Getty Images and Insider
- Users on X and TikTok spotted Lockheed Martin brand streetwear being sold online in South Korea.
- A black or white shirt with the Lockheed Martin star is priced at $30.
- But people online mocked this crossover. "Why is lockheed martin making streetwear for swagged out Asians," wrote one X user.
Users on X and TikTok are expressing their shock and disbelief over a Lockheed Martin brand streetwear collection that appears to be sold online in South Korea.
Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace and arms company, appears to have its logo emblazoned across a streetwear collection of shirts, hoodies, and jackets sold by Doojin Yanghang Co. A black or white shirt with the Lockheed Martin star is priced at 40,600 Korean Won, or $30.
The South Korean company told Insider in an email that it acquired the official Lockheed Martin license brand through an agency. Insider could not independently verify these claims.
The streetwear collection — currently shipping only to South Korea — consists of mostly minimalistic black, white, and gray pieces, some of them even featuring parts of Lockheed Martin's mission statement.
And people have now taken to social media to mock the unlikely connection between an American defense company and Korean fashion.
The collection was spotted by X user @wiggerwakanda on Friday, which read: "why is lockheed martin making streetwear for swagged out Asians." The post has since garnered over 1.3 million views.
—Name Unscrambled: The Reptile (@wiggerwakanda) August 18, 2023
"Your favorite war mongering defense company has put down the missiles, and picked up the pieces," TikTok user opaleyes369 said about the collection in a Wednesday video that has racked up over 900,000 views.
"Military industrial complex sponsored Korean streetwear is wayyyy too insane to have made it onto my 2023 bingo card," X user @candidspeaks posted on Wednesday. Another X user, @BrianMFloyd, joked in a Friday post: "the f-35 shirt costs $500k and disintegrates on first wash."
South Korea is no stranger to unusual brands popping up in fashion retailers, including CNN, Yale, Billboard, and Kodak, according to a report by local media outlet Korea JoongAng Daily in 2022.
"Lately, more and more local fashion companies have been using logos of well-known brands, after acquiring their licenses or as part of collaborations, to create apparel collections," per JoongAng Daily's Shin Min-Hee.
Lockheed Martin directed Insider to Equity Management Incorporated, a corporate trademark licensing firm, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, sent outside regular business hours.