So You Want a ‘Walmart Birkin’? Good Luck

For all the blood sweat and tears I invested in trying to buy the viral “Walmart Birkin,” I’m thinking I should have just attempted to buy a real one.

I first began to see videos about Walmart’s Birkin lookalike, or Wirkin, on TikTok during that dead zone between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The story was that Walmart had begun selling a bag from third-party sellers for around $80 that looked incredibly similar to the iconic and exclusive Birkin bag from Hermés. According to several women who bought it, and whom I later spoke with for a story, the dupe had been available both in store and online at Walmart.

They also gave the bag rave reviews, not just as a dupe but as a nice leather tote.

“When I received it, I thought it was a very well-made bag,” one happy customer told me. “Even if it wasn’t a dupe or an ‘inspired’ bag, I would still love it. It’s great for holding a lot of items. I’ve traveled with it, used it for work, and even used it to hold my groceries.”

After I finished my story, I had an idea. Why not try out the Wirkin for myself? I could no longer buy one at Walmart (the purse sold out quickly after it went viral and was never restocked), but there was another way. The bag, under brand names like Bestpr and Kamugo, was popping up in a variety of TikTok shops.

So I began what ended up being the strangest shopping experience of my life, hunting through the search results for “Walmart Birkin” or just “BESTPR tote.” Most of the shops said it would take multiple weeks for my bag to arrive, and the images seemed to be taken straight from the Walmart website, with no “proof of life” of actual Wirkins in hand. Basically, it was incredibly clear I could be getting scammed, but I soldiered on.

I decided to also attempt to be choosy. One of the Wirkin owners I spoke to told me that her bag had come with a surprise: a dupe of an Hermés scarf wrapped around the handles. Still other bags I saw online were decorated with the iconic Hermés horse bag charms, which many people put on their actual Birkins.

If I was going to get a Walmart Birkin, why not go big? I found a shop that offered a bag with a scarf included, the leather a pleasant dark blue. And even though I was primarily buying the bag out of pure curiosity, there was a part of me that felt excited. Surely my bag, with its scarf and all, would pass muster enough to fool at least some of the people I passed on the streets of New York (though, most likely, not in the hallways of Condé Nast, the parent company of Glamour as well as publications like Vogue and Vanity Fair).

So I clicked “order,” paid my $69.99, and became the proud owner of a “BESTSPR Women Premium Leather Handbag.” That is, I would be, when it arrived.

You may have guessed where this is going. After 10 days there was no sign of the bag and no email from TikTok Shop announcing it had been shipped. Then I finally got an update. My order had been canceled. According to the email I received, the system automatically did so because the seller didn’t ship it “within the specified time.” My nice blue bag with the matching scarf would never make it into my arms, if it ever existed at all.

A lesser woman would have given up. But I was determined now to review this thing. I headed back to TikTok Shop, where the options were now decidedly slimmer. Gone were the bags with the scarves, or even the ones in interesting colors. Finally, I found another shop that had the bag in stock. This bag, called “BESTSPR Women’s Genuine Leather Solid Print Crossbody Handbag-Versatile Design for Everyday Use with Practical Features,” was $10 more and a less exciting shade of brown, but no matter.

It would be another two weeks before it arrived, in a nondescript plastic bag and smelling of chemicals, a few days before I had plans to travel to cover the Super Bowl for Glamour. I figured I’d bring the purse with me to New Orleans to test it out, subjecting it to a variety of events from travel to parties and dinners. Then I could write an honest review.

Immediately, there were issues.

The first problem was the size. I don’t know exactly how big I expected it to be, but in all of the videos I saw on TikTok, the bag certainly seemed big enough to fit my MacBook, which slipped into most medium-size purses with ease, even if it stuck out the top.

It did not. I was forced to walk through the airport carrying my laptop and my coat over one arm as the bag sat on top of my carry-on. As my arm started to ache and the Wirkin bounced disconcertingly on my suitcase, threatening to skid off and fling my belongings all over the airport floor, I fumed to myself. I hate this thing, I thought, over and over.

The size issue was only the first of many plagues this bag would hoist upon me. Think of all the ways a purse is supposed to be used. Now imagine a purse that did none of them correctly.

The bag didn’t fit on my shoulder, forcing me to carry its (very small handles) in my hand. If I used its shoulder strap, it hung open precariously, threatening to spill its contents if I jostled ever so slightly. The shoulder strap also didn’t stay in one place, forcing me to readjust it constantly. If I put it down, it slumped over like a deflated balloon.

The latching system on the front was confusingly complex. I tried to tighten the straps so the bag wouldn’t hang open, but it kept falling apart if touched by even a slight breeze. This meant that inside the Wirkin, my belongings were suspended in a state of terror, always at the cusp of falling out and leaving a trail of lip gloss and tampons in my wake. The leather felt cheap, the hardware unimpressive. And maybe worst of all, I don’t think that anyone who saw it would have thought it was real.

By the afternoon of my first full day in New Orleans, I started fantasizing about a large tote bag that I could just throw all my stuff in and call it a day. I soon ditched the bag entirely, squishing it into my carry-on like a misbehaving child being put into time-out. To be honest, I considered leaving it in the hotel room and skipping away, thankful to never see it again.

My annoyance did lead me to one question, though—is the real version of the bag this difficult to maneuver? Or are dupes just duds? Was my TikTok shop version a dupe of a dupe, a knock-off attempting to ride the coattails of the viral product?

According to Charles Gross, a fashion content creator who went viral in 2022 for his expertise on the bag, the front latching system that frustrated me to no end seems to be pretty similar to the real deal. As he explained in a 2023 video, a Birkin can be latched several different ways, including completely open, locked in the front, or halfway closed. The major difference seems to be that a real Birkin stands up when unlatched, making it a lot easier to grab things from and presumably less frustrating.

I was also surprised to learn the Birkin 35, the original size of the bag, also has a smaller handle. This means it must be carried in your hand (some people say they can put it on their shoulder, but it’s tight). You could add a shoulder strap to the Birkin, something one YouTuber called ”life-changing,” and according to her video, that strap addition seems to be a lot better than the one I received.

Still, what this experience taught me at the end of the day is maybe I’m not cut out to carry anything other than a giant tote bag or backpack. What’s interesting to me is that the original Birkin was intended to be as utilitarian as a tote. Model and style icon Jane Birkin (its namesake, whom it was originally designed for) used it for everything, including a diaper bag. But with the latching system and small handle, I could see myself getting annoyed with it—or any well-made handbag—that requires more work than a simple zipper.

So, does anyone want a slightly used, kind of floppy and maddeningly frustrating TikTok Shop version of the Walmart Birkin? I won’t even charge you for it—I’ll let you have it for free.