Lululemon ‘Dupes’ Are Just as Cool With the TikTok Crowd

That is becoming a problem for the company that pioneered high-end athleisure and made $100 leggings the norm. 

“A brand logo doesn’t hold as much meaning as it used to,” said Mikayla Kitsopoulos, a 22-year-old college student. “Finding bargains is the new status symbol.”

When Kitsopoulos was in high school, she wore Lululemon leggings, which cost about $100. Now, she buys her leggings on Amazon for about $30. She said the quality and fit is almost identical, so why pay more?

The heightened competition comes as Lululemon has made a series of missteps that have turned off even some of its most devoted fans.

It recently removed a new type of leggings from its stores and website after customers complained about the fit. The Breezethrough leggings were designed to be breathable, quick-drying and abrasion-resistant. Customers liked the fabric, but some said the seam lines made their stomachs and backsides look too big.

Other blunders have included a color palette that was too limited and not having enough of some products such as smaller size leggings. The misfires have pushed people such as Natalie Assink to seek out different brands. The 20-year-old college student said she switched from Lululemon to Gymshark and AYBL not just because their leggings cost less, but also because they have more color varieties. 

Lululemon Chief Executive Calvin McDonald acknowledged some of the missteps in June when he told analysts that the company was working to add a wider range of colors and increase stock of smaller sizes. “We didn’t have enough color and newness,” he said.

Broken sales streak

Lululemon, founded in 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia, helped create the athleisure category. Despite an onslaught of competition, Lululemon seemed invincible for years. People of all generations remained fiercely loyal to the brand.

During and immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic, its sales increased more than 15% for 14 consecutive quarters. For its most recent fiscal year, ended Jan. 28, annual sales totaled $9.6 billion, a 19% increase over the prior year.

Lululemon warned of a turning point in March, when it discussed slowing sales in the U.S., although international sales remained strong. Since then, its once hot shares are down about 50%, erasing $30 billion in market value. 

It isn’t just lower-priced dupes that are eating away at Lululemon’s dominance. The brand also is facing more competition from new premium labels such as Alo Yoga and Vuori, whose prices are similar to Lululemon’s.

Lululemon remains the favorite athletic apparel brand among upper-income female teens with an average household income of about $100,000, but Alo and Vuori are gaining ground, according to the latest survey from the investment bank Piper Sandler. 

Among teens on a tighter budget, with an average household income of nearly $55,000, Lululemon is losing share, the survey found.

“We know we operate in a competitive landscape,” said Nikki Neuburger, Lululemon’s chief brand and product activation officer. “Lululemon thrives in this type of environment.”

To defend against dupes, Lululemon is talking up what it says is its quality and innovation. “When you are reading a [product description on a tag] or communicating with salespeople in our stores, we need to make sure you understand the lengths we invest in our apparel to make sure it’s top quality,” Neuburger said. 

The company also is trying to differentiate itself from other premium brands by expanding into new categories such as sneakers and casual clothes, she added.

TikTok brags

Roughly one-third of U.S. adults have intentionally bought a dupe, according to research firm Morning Consult, which polled 2,200 people in October. The figure is higher among younger shoppers, rising to almost half for Gen Z and 44% for millennials.

Dupes aren’t counterfeits. They are any product that costs less than the premium version but is of similar style and quality, according to Ellyn Briggs, Morning Consult’s brands analyst. When it comes to Lululemon, “consumers consider any legging that costs less than $100 a dupe,” she said.

That creates a wide field that includes Gymshark and AYBL as well as Halara, Gymreapers and CRZ Yoga. The brands mostly sell online, but some are opening physical stores. Their leggings generally start at around $30, though some cost as much as $75.

Buying cheaper versions of a premium product isn’t new. Bragging about it is.

Briggs credits the growing popularity of dupes to inflation but also to the rise of social media. The No. 1 reason people said they bought dupes was to save money, according to Morning Consult’s survey. They also wanted to test out whether the cheaper version was as good as the premium item and then post about it on TikTok or other platforms. 

“It’s more than just a transaction,” Briggs said. “They want to share the fact that they scored.”

Moving on

Lululemon tried to get ahead of the dupe phenomenon last year when it held a “Dupe Swap” in Los Angeles, where people traded in leggings they bought elsewhere for the company’s Align leggings. 

The strategy hasn’t stopped people such as Bryce Li from moving away from the brand. The 20-year-old college student swore by Lululemon’s $128 ABC pants, because they were stretchy and wrinkle-resistant, allowing him to wear them while lounging in his dorm and to class. Now, he’s buying Uniqlo joggers for about $40. 

“It doesn’t make sense to spend three-times the price, when I can have the same quality or better somewhere else,” he said.

Niki Maragos remembers the day she got her first pair of Lululemon leggings at age 18. She had been begging her parents for a pair for two years, before they finally caved.

Now, 26 and working in financial services, Maragos hasn’t bought anything at Lululemon in a year, instead opting for cheaper dupes. 

“Lululemon was this special thing,” said Maragos, who lives in Charlotte, N.C. “But they aren’t the only game in town anymore.”

Write to Suzanne Kapner at suzanne.kapner@wsj.com