It’s a striking, if unverified, image.
The cropped photo, shared by President Trump on Truth Social on Saturday, shows Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan president, en route to the United States on a naval warship. He appears blindfolded, his ears covered by a noise-canceling headset, and he is wearing a gray Nike sweatsuit. Despite the seriousness, and shock of seeing a foreign leader in these circumstances, some people online have sidestepped the politics and seized upon the image itself, in order to talk about the clothing.
“Some world events can be so seismic and paradigm-shifting that an immediate way to grapple with them is the gallows humor of memes,” said James Harris, a co-host of “Throwing Fits,” a popular men’s fashion podcast, which posted a meme of Mr. Maduro in the sweatsuit to its Instagram page. The post garnered more than 50,000 likes and 200 comments.
Fashion-related memes are a “shareable, nonpartisan” way for people to wade into the discourse, said Jamie Cohen, an associate professor of media studies at Queens College in New York. He predicted that we could expect to see Maduro sweatsuit costumes next Halloween, though the reference will be well dated by then.
“We are wildly overwhelmed by everything happening all at once, and this form of meme is more comfortable” to engage with, he said. Put another way: It’s easier to pick apart the clothes than it is to grapple with the geopolitical implications.
The specific Nike Tech suit featured in the image of Mr. Maduro has its own cultural significance, particularly for younger men in the worlds of music and sports. It’s been a uniform for rappers like Central Cee, basketball stars like Kevin Durant and soccer teams like F.C. Barcelona. In cities such as New York, a swooshed fleece suit is an unofficial uniform for bodega runs and gym trips.
And, in a twist of internet synchronicity, this image of Mr. Maduro landed at a moment when the Tech Fleece is itself a meme: Beginning around November, young men online were posting that they had traded in their polyester-blend sweatsuits for business-casual-style quarter-zip sweaters. This evolution was supposed to represent a shift from juvenile athletic wear to more professional clothes — a symbol that the wearer had matured into a serious adult.
“The implications of this image and incident are unknown,” Mr. Harris said. “But what’s obvious is that seeing a world leader in an outfit that’s normally associated with young kids is jarring and weird.”
“The informality of it is at odds with his image,” said Steve Rathje, an incoming assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who researches human-computer interactions. He added that “it’s not everyday” we see a world leader dressed like this.
“What is novel often goes viral, and this is certainly a novel and unexpected event,” Mr. Rathje said. “And the tracksuit adds to the peculiarity of the entire event.”
In the social media age, world events are often quickly metabolized as opportunities for engagement and likes. Oftentimes, that attention centers on clothes, which make for a knowingly ironic way to analyze a public figure, without wading into the less savory aspects of their story.
Take for example, the obsessive online discussion of Luigi Mangione’s appearance and attire, despite the fact that he is accused of fatally shooting the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in 2024. Or, how after the release last month of government files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, some in the fashion world noted that the convicted sex offender’s fashion sense called to mind a Ralph Lauren ad. Threads trying to identify the brand behind his clothes proliferated on Reddit, and in September, a clothing store in Miami sold what it claimed was one of Mr. Epstein’s monogrammed sweaters for $11,000.
While other images of Mr. Maduro circulated over the weekend (including one that presented him in a formal suit flanked by two U.S. soldiers, which was swiftly debunked as A.I. fakery), the sweatsuit image has traveled the farthest. Google Trends data indicated that searches for Nike Tech spiked over the weekend as the image of Mr. Maduro circulated. On Nike’s website, similar styles of the zippered top retail for $140, while similar pants are $120. Nike’s website notes that its Tech Fleece jogger pants “offer polished warmth and comfort made with our premium, low-bulk fleece.” A Nike representative declined to comment on the topic.
On Nike’s website, customer reviews on Tech Fleece products seemed to allude to Mr. Maduro’s extradition. “Symbol of freedom! Viva Venezuela!!” read one review of its full-zip jacket. Another, from Sunday, name-checked Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. mission to arrest Mr. Maduro, adding, “Tech Fleece is very comfortable.” Another review from Saturday said, “It’s really comfortable for long flights.” Whether this was a reference to Mr. Maduro was unclear.
Jacob Gallagher is a Times reporter covering fashion and style.
The post The Sweatsuit Was Bound to Become a Meme appeared first on New York Times.
