Garms Dealer: Lockheed Martin Is Now a Streetwear Brand
Folks, it's the summer of the bomb: Oppenheimer made atomic dystopia sexy, Disney's movies underwhelmed at the box office, and, perhaps most inexplicably, Lockheed Martin is now a streetwear brand. I am become drip, destroyer of good taste.
Yes, thanks to an enterprising Korean company, you can now buy pre-faded T-shirts and baggy jeans printed with the name of the world's largest arms dealer. It just makes sense — you know how those Korean youths love their defense contractors!
On August 17, Lockheed Martin Apparel, as the Korean clothing brand is known, went semi-viral on Twitter (or X or whatever it's called now) simply because it's insane, in a dystopian end-of-history sort of way.
Lockheed Martin Apparel produces technical street-leaning clothing of the Kiko Kostadinov, Hyein Seo, and Post Archive Fashion variety, with a dash of retro Arc'teryx.
The difference between Lockheed Martin Apparel and peers like Korean label Mischief, though, is that the former's clothing is branded with the intellectual property, logos, and, amazingly, ethics page of Lockheed Martin, a core pillar of the military industrial complex.
Note that Lockheed Martin (the American one) sells its own merch but none of that junk holds a laser-guided bomb to that Korean Lockheed Martin drip.
So, why would anyone want to associate their fledgling fast-streetwear clothing with a company synonymous with war and the accompanying crimes (allegedly [in case any lawyers are reading this])?
Ask the Doojin Corporation, which debuted the Lockheed Martin Apparel brand in May 2023 to tap into the gorpcore trend, according to a Korean-language press release. Doojin also operates less-concerning brands with similarly intriguing names, like Brown Breath.
Currently on the front page of Lockheed Martin Apparel's website, a promotion for "Lockheed Martin 2023: HOT SUMMER COLLECTION." Just like that one Megan Thee Stallion song but with more ICBMs!
Lockheed Martin Apparel's pilot-inspired collections (amusingly called "missions") comprise branded beanies, articulated cargo pants, shirts printed with F-35 fighter jets, and windbreakers with detachable sleeves, apparently a reference to spaceship docking systems if an exhaustive third-party blog post is to be believed.
The clothing itself isn't even all that bad, if derivative, and the actual designs are appropriately aeronautical. As another Korean blogger enthused, "The storytelling of the brand is... definitely good."
Lockheed Martin Apparel has proven such a success that, in early August, Doojin announced plans to expand its offering to retailers like Musinsa and is continuing to seed product to influencers in Korea and, inexplicably, Britain.
Don't worry, Musinsa ships internationally, so it'll soon be easier than ever to rep your favorite purveyor of jets, missiles, and technical biker jackets.
Don't let the name give you pause! As Doojin says on its brand page, Lockheed Martin Apparel is "a brand that supports the lifestyle of all people who passionately pursue work-life balance," according to a crude auto-translation.
Aside from simultaneously offering tacit support for a company that profits from producing instruments of war, nothing wrong with that.
