In late April, Palantir — the software program firm that, lately, has maybe turn out to be greatest identified for its protection business contracts and work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement — introduced that it might be including new merchandise to its merch retailer. The most recent providing was a cotton chore coat.
At $239 and in vivid blue and black choices, the jacket appears like a normal providing that has, by the use of photographer Invoice Cunningham, trickled down into mainstream menswear for years. This jacket is a pastiche of nineteenth century French workwear that was worn by folks really doing bodily labor; the one noticeable distinction is {that a} dainty Palantir brand seems on the breast pocket.
The jacket ruffled feathers, to place it frivolously. One TikTok described it as “Evil boring French workwear for evil boring guys.” The extra sartorially inclined questioned why Palantir, as a cheerleader of US navy may, wouldn’t make one thing impressed by American workwear. Nonetheless, by the tip of its on-sale day, the 420 models Palantir produced had bought out. (Palantir declined to remark for this story.)
For over a 12 months, together with its merch, Palantir has been attempting to promote the concept that it’s, really, a life-style model. In a credulous interview with GQ main as much as the discharge of the jackets, a Palantir worker informed the journal that the corporate “exists to make sure that the establishments that energy the US and its allies have the most effective software program capabilities on Earth,” and that sporting Palantir-branded clothes was a means for different folks to hitch their wagon to this ideology. As for what sporting Palantir merchandise would symbolize, there are mentions of “supporting our warfighters,” “strengthening Western establishments,” and being apolitical. A lot of the clothes don’t clearly sign these items — there’s no stars and stripes iconography or STAND FOR THE FLAG, KNEEL FOR THE FALLEN-type slogans. As an alternative, it’s Palantir speaking to itself and its supporters; chore coat wearers may earnestly imagine in these values, however their clothes, at the very least, is a advertising and marketing train for the corporate itself.
“It is smart to me. I feel it’s really actually sensible of Palantir to need this, to need to be on T-shirts and to need to be one thing that folks put on, even paradoxically,” says Avery Trufelman, a trend journalist and host of Articles of Curiosity, a podcast that final 12 months detailed the out of doors business and its long-running ties to the navy. “It’s form of a foul transfer to say you need to be cool — that’s not cool. However the preliminary aspiration is actually, actually sensible.”
As Articles of Curiosity documented, trend and the navy have a deeply entangled historical past — from bomber jackets and fight boots to subject jackets and khakis, our up to date wardrobes are suffering from clothes that has origins in navy use. Some family identify manufacturers like Patagonia have additionally contracted with the navy along with promoting fleece jackets to crunchy out of doors sorts.
Palantir’s merch is a brand new means for the laptop computer class to sign model alignment
It’s additionally not so uncommon {that a} protection contractor would wind up making merchandise for the patron market, Trufelman says: artificial insulation by PrimaLoft was initially developed for the US navy however now strains jackets bought at REI and bedding at L.L. Bean. Camouflage prints meant for elite troopers at the moment are additionally a part of the uniform of modern civilians. The distinction, in fact, is that Palantir doesn’t actually make garments: It makes highly effective (and generally poorly understood) software program that even a few of its personal staff are more and more involved about. Palantir’s merch serves no tactical goal for “warfighters,” however is a brand new means for the laptop computer class to sign model alignment.
“Palantir doing their model of it’s wise, as a result of who’re the folks which can be shopping for their garments? They’re typically city data employees, folks that ship e-mail all day,” says Derek Man, a menswear author. (You might know him as “The Menswear Man” on social media.) “It’s only a very modern garment for the time being for that form of class.”
Palantir has one thing of a cult following already, partially as a result of it has made some traders very wealthy. It has an engaged, dedicated base of retail traders and followers who debate what to do about Palantir’s “PR issues” and observe firm goings-on obsessively. Palantir itself additionally communicates instantly with particular person traders or fan communities. (Palantir seems to have beforehand even employed a moderator from the corporate’s Subreddit right into a communications position.) A line of merchandise past the standard tote bag is a means for Palantir to show these followers and traders into strolling billboards.
Connor, a Palantir fan and merch buyer who describes himself as “fairly bullish” on the corporate, additionally owns tech merch from Tesla, Google, OpenAI, and Apple. “It’s enjoyable to put on these things, and so they’re a nod in direction of expertise and types I like or am related to as a result of that’s part of my character,” Connor stated in a message to The Verge.
Connor, a fan of Palantir, described himself as “a little bit of a sucker” for firm merch. (Picture courtesy of Connor)
Alex, one other Palantir fan, has collected a number of merch objects from the corporate courting again to the early 2000s that he acquired secondhand like a zip-up sweatshirt issued to staff, in addition to newer releases. (Regardless of their assist for Palantir, each Connor and Alex requested that The Verge not use their full names: Connor, as a result of he limits his on-line presence, and Alex, because of the “uptick in consideration” that the corporate has gotten over their merch. Alex acknowledged that Palantir is a part of his funding portfolio.) Alex says he sees Palantir as a foil to different elements of the tech business which have “parasitically” extracted customers’ information, info, and private ideas.
“I see Palantir as being the antithesis of that, the place they’re attempting to get the brightest minds collectively to create expertise that may higher serve us versus simply use us for advert income,” Alex says. (Palantir’s expertise can also be utilized in promoting, together with a platform introduced in 2025 touted by a associate as “the holy grail of promoting delivered to life.”)
Alex says he wears Palantir merchandise as a “dialog piece” hoping to debate misconceptions in regards to the firm — however there have been few takers. Largely, he says folks may say one thing below their breath in regards to the merch; he has additionally discovered posts on X by strangers referencing a “dude in a Palantir shirt” that he believes are about him. A barista as soon as requested him his ideas on Palantir expertise getting used to kill Palestinians, he says (Palantir has stated Israel makes use of its expertise for “war-related missions”).
“Each different time I’ve worn [Palantir] stuff … folks will tweet about it, however they’ll by no means really confront me about it, which is weird,” Alex says.
Palantir is clearly placing in additional effort to its merchandise than merely drop-shipping low cost T-shirts that includes its brand — the corporate informed GQ it’ll introduce a tennis assortment in June. However even with barely elevated merchandise, the output reveals the bounds of a expertise firm attempting to sign style or refinement with regards to artwork and tradition. An merchandise beforehand on the market within the Palantir store is a white crewneck sweatshirt with daring crimson lettering studying “SILICON VALLEY DROPOUTS.” Many individuals instantly famous the similarities between the Palantir crewneck and Off-White, the model based by the late designer Virgil Abloh. The crewneck appeared to be referencing Abloh’s designs, like T-shirts with scattered, minimal typography in a mode that was notably stylish a decade in the past.
“I don’t know what [Palantir is] attempting to attain, however you may’t design your means into coolness like that. It takes a a lot bigger effort. It takes a distinct form of cultural positioning,” says Man, the menswear author. “It requires much more than simply designing merch. I imply, if it was that simple to rebrand your self, then everyone would do it.”
Alex bought the black model of the chore coat. (Picture courtesy of Alex)
Alex, who has a inventive background, skipped the Off-White-style sweatshirt. “That piece specifically completely screamed, like, a wealthy dude that retailers at Bloomingdale’s that desires to decorate like a dude in his mid-20s,” he says. “I noticed the piece for what it was and it was distasteful.”
The tech guys the merchandise cater to stay in a bubble, the place style — a latest buzzword — and magnificence are fed to them, Alex says.
“The stuff they’re shopping for … is already so downstream from the folks that it originated from that by the point they get to it, or it’s fed to them by their algorithm or their stylist, it’s already out of vogue,” Alex says.
Something with a Palantir brand or identify on it’s inseparable from the corporate’s enterprise: Supporters will rep it as a solution to sign their alignment (or their monetary ties), and anybody morally, ethically, or intellectually against the corporate will see the emblem as a marker of one thing actually rotten. The Palantir merchandising effort is a means for the corporate to get consideration on social media and hype up a base of individuals already on board with its mission (or to increase its base to sympathetic audiences). Nevertheless it’s one other, more durable process to create cultural cache round a model marred in criticism — no quantity of firm merch a decade behind the innovative will change that.
The sold-out Palantir chore coat jogged my memory of one other tech agency’s adventures in merchandising: OpenAI’s employees-only (however publicly viewable) archive of firm swag, which features a Dreamsicle-colored basketball and a T-shirt with a handwritten script that appears prefer it could possibly be from a neighborhood pure wine bar. Buried among the many listings was OpenAI’s personal model of a chore coat, apparently from 2024, in the identical vivid blue, fake classic wash, with just a little brand dotting the breast pocket. Regardless of coming solely a pair years earlier than Palantir’s, there isn’t any GQ article about it.
Palantir’s efforts to talk on to its base of followers additionally delivered to thoughts a extra quaint branding stunt: an Anthropic pop-up final October, hosted within the West Village in New York Metropolis. Marketed as an anti-AI slop gathering, attendees lined up down the block for a cup of espresso and a free baseball cap embroidered with the phrase “considering.”
Followers described it as “culturally coherent” and that “the aesthetic screams craft/authenticity,” clearly drawing a line between Anthropic’s instruments and people of its rivals extra involved with scale. If Palantir is the life-style model for a gaggle unapologetically hyped on Western navy energy, Claude is the chatbot for the creatives, the dreamers, and the thinkers — at the very least, that’s what the merch is attempting to say.
I stored scrolling by way of the numerous cloying merchandise within the OpenAI store till I hit the primary merchandise listed on the backside of the web page: a baseball cap from September 2024, a full 12 months earlier than Anthropic’s “considering” espresso store pop-up. “Nonetheless considering” is embroidered on it.
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