Viral Pickle Sweatshirt

Submission 931

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

About

The Viral Pickle Sweatshirt or the Pickle Jars Sweater is a vintage-style crewneck sweatshirt with a variety of 12 pickle jars on it sold and popularized by Bad Addiction Boutique. The sweater went viral on TikTok throughout 2023, largely through sponsored posts, seeing a significant boost in popularity in July and August of that year. Around that time, the sweater's virality inspired videos in which people expressed their exhaustion over seeing the sweater on their FYPs and hoping for the sweater to stop going viral.

History

Vintage-looking sweatshirts with 4×3 grids of pickle jars on them have been sold online since as early as October 2022, with one example being a pickle jar sweatshirt sold by Bellelement.^[1] As early as January 29th, 2023, ShopBadAddiction.com,^[2] the website for Bad Addiction Boutique, began selling a similar sweatshirt. That day, the boutique's TikTok^[3] page, @badaddictionboutique, posted a video advertising the sweater that gained over 1.9 million views in seven months (shown below).

The TikToker continued to advertise the sweatshirt regularly over the following months, often using the hashtag "#picklesweatshirt," with some of the videos gaining millions of views. For example, on June 3rd, the TikToker^[4] posted a video that gained over 6 million views in two months (shown below, left). On July 16th, they posted a video to TikTok^[5] that garnered over 8.8 million views in a month (shown below, right).

Online Presence

As the sweater became increasingly popularized in July and August 2023, TikTokers besides @badaddictionboutique started posting paid promotions for the sweater. The promotions often make it appear as if someone bought the sweater organically. For example, on July 31st, TikToker^[6] @ttaylorolsen posted a video that gained over 5.6 million views in three weeks (shown below). On August 9th, TikToker^[7] @caileeeats posted a video that gained over 2.5 million views in two weeks. On August 22nd, Today^[10] reported on the sweatshirt.

Backlash / Criticism

In late July and throughout August 2023, some TikTokers began posting videos sharing frustration over seeing the pickle sweater so much. On July 30th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @familyfriendlyrwang posted a video where he admits he doesn't understand the hype, garnering over 3.1 million views in three weeks (shown below, left). On August 12th, TikToker^[9] @mark_boutilier posted a video criticizing the sweatshirt, garnering over 70,000 views in two weeks (shown below, right).