Bloomingdale’s Nintendo Collab Underwhelms and Overprices

Nintenclothes are back in the spotlight with a new collection, this time from Bloomingdale’s. First up, forgive me for being a dude who doesn’t pay more than $25 for a pair of pants when I say wow, these prices: $45 for a fannypack, $50 for an inflatable pool ring, and $200 for a short sleeved shirt. Even if I loved these designs I’d have to stick with appreciating them from afar, and that leads to my bigger concern.

Dana pointed out this collection to me and we both agreed there’s something low-rent about these high-end items. “It’s just pixels and shit” were her exact words, and I can’t deny it on most of these 82 items. I’ll give it to ‘em, they sure made a lot of stuff but some of these designs are barely on par with the fare you can find at Walmart: a pixel heart with the words “Game On” above it in script font, a shirt that simply says “Nice Play” with a heart in place of the ‘A’, and a sweatshirt with rainbow stripes on either side of the word “SUPER”.

P.S. If you bought all three of those you’d be at $385.

Elsewhere there are tops, bottoms, and accessories that barely evoke the concept of graphic design, nevermind a connection to video games or even Nintendo. Rainbow stripes, dual tone stripes, checkerboards, and polka dot patterns are lumped in here as “gamer wear” and priced up to $200. It isn’t all bad though, there a few items I really dig the look of.

Most of the short sleeved shirt patterns are simple but appreciable, with the Donkey Kong design being the most elaborate. These mushroom swim trunks are also pretty good and the black-and-white “camo” version is frantic and rad. The one thing I might actually have bought is this assortment of Sugarfina candies in Mario Cloud, Yoshi Egg, and Strawberry Mushroom varieties. Unfortunately they’re either sold out or include one of the fun animal-derived ingredients that I avoid.

These aren’t so bad… still, it’d be $282.

Personally, of all the unexpected fashion crossovers we’ve seen so far it was Uniqlo that hit the best balance of design and price. Take a look at my last roundup and let us know which was your favorite or if there’s a Bloomingdale’s piece you’re already adding to cart.