A photo of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in US custody may have turned him into an accidental fashion influencer.
When US President Donald Trump posted a photo of Maduro on January 3 after he was captured by US forces, internet sleuths quickly identified the outfit — and haven’t stopped talking about it since. Maduro appears to be wearing a gray Nike Tech fleece set in the picture.
Following the January 3 post, searches for “Nike Tech” on Google spiked, according to Google Trends.
The online conversations about the athleisure line also surged dramatically on X, intelligence platform PeakMetrics told Business Insider. Nike Tech was mentioned in over 5,000 X posts a day between January 3 and January 5, according to PeakMetrics. That’s up from the roughly 325 posts a day it averaged from November 1 to December 31.
Handout/Truth Social via Getty Images
On TikTok, users posted AI-generated versions of the photo and poked fun at the fashion choice. Some users joked that it was a new Nike campaign. Others made “steal the look” posts that broke down the cost of the full outfit, including the darkened eye mask and ear covering. The jacket and joggers cost over $200 combined.
As of Monday morning, the style of the Nike Tech fleece zip-up jacket that Maduro was photographed in was sold out on Nike’s US website in several sizes.
Nike declined to comment.
The fleece jacket already appeared to be a hot item before Maduro donned it on the Navy ship USS Iwo Jima. It appeared to be partially sold out in November and December, according to screenshots archived on Wayback Machine.
It’s been the subject of a viral debate in recent weeks, with some young men bragging on social media about being “team Nike Tech” or “team quarter-zip” to show whether they’re a part of Corporate America or not.
Some members of Gen Z and Gen Alpha also had their eyes on Nike Tech for the holidays. A clip of a girl opening her Christmas gift, a Nike Tech set, garnered over 1 million likes on TikTok and earned a comment from Nike itself.
Nike also made its way onto teens’ wish lists this year, and it dominated Piper Sandler’s semi-annual teen survey as the No. 1 clothing brand in fall 2025.
Maduro, the longtime Venezuelan leader, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured in an overnight raid in Caracas over the weekend and taken to the US, where Maduro faces federal charges.
