You no longer need to listen to the band you wear. Nor to have seen them. Nor even to like them very much. But no one seems to care any longer — especially not the market.
While band merchandise has traditionally been sold as part of the tour experience, today's vendors are venturing far beyond the stadium breezeway. Now sold in different iterations in outlets around the world, the tour T-shirt has become a familiar part of the modern wardrobe, regardless of its vintage. Teenagers wear the Rolling Stone "Lips" logo first conceived back in 1970. Versions of Pink Floyd's 1972 Dark Side of the Moon tour tees can presently be purchased in Topshop (£28).
That the business for tour merchandise has become so huge is due in part to Kanye West, who, with the release of his The Life of Pablo album and accompanying Saint Pablo tour in 2016, caused a worldwide buying frenzy: a single show at Madison Square Garden in New York last July reportedly racked up $780,000 in souvenir sales. West also opened pop-up stores in 21 cities across the world, each hawking Pablo clothes to those that didn't, and very possibly wouldn't, attend his shows.
"Kanye West broke the mould of modern merch, and now we're in a new space," says Virgil Abloh, creative director of the fashion brand Off-White and a consultant on West's original Pablo product. For him, the blurring of fan-wear and fashion is inevitable: "We are living in contradictory times."
The current king of tour merchandise is Justin Bieber, whose mammoth world tour Purpose kicked off last year on March 9 and is due to end on September 24. The 23-year-old artist commands a merchandise empire that spans the entire retail spectrum, from the amphitheatre stall to small boutiques such as Miami Beach's Alchemist (which sold a highly successful Bieber-merch capsule range last year).
The business of Bieber-branded goods reaches into the exosphere. Purpose is the highest-grossing tour of 2017 so far; overall revenue from the first 10 US concerts topped $40m, bringing the tour's overall gross to just under $200m.
The luxury sector has also been quick to pick up on the zeitgeist. Vetements, the designer collective spearheaded by Demna Gvasalia, has already produced its own namesake mock-tour clothes, and the spring/summer 2017 range included a hoodie ($1,395) printed with "justin4ever". For autumn/winter 2017, Dolce & Gabbana created a T-shirt screen-printed with Bieber's face. But the company will not be producing it commercially — it was merely "an homage".
Building Bieber's cross-platform retail dominion has been a carefully planned enterprise. Phase one happened last year, when the singer launched his first tour offering in collaboration with Jerry Lorenzo of the Los Angeles-based streetwear label Fear of God. Together, Bieber, Lorenzo and Bieber's stylist Karla Welch whipped up a range of clothes that drew on a hard-rock aesthetic that paid homage to Metallica. The Purpose garments, with prices that started at about $40 for a T-shirt, were sold everywhere, from the high street retailer Urban Outfitters (which attributed to it a 5.2 per cent bump in sales during the third quarter of 2016 over that of 2015), to the Alchemist boutique, which sold more exclusive items, such as a unique Purpose x Alchemist hoodie, for $165.
"I can't provide numbers," says Roma Cohen, the store's owner, "but the Bieber merchandise broke our record for the largest sales per day three days in a row. We were profitable on the first day."
For phase two, which launched this month, Bieber has introduced "Purpose Stadium", a new collection that has moved away from the heavy-metal aesthetic for something more lo-fi and graphic — a combination of BMX aesthetics and retro-corporate iconography. Typical items include a long-sleeved top depicting Bieber riding a motorcycle ($50), and mesh lacrosse shorts screen-printed with the word "Tour" ($75). (Bieber wore a yellow hoodie with a Suzuki-style "S" — for Stadium — to perform at Ariana Grande's One Love Manchester concert. The T-shirt version costs $50.)
The new collection is being sold in only a few shops (as well as on the tour itself). In London, it will be available at Selfridges from June 26 as part of a summer-long initiative at the department store called "Music Matters". It is also available for pre-order on Purposetourmerch.com, Bieber's dedicated direct-to-consumer retail site.
"The success of artist-driven merchandise collections has been a game-changer," observes Selfridges creative director Linda Hewson, who notes that the store will have 400 per cent more music merch and musical artist collaborations in 2017 than it did in 2016.
"Global music artists are capitalising on their fashion credentials in both creative and commercial ways through partnerships with fashion brands and the development of new lines," adds buying director Sebastian Manes. "The Purpose merch has been a smart example of a fashion offer working for different retailers, price-points and consumers. We carried the original Purpose line, and had to reorder it four times. And we anticipate the Purpose Stadium merch will outperform it."
US-based company Bravado is the architect of this retail phenomenon. Bravado handles retail and branding not only for Bieber but also Lady Gaga (who released a line of T-shirts and sweaters at Urban Outfitters recently), Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry, as well as older names such as Guns N' Roses and Bob Marley.
"We've stepped up our game," says Bravado chief executive Mat Vlasic of the company, which has seen a fourfold growth in revenues since being acquired by Universal Music Group in 2007. "Bravado is on a journey from being a memorabilia-based, traditional merchandise company to one that is focused on helping our artists evolve and build their brands. Our approach is elevated and our process is similar to any fashion house. Merch isn't simply 'still going', it's just in its next phase."
Part of Bravado's job is also to protect their artists from merch bootlegging. They run a dedicated licensing division and, according to a statement from the company, are "proactive" in ensuring these protections (and getting ahead of potential violations, which happen "all the time").
The company's "merchandise and other" revenues grew by 16 per cent in 2016. And while the primary market for music merchandise is still "the fans", Vlasic says the consumer base has broadened in recent years to include anybody seeking "an experience, a statement and an expression". He's seen the rise in sales among the streetwear tribes who have imbued tour product with a distinct fashionability. But Vlasic insists the clothes are not "fashion versions" of band merch. Rather, "they are reflecting pop culture".
From high fashion to superfan, the new world of music merch finds itself with a foot in both fields. Whether it is sustainable remains to be seen, but for now, we're still calling for an encore.
Rock the look: statement tees
Justin Bieber
Purpose tour hoodie, £100, selfridges.com
Yang Li
Samizdat merch-inspired top, £235, selfridges.com
The Weeknd
T-shirt, £25, theweeknd.com
Guns N' Roses
T-shirt, £26, topshop.com
Lady Gaga
Joanne tour black T-shirt, £30, ladygaga.com
Whitney Houston
Vintage T-shirt, £35, selfridges.com
Main photograph: Getty
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