Taylor Lorenz’s Power User
Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

ICE Wants to Shut Down His Clothing Brand: What Happens When the Govt Hates Your Merch

March 13, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

  • The Format: This is a casual, in-depth interview. The host, Taylor, runs a show called "Free Speech Friday" and brings on a guest to discuss their unique experiences with censorship and free expression.
  • The Key Players:
    • The Guest: Joe – Founder of Cola Corporation, a Chicago-based clothing brand known for its sharp, anti-police, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist designs. He's a self-taught designer with a 14-year background in the apparel industry.
    • The Host: Taylor – A journalist and political reporter who covered the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign. She is deeply knowledgeable about censorship, online platforms, and the political merch landscape.
  • The Vibe: Educational, Defiant, and Darkly Humorous. The conversation is a mix of serious political critique and wry, almost deadpan humor about the absurdity of censorship. It feels like two people who have been in the trenches of online culture wars sharing war stories.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Advertisements** - Sponsored content for Indeed and Disney+’s *Wonder Man*.
  • 2 (01:00) **Introduction: The Censorship of Cola Corporation** - Taylor Lorenz introduces Cola, a clothing designer whose anti-ICE and anti-police merch has been seized by Customs and Border Protection.
  • 3 (02:21) **The Origin of Cola Corporation** - Cola explains he started the brand in 2019 as a response to the “flamboyant stupidity” in American politics.
  • 4 (04:45) **Early Career and First Products** - Cola discusses his background in fashion writing and the first three designs he produced for his brand.
  • 5 (09:18) **The Lonely Early Days and Twitter Growth** - Cola describes the struggle of his first year in business and how Twitter helped him find an audience.
  • 6 (11:29) **Immediate Backlash from All Sides** - Cola explains that he faced criticism from both MAGA supporters and leftists from the very beginning.
  • 7 (12:44) **Backlash Over Specific Designs** - Cola details the specific outrage over his “Lucky Once” series referencing the IRA and his Luigi Mangione shirt.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

BUY COLA CORP APPAREL: https://www.thecolacorporation.com  (None of this is sponsored, I just really want people to support him!!!!) 

Support my independent journalism:

🙏 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/taylorlorenz     

🗞️ Buy a paid subscription to my Substack: https://www.usermag.co    

What happens when the government doesn't like your t-shirts? 

Joe, founder of Cola Corporation, has dealt with DMCA takedowns, letters from the LAPD, shipments seized by US Customs and Border Protection, and bans from advertising on virtually every major social platform including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Etsy.

In this episode of Free Speech Friday, I sit down with him to talk about what it's really like to run an independent political clothing brand that challenges power. We talk about fashion and clothing as tools of resistance and the high price of using fashion as a tool for political criticism. 

Clothing has long been a way to communicate political beliefs, from protest shirts to campaign merch. But in the era of social media platforms, algorithms, and online marketplaces, the boundaries of acceptable expression are constantly being tested.

The designs mentioned in this episode:⁠ https://www.thecolacorporation.com/collections/taylor⁠

THE FREE SPEECH 1A SWEATER:⁠ https://www.thecolacorporation.com/products/1a-sparks⁠  

Topics discussed in this interview include:

• The rise of political merchandise online

• Social media censorship and advertising bans

• Etsy and TikTok removing controversial designs

• Police legal threats over a T-shirt slogan

• Government seizure of political clothing

• The Streisand effect and viral controversy

• Free speech and political expression through fashion

Follow me:

https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz        

https://www.instagram.com/taylorlorenz3.0       

https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz   

https://bsky.app/profile/taylorlorenz.bsky.social    

https://twitter.com/taylorlorenz  


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