Justin Bieber and the art of using bad press right «It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business,» is already a meme
The last few months in the Bieber household have been full of news. The arrival of a new baby, the sale of another (Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand, Rhode, sold to Elf Beauty for a billion dollars), the launch of a new brand by Justin Bieber, and the simultaneous release of a new album by the Canadian pop star. All of this was sprinkled with a series of viral news stories involving Bieber, who ended up under social media fire due to videos showing him in an altered state at Coachella and around Los Angeles, and others where he delivers punchy lines to paparazzi cameras following him («It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business,» is already a meme). To the less observant, the situation might seem discouraging, but the mere fact that Standing on Business is the title of one of the tracks on the new album, Swag, confirms that the creative hasn’t lost his mind, in fact, quite the opposite. Despite yelling at paparazzi during a public appearance, «All you care about is money, not human beings – Money, money, money, money,» it seems that the work Bieber began in 2025 is a complete relaunch of his brand and public image through one of the most loved and hated strategies of all time: bad publicity.
Before launching SKYLRK, a brand he had occasionally previewed (sneakers, sunglasses, caps, and hoodies) during past public appearances, Justin Bieber had to close the chapter with Drew House, the clothing brand he launched in 2019 with his former stylist, Ryan Good. Last April, the co-founder announced on Instagram that he was no longer part of Drew House, stating rather bluntly, «Drewhouse doesn’t represent me or my family or life. If your rocking with me the human Justin Bieber dont waste ur money on Drewhouse.» On closer inspection, there are many similarities between Justin Bieber’s commercial style and that of Kanye, both in terms of brand aesthetics (Drew House seemed strongly inspired by Yeezy, and arguably so does SKYLRK) and the controversies surrounding the two founders. Both had to cut ties with their original collaborators due to misunderstandings - to put it simply - and both love to tease their new designs by wearing them on the streets of Los Angeles. Moreover, both Ye and Justin Bieber see their partners as muses (Hailey Bieber wore some SKYLRK pieces before the launch, including a yellow bathrobe, and contributed to the brand’s creation) and use drama to shine a spotlight on themselves before dropping a new project. Justin Bieber hit two birds with one stone last week, debuting SKYLRK and the album Swag on the market within 24 hours. Only after provoking the public, attracting media attention, and sharing the album and brand did Bieber release the good news, such as finally having resolved the financial dispute due to the cancellation of the Justice Tour in 2022 for health reasons - a situation that cost him $31.5 million, paid to former manager Scooter Braun.
In short, there’s nothing surprising about any of this. History repeats itself, starring a Western creative who enjoys selling sneakers and t-shirts using the cheapest and most powerful weapon of all: controversy. Not many know, but the SKYLRK teasers actually started two years ago, when in December 2023, Bieber was spotted in Los Angeles wearing the sneakers he designed himself. They continued throughout 2024, when his street style looks infuriated fashion critics on social media, and carried on into 2025 through carefully crafted image choices. Some say SKYLRK was born as early as 2018, when Bieber introduced his alter ego Skylark Tylark on social media. Not bad, for a first solo venture: with prices ranging from $40 to $200, Bieber has managed to escape the merch label without having to inflate prices excessively. Together with his wife, and also with designer Finn Rush-Taylor (formerly of Puma and Adidas, not coincidentally), he created a brand of his own that, controversies aside, embodies everything the singer represents. At the crossroads between the provocative (see viral content showing him in an altered state alongside his calm, serene wife) and the comical (see the couple’s looks where Hailey Bieber is a glamorous diva while he looks like he dressed in the dark), Justin Bieber’s new brand isn’t much different from Drew House, featuring bold colors and cartoonish silhouettes. Amid all the drama, drug abuse, and identity crises, one big question reigns supreme: did we really need another celebrity to launch a brand?
