J. Crew’s Collab With The Bear Is Not for the Bears
We’ve got beef …
Good news, foodie bros, How Long Gone listeners, and Brooklyn dads: J.Crew has released a limited-edition line of casual menswear in collaboration with The Bear. And lest you worry about coming across as a fake fan, this stuff doesn’t just have the restaurant’s bear logo or the show’s name on it. Nay, nay, this stuff is a deep cut for the real heads: workwear bearing the logo for fictional in-universe family-owned Chicagoland business “Matter of Fak Supply.”
The Faks, of course, are Berzatto family friends and handymen Neil (Matty Matheson), Ted (Ricky Staffieri), and the newly stunt-cast floor waxer Sammy (John Cena). The merch — a work jacket, trucker hat, sweatshirt, and tee — is sort of workwear cosplay at J.Crew prices. The canvas work jacket is a clone of the one worn by Ted on this season of The Bear, and J. Crew has him modeling it on the website. It is $398, and already sold out in every size …
… Every size they seemingly offer, anyway. Writer Victoria Edel pointed out on X that the sold-out collection maxed out at a 2X, likely excluding Matheson himself. This size-inclusivity oversight on J.Crew’s part represents the issue with this collection, one that embodies a larger tension inherent to The Bear concerning authenticity and a muddled relationship to class. My colleague, TV critic Roxana Hadadi, told me over Slack that the collection is “an interesting glimpse into the show’s actual narrative tension, which is that everyone is so obsessed with chasing high-end, fine-dining success that they’re ignoring what really works, which is the sandwich counter, and who really cares about the success of the business, which is their working-class regulars.
“So The Bear continuing to lean into high-end partnerships with brands like J.Crew, and featuring other super-expensive brands like Thom Browne is actually an unintentional reflection, perhaps, of the literal ignorance the show has for the actual people who support The Bear,” she added.
Moreover, it’s also all just a bit corny, isn’t it? Writer Jesse David Fox, a The Bear fan and self-admitted member of this collab’s target demo, said that the “fake vintage” design on these items, with their fake old logo, “feels like 2005 American Eagle.” Strategist writer Erin Schwartz’s issues with the line were also primarily aesthetic: “Good graphic design is a hack to make your merch seem cool on a T-shirt. And this is bad graphic design.”
Not that it makes a difference: It’s mostly sold out. The only thing left is the trucker hat, for $59.99 and that, at least, is allegedly one size fits all. Or buy, like, four Italian beefs. The choice is yours.
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