There's been a lot in the news lately about Walt Disney World and the state of Florida. These MousePlanet pages are meant to be a safe space to share our mutual love of all things Disney, so I'm not going to get into the sordid political details. On a semi-related note, however, Disney Parks have just come out with a brand new collection of merchandise that is designed to both bring a positive message and support a good cause.
The concept of “Pride” began in New York City back in June 1969, when the Stonewall Riots occurred. I'm oversimplifying, but Stonewall is where gay patrons at a local bar pushed back when being harrassed by police. This event is considered the birth of the modern LGBTQIA+ movement. Since then, celebrations of Gay Pride (Pride as opposed to shame) have sprung up all over the world. Now Pride month happens each June as a celebration of this community.
Unofficial “gay days” have taken place at Disney Parks for some time and Disney has produced “rainbow” collection merchandise for quite some time. For the first time, however, Disney has come out with a line of merchandise specifially designed to celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride, and even better, are donating all the profits to related charities.
As per Disney, “The Disney Pride Collection was created by LGBTQIA+ employees and allies at The Walt Disney Company and is a reflection of their incredible contributions and place at the heart of the company”. The Disney Pride Collection has everything from clothing, accessories and pins to plush and tumblers. It's broken down into four categories: Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. These may seem like odd subjects for Pride merch, but these employees got creative and made some interesting and fun items.
So now let's get to the merch! First up, we've seen an explosion of Loungefly bags all over the Disney empire in the last few years. These smallish backpacks and similar bags are all the rage with the teen (and adult) set. My 16 year old niece collects them.
One of the ever-popular Loungefly bags is part of the collection. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
The Pride collection includes a standard size Loungefly backpack. The main body of the backpack is black, and it has a large rainbow heart in the front and Mickey ears at the top. It also has a pride label with the colletion logo at the bottom right. It's well made and runs, as all Loungefly bags of this size do, for $75.
Next up on the interesting item list is this Mickey Mouse rainbow beach towel.
The collection includes a pretty, but somewhat thin beach towel. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
The towel runs a generous 5 feet by 4 feet but to be honest, is a little on the thin side. It has terrycloth on the inside and kind of a burlapy material on the outside. It has a cute standing Mickey Mouse image on the front, though, and goes for $29.95.
As we veer into clothing territory, there's a wide price range of items available.
Leading up the Marvel Pride sub-collection is a comfy black hoodie.
The Marvel Pride collection has a black hoodie with Marvel symbols. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
The hoodie is very soft and looks warm and comfortable. It's mostly black, but has the Marvel logo in rainbow colors on the chest and Marvel symbols in rainbow colors along the sleeves. It's typically Disney priced for this kind of item at $64.95.
The collection boasts a couple of baseball caps, one for Star Wars and one for Marvel.
The Star Wars Pride cap features a colorful logo on the front. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
…and a Pride logo on the side. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
The caps are, similar to the sweatshirt, mainly black, but feature respective logos in rainbow colors and the collection Pride logo wording on the side. They go for $29.95 each.
One of the more interesting items is a Pride thermal tumbler with a built-in straw.
The display of Pride merch includes black/rainbow colored tumblers. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
It has the same black/rainbow color scheme as many of the other items, and would be a great way to keep your drinks cold or warm during your days at the parks. You can get one for $19.95.
You may be asking what I picked up for myself (because you know I always have to get something—research for these articles, you know) I got one item and plan to pick up another.
I like what I consider to be a subtle Pixar shirt. It's a gray T-shirt with rainbow images of Pixar's signature Luxo Jr. all over the shirt.
I like this understated Pixar Pride tee. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
It's an understated shirt that still manages to celebrate its subject matter. It runs for $29.95.
This is where I give you my usual advice that if you see an item you like, grab it while you can. Not all items in the collection are available in all locations, at least at the time of this writing. I saw the Pixar Luxo Jr. T-shirt at Hollywood Studios and figured I'd wait to buy it. I went to the Magic Kingdom a few days later and viisted the Emporium on Main Street. There was a large display of Pride collection merchandise, but no Pixar shirt. I asked the cast members, and they said they knew what I meant, but they hadn't gotten them yet. They heard they were available at Epcot's Creations. I'm heading there next week (to hopefully ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, wish me luck!) so hopefully will be able to pick one up.
Last item I'll discuss is a simple Mickey Mouse pin. Available for only $8, I got it at the Sunset Ranch Market in Hollywood Studios.
I got this simple Mickey Mouse rainbow pin. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
Mickey is in his classic “Mickey Stands” pose, and the color of the pin goes from simple matte black at the top, morphing into rainbow colors at the bottom. The picture above is this pin on the backpack I usually bring with me into the parks. There is where he'll proudly stay.
Some of the items are also available at Shopdisney.com. Some of these are the same items I've seen at the parks, though some were missing, and there were a few that I hadn't seen at Walt Disney World, including rainbow Mickey and Minnie plush. There also a note in the Shopdisney site that says “Check back soon. More Disney Pride Collection must haves are right around the corner”, so keep checking back.
There are some great items here (and I've only scratched the surface), but the best part of all of this is that Disney, through the end of Pride Month on June 30th, is donating all the profits to a bunch of great organizations that support LGBTQIA+ charities.
The Walt Disney Company is proudly using proceeds from this merchandise line to support LGBTQIA+ organizations from now until the end of pride month. Photo by Gregg Jacobs.
As per Disney, “The Walt Disney Company will be donating all our profits from TWDC Pride Collection sales now through June 30, 2022 to support LGBTQIA+ youth and families. The Disney website lists dozens of charities that will benefit from sales, including the Trevor Project, which seeks to prevent suicide amongst LGBTQ youth and PFLAG, arguably the largest support network the LGBTQIA+ community and their families.
Please click here for more information on and a comprehensive list of all the great organizations that are benefitting from this program.
The Disney Pride Collection gives you a chance to pick up some fun and colorful merchandise that also benefits a great cause. Check out all avenues (different shops at the parks and online) to see all that's available, and keep checking back as they've said they'll add more.
Thanks as always for reading and see you real soon.
