Grindr wants you to swipe right on fashion and LGBTQ rights.
The gay dating app has launched a Grindr Store that features a 29-piece line of athletic wear. “The Varsity Collection” was designed in collaboration with printing company Print All Over Me and includes shorts, tops, swimwear, outerwear and accessories, ranging in price from $25 to $130. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Athlete Ally, an organization that advocates for LBGTQ athletes.
The store’s launch is particularly topical in light of an incident this week in which The Daily Beast deleted an article in which a reporter used Grindr in Rio de Janeiro to identify Olympic athletes on the app. The piece backlash after it outed a number of previously closeted athletes.
The store also comes on the heels of recent efforts by fashion brands like Baja East, which launched a popular “Be Proud” t-shirt in support of victims of the Orlando Pulse night club shooting.
“As we keep evolving, we are looking for ways to combine things people enjoy with ways to help the community globally,” Grindr’s vp of marketing Landis Smithers said in a statement, posted by Dazed. “The collection feels sexy, cheeky, fun, but in the end, all profits are going to an amazing group that helps athletes with the issues the gay community faces all around the world.”
This isn’t the app’s first push into the fashion world. Grindr partnered with Paper Magazine in May to help the publisher cast a very NSFW photo shoot for its summer issue. It also live streamed J.W. Anderson’s fall 2016 menswear show in January, which was available on the app for 24 hours. However, the effort received low engagement, with just 150,000 viewers.
Smithers said at the Decoded Fashion Summit in May that due to low viewership, the company won’t livestream again, but teased the potential of fashion partnerships.
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“Grindr is a very unapologetic brand, we are what we are,” Landis Smithers, Grindr’s vp of marketing, told Glossy in April.
