Yahoo Lifestyle Is that hoodie Lululemon or a Costco dupe? No one has to know but you.
The Scuba sweatshirt has been a recognizable symbol of Lululemon for almost as long as Lululemon has been a recognizable symbol of the fitness-girlie lifestyle. The look - not just for SoulCycle or Pilates - dates all the way back to the neon-hued, Katy Perry-soundtracked early 2010s.
In that time, the sweatshirt has taken on various shapes: Figure-hugging. Oversize. Long. Cropped. Half zip. Full zip. On nearly every iteration, though, its tall collar and extra-long sleeves, with thumb cutouts for the wearer’s hands, are constants.
Emma Sturtevant, a 27-year-old medical device sales rep who lives in Bend, Oregon, has long coveted a Scuba. But at a retail price upward of $118, she hasn’t been able to justify purchasing one. So Sturtevant did a double take on her regular trip to Costco last month. There, in the rotisserie chicken-and-hot dog-scented wholesale club, near looming displays of 275-packs of vitamins and flat-screen TVs, Sturtevant spotted a stack of folded Danskin brand sweatshirts nearly identical to the half-zip Scuba.
Sturtevant, who cheekily calls herself “the dupe queen” among her friends, took one home - in a deep jade green nearly identical to the Lululemon shade Storm Teal - for the much friendlier price of $17.99.
The 42-year-old wholesale chain - and arguably a cornerstone of American retail culture - has long been a purveyor of products that are just about as good as the real thing. Sometimes even suspiciously close in quality. Their testing process is notoriously rigorous, with only select products making it to the warehouse shelves.
But over the last few years, following a wave of ironic and unironic enthusiasm for its Kirkland Signature-branded apparel, Costco has steadily built a reputation among budget-conscious, style-minded shoppers as a destination for buying athleisure “dupes,” or look-alikes of higher-end, fashion-adjacent sportswear.
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Hunting for Vuori and Lululemon impostors
Shelley Solomon, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom and content creator in Scottsdale, Arizona, first found the Lululemon-style sweatshirts at Costco last year. When she posted the discovery on her TikTok, where she reviews Costco and Sam’s Club products, the video went viral. (Her account isn’t affiliated with Costco, though Solomon does get some affiliate revenue from Sam’s Club.) Last month, Solomon made another video with this year’s version of the sweatshirts, revealing their return with the delightfully assonant, instantly earworm-y phrase “Lulu Scuba dupe.”
“Eventually it’ll go on sale for, like, another $4 off. So it’ll be $14 or less,” Solomon adds in an interview. “People just eat it up.”
Costco’s increasingly vaunted collection of dupes also includes some other Lululemon impostors: Fans of its cross-body belt bags (which retail for between $38 and $58) have found cheaper alternatives at Costco that are manufactured by the Canadian brand Lolë. And many Costco devotees swear that the $14 Mondetta leggings have the same slick texture (or in Lululemon’s distinctive parlance, “buttery-soft”) as the version with the signature omega logo, which can cost more than $100.
Shoppers have also spotted (and made social media sensations of) Costco’s tan Kirkland Signature shearling slippers, which are dead ringers for Ugg’s geometric-detailed Tasman style ($110), as well as the ascendant California-based brand Vuori’s joggers ($94 to $98) and men’s polyester-blend Ponto shorts ($78).
Jessica, a 46-year-old from New Jersey, who is only being identified by only her first name to avoid linking her full name to her Instagram account, @costco_empties - where nearly 280,000 follow her reviews and recommendations of Costco products (with no affiliation to Costco). The Vuori-dupe joggers, Jessica says, “are literally identical. The fabric content is the same. They’re the same drawstring waistband.”
“When I wear the Vuori dupe, people literally think it’s Vuori,” Solomon said.
And across Canada, women are scooping up Costco dupes of a sweatsuit and a fleece zip-up from the popular womenswear brand Aritzia.
Nina Vukojevic, a 27-year-old social media manager in Toronto, missed out on buying a TNA Bigfoot Polar Fleece Zip Up when Aritzia sold out of them last year. But this fall, she bought a near-identical one at Costco, made by Sierra Designs and available in some of the same color combinations. The video she posted to Instagram about it, she says, has been viewed more than 6 million times. Friends who are members of regional Costco-related Facebook groups “were sending me screenshots of people putting my video in these groups and asking, ‘Hey, does this store have this sweater?’” Vukojevic says. “It was crazy how many people were into the sweater and how many people were running to get it.”
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Are they just brands in disguise?
There are rumors, naturally, that some of these near-identical garments sold at Costco are in fact just differently branded versions of the brand-name stuff or come from the same manufacturers. The same is said of many other Costco products that resemble or even rival the real thing: the Kirkland Signature vodka, for example, is sold in a sleek, slender glass bottle and reminds many of Grey Goose. Grey Goose has denied the rumor that it’s really their vodka being sold under the Kirkland label. But some of Costco’s other look-alike products really are made by better-known brands: In 2016, Costco’s CEO revealed that Kirkland’s multipacks of copper-and-black batteries weren’t just look-alikes but in fact manufactured by Duracell. (Costco did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)
Costco’s Kirkland Signature shearling slippers, though, are not official reproductions of real Ugg shoes, according to a representative for the label. “We have no business relationship with Costco,” the representative wrote in an email, and added that the company considers Kirkland Signature’s very similar product an affront to Ugg’s values. “We commit best-in-class resources and luxurious materials to our innovative designers … Not only are we protecting the brand’s intellectual property, but we are also safeguarding the very essence of what makes Ugg special.”
Mondetta, meanwhile, said in a statement to The Post that it does not base its designs on Lululemon’s or knowingly sell similar leggings. “Mondetta designs its products independently, focusing on originality, style, quality, and functionality. Any similarities are coincidental and reflective of broader trends within the global athleisure market,” a Mondetta representative wrote. (Lululemon, Aritzia, Vuori, Sierra Designs, Danskin and Lolë did not respond to requests for comment.)
As prices for designer clothing reach astronomical heights, it doesn’t take much imagination to get why dupes seem to be proliferating in today’s retail landscape. “Such items used to be called knockoffs. They used to be embarrassing,” Washington Post reporter Maura Judkis wrote in 2023. But now, “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.” It’s all made possible by a neat little provision of the Copyright Act of 1976: Copyright law doesn’t extend to ideas, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles or discoveries.
“Broadly speaking, it’s really easy and oftentimes completely legally aboveboard for companies to copy the design of garments, and oftentimes accessories as well, because [intellectual property] law generally doesn’t like to give monopolies to single companies for useful things,” says Julie Zerbo, a lawyer and the founder of the news outlet the Fashion Law.
Certainly, there are nuances: Utility patents can protect certain garments that have a technological innovation, Zerbo says - like a moisture-wicking fabric or a sneaker sole that claims to help you jump higher. And since copyrights and trademarks do protect products’ appearances, a pair of leggings in a distinctive floral-print fabric might have a better shot at being protected from copycats than, say, a solid-colored pair. But ultimately, “Yoga pants are useful things. They cover our bodies so that we can do yoga. … Bags have a useful function. Sneakers have a useful function.”
In other words, there’s hardly a whiff of sheepishness in making a dupe; there’s little shame in buying one, either. As Sturtevant puts it, dupes like Costco’s just make certain looks more achievable and accessible to more people. “When you can wear something that makes you feel that much more put together, without spending a bunch of money on it, it feels really great,” Sturtevant says.
Sturtevant still has no plans to buy a real Lululemon sweatshirt anytime soon. But ever since she bought her teal Costco one a few weeks ago, Sturtevant has been thinking about adding something to the shopping list for her next Costco visit: a second Scuba dupe, in light blue.
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