# Pit Viper Sunglasses
Pit Viper Sunglasses are oversized reflective 80s-style shades from a Salt Lake City sports eyewear brand that became internet meme shorthand between 2019 and 2021, first for frat bros and blue-collar white culture, then for far-right groypers after the January 6 Capitol riot. The company spent 2021 publicly telling extremists to stop wearing them under the tagline 'Extreme Sports, Not Extremist Losers.'
## Overview
Pit Viper is a Salt Lake City sunglasses brand founded in 2012, known for oversized 80s-style wraparound shades with the logo printed across the top of the lens[4]. The glasses run about $99 for the Originals model and are aimed at cyclists, skiers, and other outdoor sports fans looking for a rowdy, deadpan-funny aesthetic[3]. Between 2019 and 2021 the shades picked up a second life as meme shorthand for a specific kind of American guy, first frat bros and blue-collar white men, then extreme-sports dudes, and eventually the alt-right[1].
Visually the meme keys on the same detail every time: a wide, mirrored, cartoonishly aggressive lens that looks like something worn in a 1980s wrestling ring[1]. Meme accounts started dropping the shades onto random subjects as an exploitable, and creators on TikTok built entire 'Day in the Life' bits around the archetype of the Pit Viper guy[5].
## How It Spread
On January 6, 2021, far-right livestreamer Anthime Gionet, better known as Baked Alaska, wore orange-tinted Pit Vipers during the U.S. Capitol riot and broadcast the whole thing on Twitch[1]. The Daily Beast called Gionet's outfit the first mainstream sign that the brand had been picked up by 'groypers,' the young white nationalists loosely orbiting Nick Fuentes[1]. Two days later Pit Viper hit back with an Instagram meme reading 'Extreme Sports / Not Extremist Losers,' and the host of a far-right Christian online show responded by smashing a pair of the glasses on camera[1].
Summer 2021 pulled the meme in a lighter direction. YouTuber Trevor Wallace posted a sketch titled 'wears pit vipers once' on June 28, 2021, that pulled about 1.1 million views and 49,000 likes over four months, framing the shades as a White Boy Summer costume rather than a political tell[5]. The alt-right link came back on July 10, 2021, when Nick Fuentes and several supporters wore Pit Vipers while crashing CPAC in Dallas, chanting 'America First' and 'white boy summer' before security removed them[6]. Fuentes then told cameras he was about to give 'the most racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying speech' in Dallas that weekend[6].
Pit Viper's official Twitter account tweeted that Fuentes 'needs to stop wearing Pit Vipers' and openly asked followers for help figuring out how to stop racist buyers from ordering the product[1]. Men's Health covered the whole fight in a December 22, 2021 feature with brand VP Spencer Harkins titled 'Pit Viper Made the Perfect Sunglasses. Then the Alt-Right Fell in Love With Them'[2].
## How to Use
The Pit Viper meme is typically an image edit or short video where the oversized reflective shades are dropped onto a subject to code them as a specific kind of white American guy, most often a frat bro, extreme-sports dude, or (unwillingly, from the brand's point of view) an alt-right poster[1]. The common TikTok convention is a 'Day in the Life' bit that plays the archetype straight, letting the shades do most of the joke[2]. Image edits often lean on the same deadpan tone as Pit Viper's own Instagram, which is full of photos like fondue being poured on people's faces or a sheep, a cow, and a rabbit wearing the glasses[4].
## Cultural Impact
Pit Viper's fight with the alt-right was one of the more visible cases of a lifestyle brand publicly rejecting an unwanted political fan base in real time. The company kept posting anti-extremist memes through 2021 despite losing sales from that segment[1]. Men's Health devoted a long feature to the campaign in December 2021, with VP Spencer Harkins describing how the company 'fought to get its identity back from extremists'[2]. By 2023 the Salt Lake Tribune reported the brand employed about 90 people, sold more than 30,000 pairs a year, and was still calling out 'racist losers' in its public communications[4].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Pit Viper Sunglasses?
Pit Viper Sunglasses are oversized reflective 80s-style shades from a Salt Lake City brand that became internet meme shorthand for a specific kind of white American guy between 2019 and 2021[1].
### Where did Pit Viper Sunglasses come from?
The brand launched in 2012 after co-founder Chuck Mumford found early-90s military-surplus eyewear at a surplus store, and the shades started getting used as a meme exploitable on Instagram and TikTok in late 2019 and 2020[4].
### What does Pit Viper Sunglasses mean?
As a meme, Pit Vipers signal a specific white American archetype: extreme-sports bros, blue-collar guys, frat culture, and, from January 6, 2021 onward, alt-right groypers[1].
### How do you use Pit Viper Sunglasses?
The typical format is a photo edit or TikTok skit that puts the oversized shades on a subject to code them as one of those archetypes, often played straight in a deadpan 'Day in the Life' style[2].
### Is Pit Viper Sunglasses still popular?
The brand was still growing as of 2023, when the Salt Lake Tribune reported it employed about 90 people and sold more than 30,000 pairs a year, though the meme peak was 2020-2021[4].
### Who first wore Pit Vipers at the Capitol riot?
Far-right livestreamer Anthime Gionet, known as Baked Alaska, wore orange-tinted Pit Vipers during the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol on his Twitch stream[1].
### Why did Pit Viper post 'Extreme Sports, Not Extremist Losers'?
The company posted the meme on Instagram on January 8, 2021, two days after Baked Alaska's Capitol livestream, to publicly reject the alt-right adoption of the brand[1].
### What happened when Nick Fuentes wore Pit Vipers at CPAC?
Fuentes and a group of supporters crashed CPAC in Dallas on July 10, 2021, chanting 'America First' and 'white boy summer' in Pit Vipers before security removed them[6].
### How did Pit Viper respond to Nick Fuentes?
The brand's official Twitter account posted that Fuentes 'needs to stop wearing Pit Vipers' and asked followers for help figuring out how to prevent racists from buying the product[1].
### Who founded Pit Viper?
Skiers Chris Garcin and Chuck Mumford, along with company president Dave Bottomley, run the Salt Lake City brand that launched in 2012[4].
### Did Pit Viper lose sales because of the alt-right controversy?
Men's Health reported the brand actively pushed that segment of buyers away with anti-extremist memes and interviews through 2021, with VP Spencer Harkins saying the company 'fought to get its identity back from extremists'[2].
## References
1. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/sunglass-company-pit-viper-is-at-war-with-far-right-extremists/]()
2. [https://www.menshealth.com/style/a38517845/pit-viper-sunglasses-alt-right/]()
3. [https://www.bicycling.com/news/a40616197/pit-viper-cycling-sunglasses-trending/]()
4. [https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2023/06/05/salt-lake-city-sunglasses-brand/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pit-viper-sunglasses]()
6. [https://www.newsweek.com/nick-fuentes-crashes-cpac-chanting-america-first-white-boy-summer-gets-kicked-out-1608580]()
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