New Jersey’s mysterious drone sightings are inspiring swarms of memes and merchandise on Amazon, Etsy, and elsewhere

The devil works hard, but Amazon merch sellers work harder.

Over the past several weeks, reports of large drone sightings over New Jersey have been accumulating on Facebook pages, Reddit threads, and through calls to FBI hotlines. The story began to attract national attention last week, with interest in the topic spiking sharply on Google between December 8 and 14.

Despite the recency of the public’s fascination, there are already hundreds of New Jersey drone-themed pieces of merchandise available on e-commerce sites including Amazon, Etsy, Redbubble, and others.

More t-shirts than answers

As of right now, it’s unclear exactly what the origins of these drones may be. Last Thursday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a joint statement on the matter, clarifying that investigations are ongoing, but also stating that mistaken drone reports are a common occurrence and there is “no known malicious activity” occurring in New Jersey at this time.

Then on Saturday, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) released a statement noting that such drone sightings are “typical,” and that, “Right now, the FBI, DHS, FAA, and DOD have been unable to determine who is responsible for flying the drones,” but that “there’s no indication that there are adversary nations involved.”

The ongoing mystery of the alleged drones’ origins have, unsurprisingly, caused quite the influx of theories. A public Facebook group dedicated to “solving” the case has produced possibilities ranging from dark military experiments to an imminent alien invasion, and its follower count has risen from around 30,000 members last Thursday to close to 75,000 this morning.

Meanwhile, the submarket of drone-themed merchandise that has emerged around this phenomenon has arrived just in time for the holidays. Here’s a sample of what we found from trawling the options so far:

Drone Hunters

On Amazon, the most prominent category of drone merch seems to center around the concept of drone hunting. Iterations on “Drone hunter New Jersey” and “New Jersey drone hunter” are available in a myriad of color combinations.

There is also a T-shirt featuring a meme recirculated by Elon Musk on X, called the “New Jersey Guide to Aircraft Identification,” which parodies the idea that many of the drone sightings could just be regular ‘ol planes.

And, of course, it’s not a real party until AI gets involved. Over on Etsy, you can find a comic book–inspired, AI-generated shirt that reimagines drone hunters as “Drone Busters,” à la the iconic 1984 film Ghostbusters.

“I survived drone-ageddon”

Etsy’s and Redbubble’s featured drone-based offerings lean more into the speculation around possible UFOs.

“I saw the New Jersey drones and all I got was this shirt,” one item proclaims over an apocalyptic image of several hovering spacecraft.

“Drone invasion 2024,” says another, along with an image of a citizen getting beamed up into a flying saucer.

“I survived drone-ageddon” is a third common refrain.

Reindeer, Targaryens, and cats, oh my!

Some sellers have gotten quite a bit more creative with their drone prompts.

Take this almost painfully AI-generated Christmas spin on the drone theme, featuring drones made out of reindeer, for example.

Or this Game of Thrones pun.

How about a New Jersey-based drone pizza delivery service?

Or even an endearingly 2014-coded cat meme?

The options are endless, and so, too, it seems, are merch sellers’ willingness to turn a profit on every new moment produced by our rapid-fire news cycle.