What if the best way to respond to copycats was… to create one of your own? That’s the surprisingly bold bet from OMHU. The Danish brand, famous for its TEDDY sofa, is launching its own “dupe” of its iconic model, and selling it precisely where knockoffs typically proliferate.
OMHU Turns the Concept of the “Dupe” on Its Head
Over the years, OMHU’s TEDDY sofa has become one of the most recognizable pieces of furniture, but also one of the most copied online. On marketplaces and online selling platforms, imitations number in the thousands. Different names, sometimes ridiculously low prices, but a silhouette instantly identifiable: that of the famous sofa with its generous, modular shapes.
Facing this flood of copies, most brands would opt to have listings removed, file reports, or simply not talk about it. OMHU chose a different path: copy the copycats.
Today, the brand unveils a brand-new sofa in a color that’s oddly familiar: the “dupe-orange.” Named TEDY, with a single “D,” as if an imitation had botched copying its model, this limited-edition sofa intentionally borrows the cues of the famous TEDDY. But it’s not a traditional launch.
The TEDY isn’t available on OMHU’s official site and won’t be sold at the brand’s usual price. To push the concept to its limit, OMHU chose to sell it directly on Temu, Etsy and dupe.com, at a price bluntly dubbed the “dupe price”. Its price: $699.99, a fraction of the TEDDY original price. A way for the brand to flip the copy market on its head by playing by its own rules.
“We Created Our Own Dupe”
Behind this move lies a campaign dubbed The Iconic Dupe, imagined as a creative response to the proliferation of counterfeits and imitations on marketplaces. “Normally, we just flag dupes or ignore them, but we saw here a creative opportunity to raise awareness on a global scale,” explains Christine Smith, Creative Director at OMHU.
The brand decided to push the concept to its limit: a deliberately misspelled name, a recognizable color, and a bargain price. Everything is designed to give the product the look of yet another copied sofa.
“So we created our own dupe. With the misspelled name, all of that. We saw a huge PR opportunity: to poke fun at the competition while proving that we are the true original creators of the sofa,” continues Christine Smith.
The operation works on a simple principle: to show which is the original, OMHU puts itself in the copier’s shoes.
