Fan apparel isn’t just for sports and music anymore. People want to celebrate their preferred brands with clever and stylish merch that declares their favorites in food, retail and other genres.
In fact, a recent New York Times essay by Melissa Kirsch, titled “Our Merch, Ourselves,” posits that these items offer an easy way for people to identify other like-minded individuals and forge connections based on shared tastes.
“What does the merch you wear say about who you are, what you believe in? You might buy a sticker from your local bakery to support the business or wear a Renaissance tour shirt to declare yourself a member of the BeyHive,” Kirsch writes, adding, “… I made no fewer than two friends in college because one of us was wearing a Pixies T-shirt.”
ICYMI: Wrap Up 2023 With Festive Fast Food Finds And Other Merry Merch
1. McDonald’s Partners With Streetwear, Footwear Brands
Savvy brands are stepping up their apparel efforts to take advantage of this opportunity. For example, McDonald’s offers a variety of tees, hoodies and other standard pieces through its Golden Arches Unlimited web store – but in the past year, the storied brand partnered with the skater brand Palace for a 15-piece capsule collection and launched a line of four mascot-themed Crocs.
IMAGE: Palace x McDonald’s
IMAGE: Crocs x McDonald’s
2. Panera Pairs Branded Pieces For Easy Holiday Gifting
Panera Bread continues to build on its quirky but successful apparel approach, which includes a soup-themed swimwear line. For the 2023 holiday season, Panera online shop offered a holiday bundles collection that paired themed gifts – many from its Carb Couture collection – such as a bread hoodie and soup mug, a “Mamma Loaf, Baby Loaf” sweatshirt and bodysuit, or matching mac & cheese sweats.
IMAGE: The Panera Shop
ICYMI: Chick-fil-A Makes A Moo-ry Tradition of Holiday Merch
DraftKings And The NBA Launch Co-Branded Apparel
Sports betting company DraftKings has also entered the fan apparel arena. In partnership with the NBA and family fan gear brand ’47, the online DraftKings Shop launched its NBA collection for the 2023-2024 season that includes tees, hoodies and hats. Each item features both the DraftKings gold crown and team logo.
In a statement, Matt Kalish, co-founder and president of DraftKings North America said, “There is a strong affinity toward DraftKings’ signature crown logo, and combining that with one-of-a-kind designs that feature NBA teams allows us to further connect with the lifestyle of our customers in a whole new way.”
The NBA Collection presented by DraftKings is HERE
Shop here: https://t.co/Z0nzk4D3aq#TheCrownIsYours pic.twitter.com/0ReZMVz7cE
— DraftKings (@DraftKings) November 9, 2023
4. Limited Edition Spirit Offers Liquid Doritos Experience
It’s not exactly merch, but in December, distiller Empirical partnered with Doritos to release a nacho cheese-flavored alcoholic beverage – which sold out almost immediately – making for a curious multisensory experience of the well-known snack brand. Additional limited edition bottles will be available online in January, as well as in select California and New York markets.
Frito-Lay, the parent company of Doritos, offers cocktail recipes for a margarita, bloody mary and old fashioned made with the unusual liquor. Empirical says a “serendipitous” experiment resulted in a spirit with “that umami component, saltiness, a sort of sweet and sour tang, and a teeny bit of bitterness all in one bite.” Or as NPR’s Steve Inskeep put it, “For $65, you, too, can drink liquor that tastes and smells like cheese dust.”
IMAGE: Empirical
5. No Need To Scratch This Sniffable Sweatshirt
In other multisensory merch news, streetwear brand MARKET and ubiquitous personal fragrance brand Axe have teamed up to create an Axe-scented hoodie. Available for pre-order, the “Stealie” hoodie (no relation to Grateful Dead merch) displays a variety of fragrance elements on the back – printed with “a special scent-infused ink” redolent of Axe’s Blue Lavender – under the slogan “What does your smell say about you?”
AXE and MARKET made a fragrance-infused hoodie which means you can put it on and instantly get war flashbacks of middle school https://t.co/WUoo7SDoLX pic.twitter.com/cRkCVKPweq
— highsnobiety (@highsnobiety) December 7, 2023
6. Wonka Inspires Arm Candy, Sweet Suites
It was a big year for movie merch (hi, Barbie), and the holiday release of Wonka, a new musical about the eccentric candyman starring Timothée Chalamet, spawned some interesting luxury collaborations with Fossil and a couple of upscale hotels.
The Willy Wonka x Fossil collection includes two limited-edition watches, two bedazzled purses, a Golden Ticket key fob and an assortment of special-edition jewelry pieces. Some of the items feature chocolate and Golden Ticket motifs, while others bear colorful fruit inspired by Wonka’s lickable candy wallpaper. Each comes packaged in its own Wonka Bar box with an official Golden Ticket certificate of authenticity.
IMAGES: Fossil
The film also inspired a pair of luxury hotel experiences, dubbed “Wonka’s Sweet Suites” and hosted by Booking.com. The whimsical accommodations – one in New York, the other in Los Angeles – feature edible amenities, life-sized chocolate confections and a chocolate bar bed topped with a marshmallow-inspired comforter and candy-colored pillows, as well as tickets to see Wonka in theaters.
IMAGE: Booking.com
