If last week’s viral drop is anything to go by, it works. After the first 3,000 editions of the $40 Realtree camo hat sold out within 30 minutes (right after Minnesota governor Tim Walz was announced as Harris’s 2024 running mate), the Harris-Walz campaign — and American supplier Unionwear — got to work, selling over 25,000 hats on the first day. As of 8 August, the campaign had produced just over 47,000 Harris-Walz camo hats totaling $1,878,524, the campaign told Teen Vogue.
It’s filling a long-nascent gap, says Holmes. “For so long, Republicans have had this very clear, visual symbol. That [Make America Great Again] hat is so recognisable,” she says. “It’s a way for the electorate to participate in the election with campaign merch, and for so long, Republicans had a lock on that.”
Now, the Democrats are giving them a run for their money by leaning into pop culture in a way political campaigns haven’t in the past. “More than an understanding, the campaign seems to have a knowing of what is hot and what is not,” says Thomaï Serdari, NYU professor of marketing and director of its luxury and retail MBA.
Gen Z loves merch
Gen Z is visually minded, making merch a natural response, Holmes says. “First it was the Brat green, then the coconut tree meme, now the camo hat. It’s a very fun wink,” she says.
This merch hits the spot because it taps the cultural touchpoints Gen Z constituents are engaging with and bringing into discourse with Harris and Walz. Charli XCX declared that “Kamala IS Brat” before the campaign team changed Harris’s Twitter to Brat green, while savvy photoshoppers edited Walz’s head onto pop sensation Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess album before the camo hat (that looked a lot like Roan’s own merch) dropped. (Though the Harris-Walz campaign has said the hat is a nod to Walz’s love of camo caps.)
Arnell notes that the campaign also gets the speed with which it needs to move to stay in tune with a social media-savvy generation. “The messaging is moving at the speed of culture and it shows how connected and aware the campaign is. Tapping into the trends and the tastemakers who are galvanising Gen Z is smart,” she says. “And what’s great is that they are not getting stuck in one theme or message. They hit the note and move on to the next. They’re fluid and flexible — which is critical to capturing and keeping audiences engaged and involved.”
Pluz, Gen Z has been trained to dress and show support in this way, Holmes says. “These are the people who are dressing for Taylor Swift, they’re dressing for Beyoncé, they’re dressing to go see Barbie. This is a group of people who are primed to show their support with fashion.” Recognising this, the campaign takes a page out of fashion’s playbook. In recent years, young brands have leaned into internet and meme culture as a strategy to capture younger shoppers. “A very well-known luxury fashion house rode the train to meme-ification for about a decade with remarkable results,” Serdari points out.
