Acquired Taste
Written by: Taylor Kim | Collage by: Taylor Kim
Fashion and food: two things that, at their core, have nothing to do with each other. However, in recent years, the fashion industry and food and beverage market have realized the marketing success of combining forces. Here are the latest food and fashion collaborations to confuse your taste buds.
Reebok x Jelly Belly
I wonder what made Jelly Belly think they need to create a sneaker with Reebok, but with streetwear and sneaker culture being all the rage right now, they’re not the only food brand to tap into this market. These candy-colored sneakers look sweet, but certain styles may clash with your wardrobe. The Instapump Fury style is the hardest to wear since it’s so bulky and unbearably neon. But the two Club C’s and the Classic Leather styles are much more wearable since the rainbow jellybean influence is more subtle on the shoe. This collaboration between a candy company and a sneaker brand is unexpected – which reminds me of how I hate the element of surprise whenever I play Jelly Belly’s BeanBoozled. The taste of canned dog food that I ate once still burns in my memory to this day.
Oddness Rating: 7 out of 10 canned dog food BeanBoozled jelly beans
Crocs x Hidden Valley Ranch
So, America’s favorite ranch dressing brand, Hidden Valley, meets America’s favorite comfy shoe brand, Crocs. Yup, never thought those two things would exist in the same sentence, and I’m not even sure they should. Who at Hidden Valley or Crocs corporate made this collab happen? Because a part of me wants to scold them for creating something so atrocious and random, but another part of me wants to thank them for creating something so iconic and hilarious. Really, what do foam clogs have in common with ranch? However, it is a great excuse to make a cute mini ranch bottle Jibbitz for your Crocs. Oh, and if you didn’t already notice, the tiny green flecks on the ranch-colored Croc are to mimic the herbs you see in ranch dressing. That’s the pièce de résistance, if you ask me.
The craziest part of this collaboration is that they made female rapper Saweetie the face of this campaign. Confused? It’s pretty simple; a clip of Saweetie drowning her poor spaghetti in none other than Hidden Valley Ranch went viral last March. I imagine the marketing team at Hidden Valley saw it and said, “That’s our girl!” This shoe will probably be on every ranch aficionado’s Holy Grail list. And good luck to them because these little guys have already sold out and can only be bought for resale.
Oddness Rating: 8 out of 10 mini ranch Jibbitz
Busch Beer x David’s Bridal
There is nothing elegant about this David’s Bridal wedding dress created with Busch Beer covered in green camo print with “BUSCHHHH” obnoxiously hidden within the print. Maybe this is designed for the casual bride to wear as an ode to every other Sunday she spends drinking Busch and watching the game. But let’s be real: a tiny percentage of brides would be interested in buying this dress. However, the groomsmen may be delighted to hear that bowties come in the same unsightly camo print. All that’s left to do is to pull up to the ceremony with a 30 rack of matching limited edition camo Busch and say, “I do.”
Oddness Rating: 9 out of 10 cans of camo Busch Light
A&W Cheddar Weather
I wish A&W would make it Cheddar Weather all year round! This is the first time I’ve seen fast food merch done in a non-cheesy way (pun intended), and I need another bite. If I had never been to an A&W before, I would’ve thought they were a super swanky clothing brand. In the future, if people somehow stop drinking root beer, A&W seriously should consider diving into the fashion world. By collaborating with independent artisans to create the apparel, A&W successfully elevated its merchandise above competitors like Pizza Hut. These clothes don’t come at your typical fast-food merch prices; the most expensive item is a pair of $715 boots made by Wisconsin brand, Thorogood, with the words “cheese” and “curds” hand-painted by Kentucky artist Caylie Mindling. My favorite piece would be the letterman jacket made by Ohio’s Universal Lettering Co., featuring a giant “cheddar weather” patch.
Oddness Rating: 4 out of 10 A&W cheese curds
JNCO Jeans x Goldfish
I wish I could say this collaboration between JNCO Jeans and Goldfish is super nostalgic, but unfortunately, I wasn’t born during the ’90s. Any ’90s kid recognizes JNCO as the brand known for their ultra-wide leg jeans, although I can say that Goldfish was part of my childhood, and honestly, it’s still part of my adulthood. Goldfish reached out to JNCO to create a pair of jeans inspired by their new limited edition Jalapeño Popper flavor. Apparently, people in the ’90s ate jalapeño poppers a lot, not just on Super Bowl Sunday (okay, maybe that’s just me).
How did people walk in these jeans? I could never wear these jeans because I know I’d feel like an elephant trying to lift each leg as if I’m drowning in stiff denim. One pro about these jeans is the huge pockets, which Goldfish says are perfect for fitting a whole bag of their crackers. Now, who wouldn’t want a pair of jeans with a snack stash pocket? Speaking of snacking, every order of these limited edition JNCO jeans comes with a bag of the Jalapeño Popper Goldfish. They thought of every detail, didn’t they?
Oddness Rating: 6 out of 10 jalapeño poppers
I feel like I just ate a five-course meal, but every course was from a completely different cuisine resulting in the world’s most upset stomach. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing something like the beer camo wedding dress, but I can see myself buying an item like the A&W letterman jacket for the sheer novelty of it. These collabs prove that anything can happen in the world of fashion, so dream big, my friends, and you might create the next iconic Croc.