This McDonald's T-Shirt Is Perfect For Fans Of Its McRib

McDonald's recently debuted its new McRib shirt on Instagram. It's charcoal colored and displays an illustration of a McRib lying upon the massively rendered word "McRib" on the front, while on the back it reads "Sandwich of the Year" and "December 2020" at the bottom. All these details, the Instagram caption explains, are so "you'll never forget those fleeting McRib memories." If interested, you can find it here, on Golden Arches Unlimited, McDonald's Mech Store.

This new shirt was released to celebrate the McRib's seasonal return at the beginning of September. The item, as both Business Insider and The Washington Post address, boasts a cult-like status amongst its fans and the McDonald's brand in general. Currently, the post has received a whopping 33,399 likes. However, the smattering of comments present a more mixed story. One person responded positively while the rest ran the range of not liking McRibs, preferring Travis Scott's designs, and genuinely just realizing that McDonald's sells merch.

Considering McDonald's main concern is fries and burgers, perhaps the fact that merch has stayed relatively on the back burner shouldn't be a surprise. Still, this approach seems to have changed since Dec. 2019, when McDonald's announced the creation of the Golden Arches Unlimited store. Before that, as they explained in a press statement, McDonald's had occasionally collaborated with other clothing brands and outlets like Uber Eats. But now, you could directly buy McDonald's branded items year round with seasonal specials, as we have seen in the guise of the McRibs shirt. 

"McDonald's has been ingrained in the fabric of culture for years, and there's a long history of fans wearing our brand with pride," Senior Vice President of McDonald's Global Marketing, Colin Mitchell, enthused. "We're excited to help customers wear their brand love on their sleeves with the unveiling of Golden Arches Unlimited as we continue to inspire feel good moments with McDonald's."

Since then, they have released a series of burger scented candles, which Eater describes in its review as "From 'No' to 'Dear God,'" a line of clothes made in collaboration with Travis Scott, as CNN reports, and another with James Balvin, as covered by Hypebeast. All of these item drops have occurred in the year since McDonald's has opened their own merchandise store, though the purportedly McDonald's approved McDonald's item supplier Smilemakers is still going. So, in response to the surprised reaction to the McRib shirt, yes, McDonald's has merch.