OpenAI launched its Supply Co. merchandise store to the public this week, offering clothing and accessories previously available only to employees, including $15 ribbed socks, a $40 T-shirt, and a $175 half-zip sweatshirt.
The AI company's Supply Co. shop sells items including $15 socks and a $175 half-zip, drawing criticism from fashion observers
Credit: OpenAI
OpenAI launched its Supply Co. merchandise store to the public this week, offering clothing and accessories previously available only to employees, including $15 ribbed socks, a $40 T-shirt, and a $175 half-zip sweatshirt.
The collection also includes a $70 ChatGPT basketball, which Ben King, OpenAI's design director, told The Wall Street Journal was inspired by the Golden State Warriors — the team plays in an arena just opposite OpenAI's San Francisco offices. King said the late streetwear designer Virgil Abloh was a reference point for the new collection. Some items are already selling out, he added.
The store's website describes Supply Co. as documenting "the visual culture surrounding intelligent systems" and offering "commemorative objects for breakthroughs that were immediately followed by another breakthrough." King said that merch will be tied to company milestones rather than released on a fashion calendar.
The launch drew sharp criticism online. CNN senior style reporter Rachel Tashjian called the collection "wildly passé" and compared it to designs from brands Kith and Aimé Leon Dore "five years ago," according to Inc. Startup merch company PlumSoda wrote on X $TWTR: "What are these chest placements? What is this brim length?? This is why you need production designers."
OpenAI had briefly opened the store to the public in December 2025 to mark its 10th anniversary. The company now joins Figma, Shopify $SHOP, and Palantir $PLTR in selling branded apparel to the general public. Palantir's $239 chore coat sold out within hours of its April release, according to the Journal.
Liang Shi, co-founder of Leroli Studio, who contributed to Shopify's clothing line and previously co-founded Cash by Cash App, told Inc. that software companies venturing into fashion have a difficult road ahead. "You have to have a community who loves your brand so much that wearing it doesn't feel like an advertisement," she said. "You are not an apparel brand entering into the apparel space. You have a lot going against you."
OpenAI's store includes an archive section where past items are displayed alongside "decommissioned" dates, echoing the artificial scarcity tactics associated with sneaker-drop culture, according to Forbes. On eBay, employee-distributed OpenAI gear has fetched prices as high as $475 for a packaged swag set and nearly $247 for a single pre-owned sweatshirt.
David Aaker, vice chairman of consultancy firm Prophet and author of several bestselling branding books, said he views the trend as savvy marketing. "The old way of throwing money at an advertising budget just doesn't work anymore," he said.
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