Everyone Is Rushing to Get Splash Mountain Merch Before the Rebrand

Brendan Menapace

In the age of e-commerce, product drops and manufactured exclusivity, the resale market is just as important (if not more so) than the original sale. This is the nature of the streetwear market, where the coolest brands and hippest shops drop small quantities of products and the hype beasts either keep them for themselves as trophies or sell them for profit.

This is true for streetwear, and now it is true for Disney merchandise. Specifically, Splash Mountain merchandise.

Two things are contributing to this sudden surge in popularity. The first is that Disney’s Magic Kingdom park reopened only a few days ago after a lengthy closure, so fans are trying to get their hands on all things Disney to at least feel like they’re walking around the most magical place on Earth again. The other is that the beloved Splash Mountain is getting rebranded as a “Princess and the Frog” ride, so purists and sentimental types want to commemorate the original.

WFLA reported that Splash Mountain items like tumblers are going for between $60 and $80, and T-shirts at almost $100.

Whenever something like this changes or rebrands, the original branding typically sees a spike in popularity, if not even revisionist history about it. Think of it this way: A sports team could spend a decade in terrible uniforms, met with harsh criticism online every single day from angry fans begging them to change the colors. When they finally do it, there are people wishing to go back. The grass is always greener, as they say.

Fans of “The Princess and the Frog” will no doubt flock to the ride and grab some branded merchandise, and in the meantime, people who grew up riding Splash Mountain will want to keep a piece of their history with Disney. Both are fine!

If Disney was smart (which, historically, it has been), it would create a “throwback collection” of merchandise featuring rides and attractions that have since been re-branded, the same way we can still buy retro sports shirts with outdated color schemes and logos.

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