There's no denying it. F1 merch finally feels like it's having a moment. Team drops are getting attention beyond the paddock. Fashion accounts are in. People who never would've worn a team hoodie five years ago are now considering it.

That shift is real. And it's positive.

But it's worth being honest about what actually changed.

In most cases, the product didn't.

What changed was who got the keys. Creative directors stepped in. Fashion houses collaborated. The framing improved. The casting got better. The campaigns started speaking a different language. Suddenly the same silhouettes felt more desirable because they were styled, shot, and positioned with intention.

That matters. It's progress. But it's only the first layer.

Strip the creative direction away and a lot of the merch underneath still looks very familiar. Same blanks. Same cuts. Same materials. Same ideas that were already in circulation half a decade ago, now presented with a more refined accent.

That doesn't make the moment invalid. It makes it incomplete.

The exception proves the point. When you look at the work coming out of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team through its collaboration with Y-3, you can feel a different level of intent. Not just better styling, but a clearer philosophy around form, function, and identity. It shows what's possible when creative direction and product thinking move together, not one covering for the other.

That's the opportunity for F1 merch right now.

Creative direction has done its job. It's reintroduced the category to culture. It's made people look again and it’s opened the door to an audience that cares about design, not just allegiance.

Now the product needs to walk through that door.

Real progress won't come from another campaign or another collaborator alone. It'll come from teams questioning the fundamentals. Fit. Story. Purpose. Longevity. Asking whether a piece earns a place in someone's wardrobe beyond race weekend. 

Because fashion-aware audiences are generous, but they're not naïve. They'll show up for the story once. They'll stay for the substance.

Right now, creative is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. That's fine in the short term. But long term, the most interesting F1 merch won't be defined by who styled it or who shot it. It'll be defined by how it's built and why it exists.

There's a bigger play available here. F1 sits at the intersection of performance, engineering, and culture. Few sports have that combination baked in. Merch doesn't need to borrow credibility from fashion forever. It can generate its own by leaning into what makes the sport unique.

Technical materials that actually perform. Silhouettes informed by movement and function. Design decisions that reflect speed, precision, and control rather than just logos and colourways.

The creative upgrade proved there's appetite. The next phase is about earning it for the long term. 

This isn't a critique of where F1 merch is. It's backing in where it could go. The attention is there. The audience is there. The cultural permission has been granted.

Now the question becomes whether teams want to play it safe or build something that genuinely moves the category forward.

For me, the most exciting chapter for F1 merch isn't the one we're in. It's the one that comes next.

Shot of the good stuff.