At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much out of the ordinary about them. A t-shirt showing a mountain and deer and the slogan “Respect Nature.” A black polo shirt with black, white, and red piping and a small circular logo. A sweater showing a child on a parent’s shoulders at a soccer match, holding up a supporter’s scarf, with “Keep the Tradition” underneath.

But look a bit closer. That symbol behind the deer? It’s a black sun, a common neo-Nazi symbol adapted from a floor mosaic in Heinrich Himmler’s SS Generals’ Hall. That logo on the polo shirt? It looks like a broken sun cross-style swastika. And the child on his parent’s back? He’s got the number 88 on their back—neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler.”

And there’s more where these came from. Far-right fashion in Europe has become a niche industry over the past decade. Brands big and small have given everyone from hardened neo-Nazis to young men flirting with the far-right subcultures a way to express themselves that doesn’t fit neatly into what many think a far-right extremist is supposed to look like.

But it’s hardly just about looking cool or tough, or playing coy little games with adults who aren’t well-versed in the subtleties of fascist symbolism; far-right fashion can help extremist devotees, especially young men, build a stronger sense of belonging and brotherhood, and even act as a gateway to radicalization. And those who have their eyes on the far-right fashion scene in Europe think the U.S. is next.



The examples described above are hardly one-offs. The French brand with the “Respect Nature” shirt also sells shirts with “HTLR” in block letters with the official SS motto underneath. The Italian creators of the black-white-red polo shirt also sell sweaters bearing the letters “WPWW,” for “White Pride World Wide.” And a Ukrainian store that sells the “Keep the Tradition” sweater is selling tickets for a neo-Nazi concert this summer featuring a band whose former guitar player murdered six people in a hate crime at a Wisconsin Sikh temple in 2012.