How Damar Hamlin's Obscure Streetwear Jacket Triggered Religious Backlash
In an absurd turn of events, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has gone from prayer recipient to blasphemer in the days following the Super Bowl. All it took was one obscure streetwear brand's varsity jacket.
For those unfamiliar with Hamlin's situation, in early January 2023, the 24-year-old football player was rushed to the hospital after he collapsed on-field from a sudden heart attack. His recovery has been national news in the interim.
Hamlin has made several public appearances since returning home on January 18, each time humbly voicing appreciation for the outpouring of public support.
The cause of Hamlin's heart attack hasn't been made public but, despite health experts providing rational scientific explanations as to what might've caused his collapse, dark conspiracy theories inevitably sprouted up anyways. We'll return to this thread shortly.
On February 12, Hamlin attended the 2023 Super Bowl, wearing a Saint Michael varsity jacket done in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
So, what is Saint Michael? It's an art-inclined clothing brand founded in January 2020 by READYMADE designer Yuta Hosokawa and provocative artist Cali Thornhill Dewitt, neither as expensive as READYMADE nor as straightforward as Thornhill Dewitt's SOME WARE.
Saint Michael is mostly sold at high-end Japanese streetwear stores like NUBIAN,CHERRY, and even darkwear retailer FASCINATE.
Confusingly also known as "Saint Mxxxxxx" or "Saint Mx6," Saint Michael frequently collaborates with likeminded artists like Murakami and Denim Tears founder and Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory, with whom it shares a fascination with Christian iconography.
For Emory, the imagery provides an opportunity to explore America's systematic racism and consumer culture while, for Saint Michael, the Christian themes are merely edgy graphics.
It's worth mentioning that, for better or worse, Saint Michael didn't set out intentionally make any kind of religious statement: Thornhill Dewitt enjoys a bit of button-pushing, sure, but Japanese fashion brands tend to adopt cultural aesthetics simply because they look "cool," without thinking too much about potential blowback (consider Sasquatchfabrix's controversial Supreme editorial from 2016 and Kapital's "Free Tibet" collection).
Anyways, Hamlin wore a Saint Michael jacket patched with Murakami's abstracted rendering of Jesus (a design Murakami also used to create jewelry for Travis Scott), and this set off a massive chain reaction.
American Christians were particularly upset.
Hamlin's jacket was deemed "blasphemous" on Twitter, even by some of the people spreading those aforementioned conspiracy theories.
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson isn't one of those trolls, though, he's simply a religious guy who was initially upset by Hamlin's jacket and expressed as much on Instagram.
According to his edited post, Peterson and Hamlin cleared the air.
Hamlin addressed the controversy directly a few days later.
"It was never my intentions to hurt or disrespect anyone, the coat is abstract art to me," Hamlin wrote in two February 15 tweets.
"My beliefs and Relationship with God is not tied to symbolic images. I will learn from this and continue to walk in Love as I ALWAYS have."
This jacket flare-up recalls the recent outrages over, say, Addison Rae's Praying bikini, Doja Cat's cheeky costumes, and Sam Smith's recent performance of "Unholy."
However, this situation is especially unfortunate in that Hamlin, a young guy who just survived a potentially traumatizing health issue, is at the center. Hopefully this mini-firestorm doesn't dent his upbeat attitude.
