T-Mobile continues to sell dozens of items—including hats, shirts, socks, jackets and other apparel—through its BeMagenta.com e-store. The store launched in November 2016, and has been featured in both of the operator’s April Fools’ Day announcements.
Today, just before April 1, T-Mobile announced “the world’s first Smartshoephone™: T-Mobile Sidekicks.” The carrier joked that the shoes feature all the same high-tech phone functions as the company’s original Sidekick smartphone (which the carrier stopped selling in 2012).
At the end of the carrier’s April Fools’ Day joke, it noted that “Treat those feet with your very own pair of T-Mobile Sidekicks—yes, really!—by placing a pre-order at https://www.bemagenta.com/shop/new before Sunday, April 15. (Note: T-Mobile Sidekicks on BeMagenta.com are high-fashion sneakers that have none of the features called out above—well, except the magenta. They are magenta AF.)”
T-Mobile’s BeMagenta web store was also featured in the operator’s April Fools’ Day joke last year for its “T-Mobile ONEsie.” A T-Mobile spokesperson noted that the ONEsie announcement sparked a significant rise in traffic to the operator’s BeMagenta web store, though the spokesperson declined to provide specific sales figures for the store.
To be clear, T-Mobile isn’t the only operator that sells shirts, hats and other apparel adorned with its company logo. AT&T operates a similar store, as does Verizon. But T-Mobile’s promotion of its store directly to its customers stems from CEO John Legere’s ongoing efforts to overhaul what was once a relatively staid and unassuming telecom company into the kind of brand that stretches beyond its specific products.