There's so much sudden interest in El Chapo's flamboyant shirts, it crashed the LA shirtmaker's website
After prison escapee and head of the Sinaloa drug cartel Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera - better known as El Chapo, or "the shorty" - was (re)captured by Mexican authorities on Friday, it was revealed he met with actor Sean Penn for an interview with Rolling Stone.
When he was captured, Rolling Stone released a photo of Penn and Chapo shaking hands, with Chapo wearing a garish striped shirt. It appeared to be a shiny striped affair, later pinned by TMZ to downtown LA shirtmaker Barabas.
It's called the "Fantasy" model and retails for $128. A store manager told TMZ that sales for the shirt went through the roof after the Rolling Stone photo was released. The interest also caused sales of the shirt to spike on the retailer's website, which caused it to crash on Tuesday.
The website is now back up, and it features the Rolling Stone image with Sean Penn and the text "Most Wanted Shirt". Barabas' Facebook is also plastered with images of El Chapo in the shirt, including images of him in another of Barabas' shirt called "Crazy Paisley."
According to the website's copy, the striped shirt has "an Abstract Design throughout the entire Shirt that makes it Dynamic and stand out against the Bright Color." (sic)
One wonders why a drug lord on the run would want to wear a shirt designed for standing out.
We reached out to Barabas for comment and will update this post when we hear back.
Here's the infamous shirt on a Barabas model:
