Viral Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelets have raised over $1 million, Kamala Harris’ campaign says

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has raised “over a million dollars” from the sale of a pair of Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelets, a merchandise consultant with the campaign said.

The two-packs of beaded, Democratic-blue bracelets that spell “Harris-Walz 24″ were released in lockstep with the megawatt pop star’s endorsement of Harris that immediately followed the Sept. 10 presidential debate in Philadelphia.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader,” Swift wrote under an Instagram photo of herself posing with her youngest cat, Benjamin Button. The photo — and her “Childless Cat Lady” sign-off — were thinly veiled shade toward former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who had made disparaging comments about women without children.

» READ MORE: Taylor Swift, ‘Childless Cat Lady,’ endorses Kamala Harris for president following Philly debate

Bracelet preorders initially sold out within hours of their Sept. 10 release, but sales have since resumed. “Over 100,000″ bracelets had been ordered as of Tuesday, according to the merchandise consultant, an independent contractor hired by the campaign who declined to be named out of fears his business would be targeted by working on a partisan case. The bracelet duos sell for $20 on the Harris campaign’s official website and will ship out on Oct. 15.

While the Harris campaign has said it had no idea that a Swift endorsement was going to come when it did, the merchandise consultant said that campaign staffers had already toyed with the idea of releasing friendship bracelets and vetted a potential production process. This allowed them to launch the bracelets less than an hour after Swift’s endorsement.

“If you do the work of preparing for anything that could happen over the span of the election, you’re going to have a lot of success,” said the merchandise consultant.

The bracelet’s supply chain is entirely based in the United States: Beads are sourced from Ohio and fired in kilns in New York before being strung on elastic bands and threads from Oklahoma and Ohio in a California factory. The whole process has created “several hundred jobs,” according to the consultant.

Swift and her army of Swifties have already had an impact on the campaign.

» READ MORE: Harris-Walz campaign says sold-out friendship bracelets came together just 20 minutes after Taylor Swift’s endorsement

Before Swift had even endorsed Harris, a volunteer coalition called Swifties for Kamala had already raised more than $165,000 for the Harris campaign and tallied over 100,000 Swiftie-led actions — such as voter registration efforts — following a virtual kickoff call with singer-songwriter Carole King and several prominent politicians in August.

And after Swift posted a link to Vote.gov from her Instagram story alongside her endorsement, CNN reported that nearly 406,000 people had visited the federal government’s voter registration site directly from her social media within a 24-hour window. For comparison, a General Services Administration spokesperson told CNN that Vote.gov generally receives around 30,000 visits per day.

» READ MORE: Taylor Swift, a Berks County native, ignited a prepared Pa. base when she endorsed Kamala Harris

Though friendship bracelets took on new life as the unofficial Swiftie bat signal during the Eras Tour, the campaign consultant cautioned viewing the viral merch solely through a Swift-ian lens. Before Swift threw her hat in the ring for Harris, the Democratic National Convention invited attendees to bead bracelets at a public event in Chicago, while the official store of the Democratic Party was already selling a friendship bracelet-themed line of T-shirts, totes, coasters, and mugs.

“We weren’t really thinking of this that way,” the consultant said. “Friendship bracelets are relatively universal … they’re a way for you to quietly express an opinion or support.”