Turning your mugshot into merch? That’s a twist. Sure, top athletes have been arrested a few times. Tiger Woods was arrested on DUI charges. Charles Barkley served a three-day prison sentence. Even the jolly-good fella Scottie Scheffler was arrested last year at the PGA Championship. But when did you see a sports icon transforming his arrest into a marketing ploy? Say hello to Haiden Deegan. And his masterplan. 

Haiden Deegan turns his arrest into its head

Haiden Deegan was arrested on Friday, March 21, for doing donuts in an empty parking lot. The 19-year-old spent a few hours in jail – he was arrested at 9.58 PM EST and released at 1:23 AM. As expected, not much drama happened there. 

But Deegan, whose Instagram bio moniker is ‘Danger Boy, ’ turned that into something quite dramatic. You can now wear a tee-shirt with his mugshot on it. Deegan himself is selling it. The announcement came on March 24 to his 1.7 million followers, and the product dropped on March 25. 

• The announcement post was liked by 157K Instagram users and received 1529 comments. 
• The pre-order started the next day, and by April 1, the pre-orders closed with sold-out tees and hoodies. 

How much Deegan will actually earn from this is still up for speculation. The tee shirt is priced at $45. But whatever he rakes in from the hype, we can guess it will be more than the bond he paid to get out of jail: $1000.

This was certainly not the first time when an athlete’s mugshot was slapped on an item of apparel. In a different—but equally viral—case, Scottie Scheffler, the current world no.1 golfer, was arrested last year at Kentucky. But Scheffler chose not to take control of the moment as Deegan did. Regardless, Scheffler’s arrest proved that perhaps no PR is bad PR.

Scottie Scheffler’s arrest made Golf viral

On May 17, Louisville Metro Police Department handcuffed the two-time major winner, and he was sent to prison for a few hours. While his case was markedly different (Scheffler was arrested because of a miscommunication), one factor remained the same. 

Cashing in on the moment. 

In his case, Scheffler didn’t start the trend – he was on the verge of missing his tee time. But tee-shirts with his mugshot popped out of faster than Deager could make a donut. In fact, when Scheffler entered the golf course, fans were already wearing tees with his mugshot. 

Moreover, tee-shirts with ‘Free Scottie’ etched on them were also on full display. Reportedly, some fans started selling these tee-shirts for as low as $10. Ironically, fans who bought them first were reselling them for double the price. 

That a negative factor drives publicity is not news. Our own coverage of Scottie Scheffler’s arrest reveals as much. 

• Over 1.5M people read our coverage of Scottie Scheffler’s arrest. 
• The two weeks after Scheffler’s arrest received 300% more footfalls on golf coverage than the two weeks preceding his arrest. 
• The news of LMPD releasing the bodycam footage accounted for over 15% of Scheffler’s total traffic from 2024.

In fact, beyond sports, instances of mugshot-tees show a growing trend of embedding a negative moment in personal brand. We have seen instances of this playing out from Travis Scott to Donald Trump.

How celebs are turning infamy to fame

Back in 2020, Travis Scott was arrested for trespassing and disorderly intoxication. He was released on a $650 bond. Barely a few hours after that, Scott’s website displayed a black tee-shirt with his mugshot on it. The punchline? ‘It’s Miami.’ It sold like hotcakes – despite being priced at $45 – for 48 hours. 

A few years later, Donald Trump broke all the records (if there is a record book for that). 

Quite expectedly, in a savvy move, Trump’s team released a bunch of products, from tee to coffee mug, with his mugshot on it barely hours after the police released it. A year before the election, Trump’s team was favored with a fortune. 

• They sold 36,000 T-shirts, raking in over $1.7 million. 
• Trump’s fans bought 24,000 coffee mugs, with the quote ‘Never Surrender’ added below the mugshot, pumping $864,000 to Trump’s team’s coffers. 
• Furthermore, another $352K came from selling the mugshot posters. 

The 19-year-old Haiden Deegan pulled off what Scott and Trump did some years ago. But that frontier may have just been crossed. It again shows that instead of shying away from shame, if celebs embrace them, they can easily change the narrative in their favor. Whether it’s a meme, a mugshot, or a moment of mayhem, today’s athletes are learning that controlling the narrative is as powerful as the play on the field. And if you are brash enough, a moment of embarrassment becomes a strategic marketing bonanza.