Once you start noticing it, it’s hard to stop.
The trainer originally called NASA to ask if they could use the “worm” logo, the old design the space agency used from 1975 through 1992. NASA, which banned the worm’s use after it was retired in the 1990s, has changed its mind in this regard, Ulrich said. , and let the coach use the logo.
After the coach’s outfit came out, things just exploded.
“Before 2017, we did five or ten [logo approvals] week. We’ve now reached the point that we’re going out an average of 225 a week.”
Last year, he said, there were “more than 11,000 orders” – an all-time record.
Before Coach, kids would buy NASA T-shirts from vintage stores because they loved the nostalgic, melancholy feel of a piece of classic Americana, Hall said.
“You start with kids in cities like New York who buy like, old Disney product or old NASA T-shirts, and then suddenly some see like ‘Cool Hunter’ in the fashion industry, like Urban Outfitters, and suddenly goes, ‘We should flip some NASA-branded T-shirts’ “It’s a kind of reverse engineering of trends.”
Perhaps it was only after the “cool kids” started wearing NASA t-shirts on the streets that the designer brands picked up and sold them to them again.
Hall, a Brooklyn-based creative director, said, in his opinion, that wearing the NASA logo has a lot more to do with the branding of what the logo stands for than declaring one’s love for outer space.
He said it represented “the kind of quintessential American optimism that we can do anything.”
He added that it is politically unaffiliated, and can be marketed to young liberals and rural conservatives alike, evoking the same nostalgia.
“People who work for brands like Heron Preston and Balenciaga are as fascinated by the fantasy of space travel as anyone. No one is immune to that level of nostalgia, so it makes sense that these brands would like to incorporate that into their own collections,” he He said.
It’s happened with other logos and franchises, he points out, such as Balenciaga doing projects with “The Simpsons” or Coach with Mickey Mouse.
“These enduring icons speak to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status,” he said. “Not everyone can relate to Heron Preston or Target, but everyone gets modern Americana from brands like NASA, Disney, Peanuts, and The Simpson.” “Things like NASA behave like this magical equivalent.”
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