Last week, the Vatican released the first of its official Pope Leo XIV merch — stamps featuring the face of the new pontiff, a tradition that dates back to 1929.
But while the Church was waiting on divine authorization for its new merch, entrepreneurial Americans wasted no time capitalizing on the election of the first US-born pope.
In the month since, a whole cottage industry has emerged to indulge both the religious set and those who just want in on the zeitgeist.
An American-made papal frenzy
The deluge of doodads ranges from the standard fare — T-shirts, hats, mugs, candles, and insta-books — to the novel, patriotic, and questionably sacrilegious.
Some standouts:
- On Etsy, a $15 shirt depicting an illustrated Pope Leo — with a bald eagle on one shoulder, a cigar hanging from his mouth, and biceps showing off a US Marine Corps tattoo — has 1.2k+ mostly positive reviews. Another depicting the Holy Father as a slice of pizza is selling for $20.
- A limited-release Pope Leo trading card set a Topps Now record for any non-sports card, with 133k+ copies sold at ~$9 a pop. They’re now being resold on eBay for up to $199.
- The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum released two baubles of Rome’s top guy for $30 each.
The epicenter of the merch mania, however…
… is the pontiff’s hometown, Chicago, where retailers and local businesses are hawking papal-inspired cookies and sandwiches and slapping “Da Pope” on just about everything.
Even the White Sox economy is getting a boost from the papal craze.
- Grandstand Sports in Chicago has received orders for its Pope Leo White Sox jerseys from other states and as far as South Korea and Rome, per Fast Company.
- Tickets for a papal celebration at the White Sox’s home field, which went on sale over the weekend for $5, are now reselling for over $1.2k.
Americans are a famously patriotic people and ~53m are Catholic, so it makes sense that they’re showing out for the new American icon in true American fashion: by commodifying all that’s holy.
Plus, while many of these trinkets are… silly, as the first American pope, they’re also a piece of history. And we’ll confess, that pizza-pope shirt goes pretty hard.
