Pedro Pascal Is Driving a Boom in Fake Lakers Merch

Lakers Nation, we’ve got some good news. Yes, your team got swept out of the playoffs last night by the Denver Nuggets, and your primary star made some cryptic comments about his future during the postgame presser. But none of that really matters right now, because Pedro Pascal—internet boyfriend du jour and burgeoning fashion daddy—is single-handedly causing a Lakers T-shirt boom for the ages. 

You see, for the last few months, Pascal has popped up in paparazzi shots over and over again in a weathered yellow tee celebrating the Lakers’ 2000 championship—which kicked off LA’s dominant, Shaq-and-Kobe-led threepeat era. And thanks to Pascal’s breakthrough year—starring simultaneously in The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, among other hit projects—his repeated wears of the shirt have caused something of a cottage industry for bootlegs. 

A cursory Google search for “Pedro Pascal Lakers tee” yields a staggering 4 million results. There are replicas of Pascal’s shirt for sale on Etsy, on eBay, and on dodgy websites with too many vowels in their names, listed alongside coffee mugs that say “Adulting Is Bullshit.” Almost without fail, Pascal’s name is front and center in the product listings—oftentimes, it’s the first two words. Doubtlessly, this is good SEO; it’s probably great for business, too. 

While Pascal has been freaking it on red carpets the world over lately, his day-to-day style is much more rumpled and approachable, perfect for running errands, hitting the gym, and accepting the occasional MTV Award over Zoom. His commitment to his Lakers tee—which appears to be true-blue vintage, given its slouchy cut and faded hue—feels right in line with that accessible approach to dressing, and it’s got his fans clamoring to duplicate the look. In addition to all those aforementioned unauthorized bootlegs, real vintage Lakers shirts have popping up at higher-than-ever prices all over the internet. Chain retailers like Urban Outfitters and Abercrombie, meanwhile, are hawking their own throwback-aping Lakers tees that feel aimed directly at the Pedro-loving masses. 

Is Pascal’s devotion to his Lakers tee a show of support for his adopted hometown? A hope for brighter, and more winning, horizons ahead? Or maybe, like so many of us, he’s simply loathe to part with his favorite T-shirt, no matter how funky it looks after its 700th round in the dryer. Either way, the team might want to produce its own authorized retros of Pascal’s shirt. Given all the uncertainty facing LA in the offseason, it may just be the biggest W the Lakers see for some time.