Chronicle of a lawsuit announced. Walmart’s Wirkin, the low-cost (and low quality of course) version of the exclusive Hermès Birkin bag, sold out at the end of December 2024. Driving the success of the US department store was the organic publicity generated by the many Tik Tok videos. Here, users filmed unboxing and matching looks that went viral for the “Wirkin”. What’s new? It is yet another case of imitation of the famous handbag model, which has now become a status symbol at the very popular price of $78. A “dupe” so blatantly fake as to be more of a joke to the luxury imaginary than a real attempt at duplication. Who knows whether this time too, as it has done other times in the past, Hermès will rise up and file a complaint for copyright infringement.
Walmart’s Wirkin
For the moment, the French maison is not known to have intervened in defence of its products, even though the likeness for many is a brutal “copy and paste” of an original Birkin, a luxury accessory that can cost tens of thousands of euros. The BESTSPR-branded bag, sold at Walmart, is very similar in shape to the Hermès bag, but is made of a synthetic canvas imitating leather that has little that is luxurious about it. The conditions are right for the French fashion house to take legal action. Hermès, by the way, has never shown itself to be very compliant with those who risk damaging its image.
Birkin and Kelly in court
There have been numerous legal battles undertaken in defence of Hermès products. The precedents, even in recent times, are not few. In 2023, the maison won its case against Mason Rotshild, the digital artist who in 2021 had launched the “Metabirkins”, meaning an (unauthorised) NFT copy of the famous bags. The accessories existed only in the Metaverse but still infringed the brand’s intellectual property. Another court dispute won by the brand, in 2024, was against the Florentine handbag company Buti, guilty of having produced models “too similar” to Birkin and Kelly bags. The judicial dispute lasted several years – three levels of litigation and a referral to the Court of Appeal – but in the end it proved the brand right and obliged Buti to pay 500 euros for each “copied” bag sold.
Read also:
- Hermès defends itself against the accusation of tying, from Buti and MetaBirkin
- Skechers files a lawsuit against Hermès (which meanwhile wins its appeal)
- The judge sides with Hermès and bans the sale of MetaBirkins
