Pit Viper Sunglasses

Submission 17,412

About

Pit Viper Sunglasses are a type of reflective sunglasses primarily made for outdoor sports. Starting as early as 2019, the style of sunglasses became loosely associated with frat-boy culture and blue-collar whiteness in general. Following the January 6th, 2021, storming of the Capitol, they became associated with alt-right followers among some, stemming from their use at the riots. The mock-80s style shades company Pit Viper subsequently fought back against this stigma throughout 2021 and expressed online that they do not endorse their use as an alt-right symbol. Despite this, groups like America First and Stop The Steal, among others, have continued to use the glasses as a symbol going into the end of 2021.

Origin

In late 2019, but more notably throughout 2020, Pit Viper sunglasses and those of similar style became associated with white people and frat-boy culture online. For instance, Instagram and Facebook meme page @musterpointmemes used Pit Viper sunglasses as an exploitable as early as November 23rd, 2019.^[1] On TikTok, Pit Viper-related content was also created throughout 2020 on the platform. For example, on July 7th, 2020, TikToker @_itsnate posted a TikTok^[2] (shown below) titled, "Day in the Life: Pit Vipers," which received roughly 225,000 plays and 39,600 likes over the course of a year and a half. Also notably, TikToker @gracejackii started a sound^[3] in 2020 with a now-deleted video. As of October 2021, the sound on TikTok has roughly 3,400 videos.

Far-Right Association After January 6th, 2021, Capitol Riots

On January 6th, 2021, far-right extremist Anthime Gionet, also known as "Baked Alaska," wore orange-tinted Pit Viper sunglasses at the storming of the U.S. Capitol on his livestream, which was broadcasted on Twitch. According to The Daily Beast,^[4] Baked Alaska wearing the sunglasses was the first mainstream association that the brand and style had been adopted by “groypers”-- a name for a group of white nationalists who named themselves after a character similar to Pepe the Frog. An image of Baked Alsaka wearing Pit Vipers on January 6th is shown below.

Pit Viper Company Reaction and Denouncement of Alt-Right Appropriation

After seeing the popularity of the sunglass on January 6th, 2021, Pit Viper as a brand responded to their sunglasses' implementation into alt-right symbolism and denounced their use by those associated with the fringe political ideology. On January 8th, 2021, Pit Viper posted a meme they'd made to their verified Instagram account reading, "Extreme Sports / Not Extremist Losers." The meme^[5] (shown below) received roughly 13,200 likes over the course of 10 months. The post also received numerous comments, mostly from alt-right accounts telling Pit Viper how cringeworthy they thought the meme was and how they were alienating that segment of its fanbase. According to The Daily Beast,^[5] the host of a far-right Christian online show smashed a pair of Pit Viper sunglasses in response.

Spread

Pit Vipers and the style of sunglasses became further associated with whiteness online over the remainder of 2021, as well as more specifically White Boy Summer. For instance, YouTuber Trevor Wallace uploaded a video on June 28th, 2021, titled, "wears pit vipers once." The video^[9] (shown below) received roughly 1.1 million views and 49,000 likes over the course of four months.

Pit Viper sunglasses again became associated with white nationalism when far-right and white nationalist political commentator and livestreamer Nick Fuentes wore Pit Vipers while storming the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas on July 10th, 2021.^[6] A video of him wearing the glass was posted to Twitter by user @leahmcelrath on July 10th, 2021, who states in the tweet^[7] how Fuentes made "the most racist, the most sexist, the most anti-Semitic, the most Holocaust-denying speech." The tweet (shown below) received roughly 1,200 likes over the course of three months.

Nick Fuentes--recently banned from Twitter--arrives at CPAC to announce he’ll be making “the most racist, the most sexist, the most anti-Semitic, the most Holocaust-denying speech” of the weekend at a press conference at the @sheratonhotels:pic.twitter.com/O8wPWGnYv8

— Leah McElrath 🏳️‍🌈 (@leahmcelrath) July 11, 2021

Pit Viper then responded to Fuentes wearing the sunglasses via a tweet^[8] (shown below), which received roughly 3,000 likes over the course of three months and urged Fuentes to stop wearing the glasses — further attempting to remove the brand's association with alt-right followers.

In October 2021, a video of far-right Instagrammer @smiley_the_fed^[10] went viral across Instagram and Twitter for its absurdity. In the video, Smiley is at an anti-vaxxer rally where he states to the camera he's at the America First Science Denier Rally with his "un-vaxxed pure-bloods." Although the digital location of the orignal post is unknown, it was most likely shared on Telegram by Smiley. The video^[11] (shown below) was uploaded to Instagram by account @donotresearch_ascended on October 3rd, 2021, and received roughly 1,100 likes over the course of two days.

Men's Health Article and Interview With VP

On December 22nd, 2021, Men's Health^[12] published an article with VP of Brand for Pit Viper Spencer Harkins titled "Pit Viper Made the Perfect Sunglasses. Then the Alt-Right Fell in Love With Them." The article detailed how the brand became associated with the alt-right against the will of its staff following the January 6th riots and how the company "fought to get its identity back from extremists."