Demand soars for viral Harris-Walz camo hat, made in USA unlike made-in-China MAGA hats

‘We’ve never seen hats sell this fast,’ says president of New Jersey company where staff work 60-hour week making hats with Democrats’ names

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An employee works on embroidered campaign hats for US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz at Unionwear in Newark, New Jersey. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:56am, 24 Aug 2024

If campaign hat sales are any predictor of electoral results, the Harris-Walz ticket is in great shape, as their camouflage cap with orange lettering goes viral.

The Unionwear textile factory in New Jersey says demand has soared for the baseball hats emblazoned with the names of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the Democrats vying for the White House.

Over nearly a quarter-century in the campaign merchandise business, “we’ve never seen hats sell this fast,” said Unionwear president Mitch Cahn, as some 100 workers cut, assembled, sewn, embroidered and packaged the nearly 4,000 hats that leave the factory each day.

“I think that people haven’t really been excited about the presidential candidates for a long time,” Cahn said. “For 12 years, really, since Barack Obama, we haven’t seen this kind of excitement about a candidate.”

Embroidered campaign hats for the Democratic Party presidential and vice-presidential candidates on the production line at Unionwear in New Jersey. Photo: AFP

Before Harris’ entry into the presidential race, Cahn said Joe Biden-linked campaign sales were “anaemic”.