But succession is only one of many popular shows out now about people who make (or work for people who make) millions of dollars a year. HBO also has its sleeper hit Industry, which follows the rowdy young graduates working in the high-stakes environment of fictional London investment bank Pierpoint & Co. In the series, volatile star banker Eric Tao (played by Ken Leung) sometimes swaps out his suit for a bright purple Pierpoint sweatshirt at the office. The hoodie became such a fan favorite—apparently even the late designer and merch connoisseur Virgil Abloh coveted one—that HBO eventually put a version up for sale on its site, albeit with that pesky HBO show logo.
And then there’s Showtime’s long-running hit Billions, where some employees at the fictional hedge fund Ax Capital do, indeed, wear Ax Capital merch on a regular basis. “It’s almost a tribal thing,” the show’s costume designer Eric Daman told Vultures in 2019. “The Wall Street guys all wear these vests, and have such pride in being part of the firm that they’re with.” Sure enough, Showtime sells that vest, too.
“Dollar” Bill Stearn (Kelly AuCoin) rocks his Ax Capital fleece vest on Billions.Courtesy of Jeff Neumann for Showtime
Dollar Bill’s Ax Cap vest or Eric’s Pierpoint hoodie aside, the official prestige TV merch doesn’t feel especially authentic to the shows’ one-center universes. For example, the brand on both the succession and Billions fleece vests is Port Authority, a wholesale apparel retailer that also provides merchandise blanks for, among other institutions, the New York City Police Department. Not that it would necessarily be easy to make official merch with, say, Loro Piana, or even Patagonia, who put a kibosh on companies stitching logos onto its apparel a few years back, in an effort to distance itself from the legions of vest- clad tech and finance bros schlepping through Midtown. But in the spirit of making cheeky finances bro dudes, there’s gotta be another option somewhere for an upgraded dupe.