E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs wears his trademark black mock turtleneck as he introduces the new iPad in January 2010.
In perhaps tribute to the technology visionary, sales of Steve Jobs’ trademark black turtleneck have soared since news broke that the former Apple CEO died, according to a report in the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal.
St. Croix Collections has seen sales of the iconic black mock turtleneck, which Jobs frequently wore at Apple product unveilings and other public appearances, double overnight, and some stores have run out of them, the report said.
St. Croix is owned by Knitcraft, which is based in Winona, Minn. Founder Bernhard Brenner told the Business Journal that Jobs bought about two dozen black turtlenecks every year and wore them almost every day. Jobs would occasionally call Brenner to say how much he liked the sweater, he said.
In memory of Jobs, who died earlier this week at age 56 after years of battling a rare form of pancreatic cancer, St. Croix said Friday it will donate $20 to the American Cancer Society for each of the $175 sweater in black it sells. The offer expires on Oct. 16.
Leave a Comment:
Halloween costumes.
Is that really a turtleneck? I thought it would have had to come up further on the neck, and then be folded down...that's a turtleneck.
It's more like the mockneck or mock turtleneck type of shirt. Simple yet classically corny.
OMG, they're even wearing his clothes. The corporate media (and China) really loved the guy which is probably enough reason in itself to be suspect of him:
16:26, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2011
De mortuis nil nisi bonum...
By Michael J. Smith on Saturday October 8 04:26 PM
...I loathed Steve Jobs while he was alive. Now that he's newly dead, I have to stop. There's only a short list of people you're allowed to keep hating after they're dead; monsters on the level of Henry Kissinger and Woodrow Wilson. So my wish for Jobs -- as it is for all of us -- is that he find in heaven whatever he lost while he blundered his way -- as we all do -- more or less damagingly through the world.
That said...
I'm amazed, and rather dismayed, at the outpouring of sentimental hagiography his going hence has evoked. Apple is a very totalitarian outfit, specializing in a kind of hipster Fascism. It's a Pinkertonian enforcer of intellectual property, and a monopolizer of the distribution chain (think buyTunes, errm, iTunes). It runs brutal sweatshops in China. This is not a benign outfit; nor is it a friend to human liberty.
And yet NPR dribbled on all day yesterday -- I was on the boat, so a captive audience -- about Jobs as if he were Rousseau and William Blake and Mahatma Gandhi rolled into one.
Bill Gates must be so furious. He's just gotta know he's never going to get this treatment when his inodes get deallocated and re-linked to the free list. Five minutes of Jobs dead is cooler than a whole lifetime of grubby ill-barbered Gates alive. There's justice for you.
I remember, years ago, Jobs making a slighting reference to Microsoft, saying 'they have no taste'. This struck me funny at the time, because I had just spent a couple of years working at a company (not Microsoft, I hasten to add) which paid me to take Apple computers apart and figure out how they worked under the hood. The hardware design was a joke; and the system software was as much a dog's breakfast as Microsoft's stuff was. Which is saying a lot. The difference was in the styling; even then, Apple products managed to look cooler, somehow. That slick laid-back suburban-California minimalist thing.
Perhaps the most over-the-top encomium Jobs got yesterday came from a somewhat unlikely source, Mike Bloomberg, who compared him to Einstein. This made me spit out a mouthful of cheap boat wine. Coco Chanel would have been a more appropriate point of reference.
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/
"Jobs would occasionally call Brenner to say how much he liked the sweater, he said".
For any doubters out there, it's official - Steve Jobs was a geek/dork.
Unless you're using a computer device w/ DOS (i.e. without GUI, as well as without a mouse or trackpad), you just made yourself look stupid. And btw, the World Wide Web was built on a Steve Jobs neXT computer.
Did you just get done kissing a photo of Steve Jobs?
Oh, for the love of.....
Time to crack out my turtlenecks for Halloween.
"I'm a startup entrepreneur, and I need a Wozniak to my Jobs"
why would his death cause a run on these sweaters? are they worried that the company won't sell them anymore? or do people only now just want to have the same type of sweater as mr jobs / are the sweaters cool now cause mr jobs has died? (if true that's a bit pathetic). i just don't get it.
They were even more cool when he was alive. We just didn't know it...
Hipsters...
Because advertising works. People see the sweater and then want to buy it. What is so hard to understand about that?
Its not jobs its sterling archer 5 in black and 5 in a slightly darker black
I know what's going on... every guy out there wants to buy a black turtleneck, get a butch cut, grow some stubble and wear a pair of circular glasses so they can look like Steve Jobs in his memory. Or... they just want to have his black turtleneck shirt in their possession as memorabilia. Please, can we focus on more worthwhile news than this?
Let's stick to what he did for technology and improving our lives, shall we?
if you want to read something "newsworthy", stop wasting your time commenting on the ones you deem not worth it. simple enough, huh?
There are literally thousands of articles on the net about the technology Mr Jobs created or helped create. Nobody made you waste your time on this one article, so blame yourself.
Who are you to decide what's "newsworthy" for the rest of us, anyway?
Sales of liver transplants tumble.
Yikes, they're not cheap!
no kidding! i thought it was some $40 cotton turtleneck from the Gap or something. they sure don't look $175. what St Croix should do is rename the sweater in his honor, the Steve Jobs Mock T-Neck. that AND donate $.
Where Jobs went cheap was on the jeans and New Balance running shoes. The guy was a billionaire - many times over, who also enjoyed well made and well designed products, so I'd expect some extravagance somewhere in his wardrobe. He often said that he dressed for comfort and didn't care one bit what people thought of how he dressed. Besides, Jobs already did the expensive, dapper, hand-made tailored suits thing in the 1980s. His best work came once he ditched all that, so maybe he was on to something. ;-)
Part of the run on St. Croix could be a confluence of timing: Jobs death reminded some of his "uniform" just as it's getting chilly in most parts of the country.
It was not a turtleneck technically it's called a 'mock' turtleneck.
So many losers. So few black turtlenecks.
Halloween's around the corner.
Get ready for the overused costume of 2011.
You must be kidding me. What's next? Are his shoes going to be next? His glasses? I have never drunk the Apl koolaid and won't in the future. I use 1 ipod for music, but don't worship at the Apl alter. I can't believe that companies are also not releasing products because of all the mourning. Do you think that Steve would not have released a product if the Amazon CEO passed away? I think not.
So the company should stop selling black turtlenecks they were already making because he died? What sense would that make? They got some free advertising, including this article, and are enhancing it by the charitable donation. Sounds good to me.
St. Croix is reportedly donating 20% of sales to ACS. In this day of "buy-my-gadget-because-I-donate-the-profits" marketing, 20% is pretty paltry. I sell a children's book ("Joey the Bunny Gets Lost") and donate 100% of my profits to a small school in Guatemala. While I'm no St. Croix and although my $10.95 book is a far cry from $175, I do know the value of going big or going home. Steve Jobs never did anything half-hearted; that's a lesson St. Croix apparently needs to learn.
The article says that they are donating $20 (dollars not percent) for each of the $175 sweaters sold. That's an 11% donation and while very nice, well inside their profit margin.
Really? Really? You just got a gazillion dollars of free advertisement and you're giving a lousy $20 for ONLY TEN DAYS? That's the best reason I can find to never shop at your company AND thanks to the magic of my iPhone I will forward this to everyone!!
I'm sure these are for Hallowe'en costumes. Remember when Billy Mays died? I saw at least 20 guys dressed like Billy Mays that Hallowe'en. My son was one of the best. Several years ago we had a murder here in town. The victim always wore a hat. His body was found wrapped in a blue tarp with duct tape. There were several people that Hallowe'en wearing fedoras and wrapped in blue tarps and duct tape. Yes it's sick but some of them looked rather funny.
SUUURE Laura. $175 for a black mock turtleneck. That'll be all the Halloween rage.
Louise,
Perhaps Hallowe'en isn't a big deal where you live but many people here go all out. I do remember in 97 I had to fly to DC on Hallowe'en and saw a few costumes at the Minneapolis airport but none in DC. I didn't even see any decorations around the city or at our hotel.
Fellas, a black mock turtleneck won't get you laid, but it may get you mocked.
LOL! Next thing you know they'll all be running out to buy Levi's too because he wore them. Too funny.
Are they made in the same Chinese sweatshops that make his other junk?
I would get beat up if I wore one of those things in the town I grew up in.
people are really buying these to 'honor' Jobs? Beyond stupid.
Liberals with no originality!
Are YOU too stupid to realize Job's contributions to the world? Cons are the ones that are broken records with NO originality. How can you make a man's death into a political asinine statement? There was probably NO man as successful and influential as Jobs, and who was NOT political at all. Yet you intend to drag him down your broken record path for you own amusement? Pathetic.
Brilliant response lp. Jobs was a huge known liberal and it takes liberals like you to be willing to slam someone who calls you out. Figures!
Seriously??? Some people just have no life. Losers....
$175 for a sweater! If it's made in China or some country like that, it's just as overpriced as Apple's products.
First, the sales of these sweaters probably hasn't changed at all in the last two days, and if they have at all it's more likely due to WINTER coming. Second, it sounds more like the company is looking to take advantage of the death of Steve Jobs and make everyone THINK it's a hot item. Then on top of that offer them at by offering to give money to charity to really seal the deal. Yes, I'm a skeptic that's pretty much seen it all in nearly 50 years.
I thought the same thing! I can see a run on his autobiography, but on a sweater??? Come on!
I would rather hear how the newly released iPhone 4S sales are doing since today is the first day for preorders!
Really??? Mock turtleneck sales make it as a news headline????????? It sounds more like a joke from The Simpsons.