From leggings to lip gloss, there's a dupe for almost any brand-name product. Buying a knockoff used to be a consumer's dirty little secret, largely because a "fake" was considered inferior to the real thing, not to mention the economic cost and intellectual property rights infringement. But brand imitators, also known as dupes — short for duplicates — have elbowed their way into the mainstream and are now even cool. "It's not a direct knockoff, it's kind of revising something that's very chic from a designer world into a more accessible product," Walker said. Even when consumers can get the real thing, nearly 33% of adults intentionally purchased a dupe of a premium product at some point, according to a report by Morning Consult.

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Persons: Sara Walker, Walker, Ellyn Briggs Organizations: Finance, Morning Locations: Los Angeles