TikTok launched a store selling $70 'Not Going Anywhere' hoodies hours before CEO Kevin Mayer quit

• TikTok launched a merchandise store hours before CEO Kevin Mayer resigned.
• The store sells two items: a $45 T-shirt and a $70 hoodie. Both carry the words "Not Going Anywhere" on the front and "Here To Stay" on the back — a message of defiance amid growing pressure from the Trump administration to ban the app in the US.
• The store will sell other apparel, games, and more in the coming months.

TikTok launched a merchandise store selling a $45 T-shirt and a $70 hoodie emblazoned with a defiant message about its future in the US mere hours before its chief executive announced his shock departure.

The two items carry the words "Not Going Anywhere" on the front and "Here To Stay" on the back, in the handwriting of graphic artist Joshua Vides. The TikTok store launches amid mounting pressure from President Donald Trump's administration to ban the Chinese-owned app from the United States. TikTok is suing the US government over the attempted ban.

Future products on the new TikTok store are likely to include exclusive apparel, games, and more in the coming months, according to a TikTok employee who announced the store's launch on LinkedIn.

The store launched Wednesday night, around three hours before chief executive Kevin Mayer announced he was resigning in a letter to employees.

"In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for," Mayer wrote in the letter. "Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company."

Trump has signed an executive order that bans US companies from doing business with ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese owner — TikTok has filed a lawsuit arguing the administration ignored its right to "due process." Trump has also said he will ban the app in the US unless it is sold to a US company. Microsoft and Oracle have confirmed they are both bidding to acquire its US operations.

"The launch of the store and it's 'Not Going Anywhere' merch is comical timing," Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, said. "TikTok is very much going somewhere, just that in the US, it would appear neither TikTok nor anyone else really knows where."

The products on the store are a collaboration with NTWRK, a digital shopping platform that sells limited edition items to consumers. Celebrities including rapper Drake and Gary Vaynerchuk have previously sold products on the platform.

Clicking links on TikTok's store takes users to NTWRK's platform, where the items can be bought. The products won't ship for three or four weeks, the store says.

Vides is an artist who has produced work for major brands such as Fendi and Mercedes-Benz, reskinning everything from sports cars to handbags in his black-and-white broad-brush style.