Middleton’s red Alexander McQueen coat,’” the writer noted. 

In a time when designer prices are reaching absurd new heights, who wouldn’t want an affordable alternative? Dupes like Costco’s just make certain looks more achievable and accessible to more people. 

Are dupes just fast fashion?

One of the big issues with dupes is that often, they are a product of fast fashion and can potentially be copying smaller fashion designers, cutting them out of the production, and profit, of their designs.

In an interview with Fashionista, several small-scale fashion designers shared their views on the issue of dupes. 

"It's understandable [if] people don't have the funds to afford certain items," Saudia Islam, founder of JBD Apparel, said. "But a lot of people are simply neglecting the physical labor it requires to make these types of garments. [...] People then start to view our clothes as not being worth what we're charging, considering fast-fashion brands are putting out similar pieces for a fraction of the price."

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘Bought all the colors’: The girlies are obsessed with Costco’s $13 dupe of Lululemon’s $118 Scuba jacket appeared first on The Daily Dot.

dailynoti coindeskcrypto cryptonewscrypto bitcoinmymagazine mybitcoinist cryptowithpotato mycryptoslate fivenewscrypto findtechcrunch journalpayments nulltxcrypto newsbtcarea