Walmart’s Response to the Controversy Over That Knock-Off Hermés Bag Is a Stroke of Genius

Burbank, CA – November 21: Shoppers at the Walmart Supercenter in Burbank during Walmart’s multi-week Annual Deals Shopping Event in Burbank Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

A few weeks ago, Walmart started selling what quickly became the most-talked-about designer fashion item. Aside from the fact that’s a thing you don’t ever expect to hear, there also happens to be a really interesting lesson, especially in the way Walmart responded.

You’ve probably heard about how Walmart was selling a knock-off Hermés Birkin bag—which became known as the Wirkin. After it went viral on TikTok the bag sold out online. That’s probably due to the fact that a genuine Birkin bag can retail for over $10,000. The Walmart version was $78. You can see why some people thought it was pretty cool to get their hands on, even if it’s not an authentic handmade Italian icon.

Of course, not everyone was happy about the bag. I’m sure that many of those people who did pay $10,000 or whatever for their genuine Birkin, weren’t thrilled that people were walking around with a knock-off for a small fraction of what they paid. It raised a lot of questions about luxury fashion as a category, and even bigger questions about how a company like Hermés might reaction to a blatant knock-off being sold on the website of the world’s largest retailer.

But then, Walmart suddenly (and quietly) stopped selling the bag. It just wasn’t available anymore. Not in the “this item is sold out” kind of way, but rather the “we don’t know what you’re talking about” kind of way. You can still find third-party sellers offering what are supposedly real Birkin bags, but none of the fake ones show up anywhere. The thing is, the company didn’t say much until earlier this week, and even then, it didn’t say much.

That’s it. That’s Walmart’s entire response, and it’s about as generic a statement as you can give. It doesn’t mention the bag, the third-party sellers, Hermes, or the fact that it all blew up because of TikTok. It’s not even clear from the statement if Walmart knew about the bag until the whole thing went viral.

As a side note, when people float the idea that Walmart might be a potential candidate to buy TikTok, this whole episode should make you less surprised. With it looking as though the Supreme Court may decide this week to uphold the ban, the chances dramatically increased that Bytedance will have to sell TikTok, and there are only a handful of companies that could afford to buy it, and that would survive regulatory scrutiny.

If you think about it, the fact that Walmart hasn’t commented about the bag directly or about its reasons for removing it from the website is smart. It’s not clear what the retailer would benefit from saying much more—especially if there is the possibility of legal action for trademark infringement from Hermés.

That’s counterintuitive in a world where companies seem desperate to attract attention at any cost. There are plenty of companies that would have tried to seize a moment like this by fanning the viral flame. The thing is, sometimes it’s better to turn down the temperature just a bit. There are plenty of reasons a company like Walmart might not want to be in the middle of this kind of controversy.

It’s not the first time Walmart’s third-party marketplace has caused problems. I wrote back in October of 2023 that Walmart was selling fake tech products, including a very suspicious 11TB SSD, for $60. Even worse, the company was paying money to advertise the fake products on Instagram.

That’s sort of the problem that comes with running a marketplace. And, to be fair, Walmart isn’t the only retailer with this problem. In this case, however, it makes sense that Walmart wanted to get as far away from any pushback, even if that means shutting down one of its most viral products in a long time.