Is This Viral Harris-Walz Hat Inspired by Chapel Roan’s Book “Midwest Princess”?

To the untrained eye, Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly-up for sale campaign merchandise might seem like just an ordinary hat.

But fashion experts and pop culture enthusiasts say there’s a deeper meaning behind the increasingly popular camouflage cap with orange embroidery.

After Harris announced Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate, Democratic pockets of the internet celebrated the choice, pointing to Walz’s political accomplishments — along with his dad jokes and Midwest charm. The Walz memes may have even inspired the first sell-out piece of official Harris-Walz merch within hours of its unveiling, as the initial run of 3,000 hats sold out in less than half an hour, according to the campaign. It has since been put back on sale but is backordered until October.

From memes to commodities

It all started here: A I, I which quickly went around the world, replacing Walz’s face with the face of pop star Chapella Roan Midwest Princess album cover, calling the Minnesota governor “The Prince of the Midwest.”

Around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Eric Ziminsky — who, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked as a senior designer for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and transition team — quoted Walz-Roan’s meme on Twitter, along with a mockup of the hat design.

“Hear Me Out”, Ziminsky he wroteincluding a photo of an orange-patterned Harris-Walz camouflage hat, meant to parody Roan’s official merchandise, a camouflage trucker cap with the words “Midwest Princess.” Eight hours later, Harris’ team released an incredible, real-life version. At 10:15 p.m., Walz tweeted a picture of him wearing this hat.

Ziminsky told The Inquirer that he had no involvement in creating the gadget itself and was impressed with the speed of Harris’ team’s work.

“I just did [the mock-up] for fun online when the Chappell Roan/Tim Walz memes started popping up,” he said. “The fact that they’re wearing a camouflage hat is a testament to their great design, marketing and digital platform teams.”

The campaign said the hats were designed by an in-house artistic team, with prototypes ready by 1:30 p.m. A petite batch was printed in Philadelphia to be delivered to Walz and his family.

Once the hat was revealed, comparisons to Roan’s gadgets immediately arose.

Of course, there’s no way to confirm whether Harris’ team intentionally chose this motif — a spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the matter. But even Roan noticed the similarities and asked tweet if the hat were real. This wouldn’t be the first attempt by Harris’ team to gain relevance through pop culture references, as we saw in the campaign that leaned heavily into Brat culture, inspired by Charli XCX’s summer album.

Who is camouflage for?

While Roan isn’t the first artist to sell a camouflage hat, the similarities have sparked plenty of jokes from fans commenting on LGBTQ+ artists’ return to camouflage — Boygenius also released popular camouflage shirt earlier this year, with proceeds going to the Tennessee Equality Project.

“How gay do you have to be to see hunting colors and think it’s something Chappell Roan?” – one tweet with almost 200,000 views he said before adding: “It was recently brought to my attention that this may indeed be a case of Chappell’s grey hair.”

Still, fashion experts say the hat’s aesthetic may be a stroke of genius — even for consumers who have no idea who Chappell Roan is — since camouflage is typically a stylistic choice for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts.

Walz describes himself as an avid hunter, even going so far as to suggest interview last week with Anderson Cooper, he said his up-to-date vice presidential opponent, J.D. Vance, can’t “shoot pheasants like I can.”

Walz was often seen wearing camouflage hats and wearing one in a video recording in which Harris calls him and asks him to be her running mate.

Another popular meme circulating in the context of Harris-Walz’s announcement is a tweet in which Walz was referred to as an “REI employee,” a nod to the popular outdoor retailer.

Harris-Walz Hat Sold Out in Hours — and Here’s How to Buy It

While the first batch of hats sold out quickly, Harris’ campaign turned the site into a pre-sale Wednesday morning, which is still ongoing as of press time — but with a backorder notice.

According to the campaign website, the original batch of hats were set to ship in September. The up-to-date batch of pre-ordered hats have an estimated shipping date of mid-October.

American and union hats sell for $40 for Harris campaign website.