Zayn Launches Tour Merch Collection Despite Not Being On Tour

By Rebecca Jennings Jun 28, 2016, 2:28pm EDT

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

It is basically a requirement now that every cool touring artist has an equally cool array of merch that follows them around — preferably via surprise pop-up — on each stop. Biebs has his Vetements-inspired sweats, Selena her chokers, and Kanye his Life of Pablo shirts that were eventually copied by Forever 21, the true mark of populist corporate coolness. But as we cross over the line into the second half of 2016, this requirement now apparently extends to artists that aren’t even on tour yet.

Though he released his first solo album back in March, Zayn has yet to announce his presumably forthcoming "Mind of Mine" tour. That hasn’t stopped him from launching his very own line of tour merch, however. As of yesterday, the 23-piece collection includes everything from shirts that say "Zayn" in Urdu script to classic rock-inspired vintage tees.

Echoing the artists before him, Zayn tells Vogue, "Everything was created with the idea that this is something I would want to wear." Below, some of the items that you can expect to see Zayn (and perhaps Zigi) sporting in the coming weeks.