OpenAI and Palantir Merch Sold Out Despite Being Mocked
Big Tech’s move into fashion began with Palantir’s Chore Coat, a workwear-style jacket. Anthropic then released a “Thinking Cap,” while OpenAI went further by creating a dedicated apparel organization, Supply Co., to drop merch on a regular basis. These companies have expanded into the streetwear market by hiring people with titles like “Head of Vibes” and even opening pop-up stores.
The fashion industry’s response, however, has been chilly. Highsnobiety style writer Chris Erik Thomas said on the Glossy Podcast that these brands’ designs felt dated, as if lifted straight from streetwear blogs of the late 2010s. Some in the fashion industry have also criticized these merch businesses as closer to image laundering than authenticity.
Even so, sales performance is moving in the opposite direction from the criticism. Products released by OpenAI have sold out quickly each time they were unveiled, and Palantir expects revenue from its apparel division to double this year. This suggests that curiosity about the brand itself, more than the quality of the clothing, is translating into actual purchases.
Source · Glossy, "Glossy Podcast: What's motivating — and who's buying — AI companies' streetwear merch?"
Lookbook Snap builds outfit shots for each regular drop without rescheduling models and shoots
RealSnap’s Lookbook Snap is a feature that creates model outfit shots by combining apparel photos with AI models, poses, and moods. For campaign managers at brands that drop new items seasonally, or sometimes without notice, as streetwear merch brands do, it helps prepare outfit images without having to arrange model casting and studio shoot schedules from scratch each time.
The key is that instead of going through model casting, studio booking, and rounds of post-shoot retouching for every drop, teams can combine apparel photos with model, pose, and mood references to generate multiple candidate outfit shots.
