In-N-Out is more than a burger chain as celebs declare loyalty and merch explodes

The In-N-Out obsession is not limited to regular customers.

For decades, the California-born burger chain has had a strange way of showing up in celebrity culture without feeling like a typical paid endorsement.

Britney Spears was photographed in a convertible at the drive-thru. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been seen eating there.

Helen Mirren famously ate an In-N-Out burger at the Vanity Fair Oscars party with her Oscar statue nearby.

Tiger Woods has eaten it from an In-N-Out truck at a golf tournament. Quentin Tarantino has been photographed with it, and Bernie Sanders made a campaign stop there during his 2016 presidential run.

That is a pretty unusual guest list for a burger chain: movie stars, Oscar winners, athletes, politicians, pop stars and regular Californians all tied together by the same red-and-white wrapper.

Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business, said that kind of organic attention is a major advantage for the company.

“You’ve got all these people out there basically advertising the company for free,” Maze said, adding that In-N-Out is “a very talked about restaurant chain far beyond its size.”

But the fandom does not stop with the food. In-N-Out has also built a surprisingly deep merchandise culture, selling T-shirts, hats, socks, keychains, license plate frames, playing cards, beach towels, pet gear and shoes.

For Tyler Lupinski, who is from Cincinnati, an In-N-Out shirt works almost like proof of a California trip. He said people in Ohio ask about it because it means he has been to In-N-Out.

And for Kevin Corado, from Los Angeles, the merch is closer to memorabilia. He said he has an In-N-Out shirt hanging on his wall like art because the brand represents something distinctly California.

One of the more memorable items was the In-N-Out Drink Cup Shoe, a slip-on sneaker covered in the chain’s red palm tree cup design. Some fans call them the In-N-Out Vans because of the style, but officially, they were the company’s own drink cup shoes.

That is when a brand has crossed over. People are not only eating the burger. They are wearing the cup.

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