Why are men burning their overalls?

On January 19, rightwing musician and social media personality Adam Calhoun announced that he was parting ways with his beloved Carhartt gear.

In a video posted to YouTube, the American singer behind the minor country hit “Salute the Brave” pulls out a cherished Carhartt hat and a shirt jacket that he “used to weld in”, and looks misty-eyed when he holds up an old pair of Carhartt double knees — “my favourite pants I’ve ever owned”.

He then proceeds to carry the clothes outside and douse them in gasoline, using a blowtorch to set them ablaze and urging his 1.2m subscribers to do the same. “Hardworking, proud Americans wear these clothes,” he tells the camera. “And you roll over for these slimy liberals.”

Calhoun’s video is part of a wave of anti-Carhartt sentiment that has flared up in response to the company’s January 14 announcement that all employees would be required to receive Covid-19 vaccines. Although the US Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses, the company said in a press release that its decision was “part of our longstanding commitment to workplace safety”.

Covid vaccinations have become a flashpoint in US politics, with many on the right advocating against government and corporate-sponsored mandates. Widely shared videos of anti-vax Carhartt customers defacing and burning their beloved clothes are another strange example of America’s culture wars being played out through fashion.

Product boycotts are nothing new, but in the age of social media, and particularly since 2016, videos of customers destroying their own stuff to protest a brand’s marketing or corporate policies have become a regular part of the outrage cycle — on both sides of the political spectrum.

Social media is the easiest way to attract attention, especially with the visual impact of a bonfire of branded merchandise

In 2016 people filmed themselves tossing their New Balance trainers in the trash after the company’s vice-president of public affairs made favourable remarks to the Wall Street Journal regarding President Trump’s protectionist trade policies. And in 2018 customers recorded themselves burning their sneakers after Nike released an ad in support of activist quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

While many consumer goods have been the object of customer fury — from Keurig coffee machines to Kellogg’s cereal — fashion and apparel are particularly popular targets for destruction because customers so closely identify with clothing brands. “What you put on your body is such a reflection of yourself and what you stand for,” says Emily Huggard, assistant professor of fashion communication at New York’s Parsons School of Design. “Fashion brands make people feel connected to their city, their community, their culture.”

Unsurprisingly, when a brand that has been a part of your life goes against those supposed shared values, consumers can feel betrayed. Social media is the easiest way to express those feelings and attract the attention of a brand, especially with what Huggard calls the “visual impact” of a bonfire of branded merchandise.

Companies are right to be concerned — online protests can do more than alienate customers. In a 2017 paper published in the Journal of Business Ethics, researchers used a combination of econometric analysis and simulated online protests to measure the effects of social media dust-ups on company share price, and found that shares traded nearly 1 per cent lower than expected in the five days after a protest. But they can also sometimes pay off — after an initial dip, Nike’s stock rose 4 per cent within a week of releasing its Kaepernick ad.

Boycott @Carhartt. Rip their tags off your clothes. Don’t burn the clothes.

When its time to replace their clothes, buy brands that don’t enforce a mandate that the courts have already ruled as illegal.#BoycottCarhartt pic.twitter.com/mj59G4F1XM

— Mr. Mxyzptlk (Miks-eez-piti-lik) ???????? (@MrMixPixLix) January 22, 2022

In the immediate aftermath of a consumer-led protest, says DJ Langley, co-author of the paper and professor at the University of Groningen, companies have three options. They can engage in dialogue with protesters, repudiate the attacks and double down, or ignore them and hope the whole thing blows over. Contrary to the advice of some public relations professionals, the study determined that engagement with online protesters was the best way to control the damage, while silence only made things worse. Still, Langley calls the road to repairing relationships with customers “complicated” and “difficult”.

Setting clothing on fire is by no means a western phenomenon, though the provocations are often different. When, in 2018, Dolce & Gabbana released a series of videos that showed a Chinese model struggling to eat pizza and other Italian foods with chopsticks, protesting against it became a matter of national pride. Writer and director Xiang Kai, who posted photos of his Dolce clothes on fire, told the New York Times that “the purpose of burning my clothes is to awaken the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. Some people say you’ve wasted a lot of money. I’m willing to waste this money for the nation’s dignity.”

In the US, the response tends to be divided. “Almost no matter what [brands] do,” says Langley, “they’re going to alienate about half of their customers.” Some Carhartt customers might buy an extra beanie in solidarity with the company, but the majority who agree with its vaccine mandate are unlikely to change their shopping habits, or even voice their support on social media, especially compared with the numbers of people angrily calling for a boycott.

Last time I’m buying @Carhartt!#stopthemandates #BoycottCarhartt pic.twitter.com/5cbuSLjr2h

— ccole13 (@Coleybeerman) January 21, 2022

There is some good news for companies like Carhartt. In the absence of a protracted campaign, Langley’s team found that intense online protests are “not enough to have a long-term effect” on share price or company behaviour. The weekend it released its ad, Nike’s sales jumped 31 per cent year on year; New Balance executives have ceased making pro-Trump statements and returned to making surprisingly hip dad shoes. The Boston-based footwear company even managed to snag one of the hottest names in men’s fashion, Teddy Santis, to serve as creative director for its “Made in USA” line.

It seems that memories, even for the angriest online protester, are quite short. When contacted about a viral picture of New Balances in a trash can from 2016, graduate student Jared Greenberg could only vaguely remember the circumstances that had led him to toss his shoes in the garbage. It had been six years since he had posted the photo, and his passions had cooled. “I did stop wearing New Balances for a while,” Greenberg says, “but I would buy them again now.”

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