Oilpressure

By Susan Phillips

It’s been a few years since I have written about the offerings at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway gift shop. For a few years the merchandise had been similar from year to year. Well, the Gift Shop has grown up these past few years. There’s a new gift shop—a free-standing semi-temporary building near the fan zone. They carry a very large supply of IMS-branded merchandise.

The gift shop at the museum is still there and so is the large gift shop in the Pit Row Terrace where the Formula 1 garages used to be. There are smaller shops and pop-ups located on the grounds, but these are the larger shops. The shop near the fan zone carries merchandise that is not in the other shops. This gift shop might be more accessible to the fans not willing to walk all the way over to the Museum. It may be deigned to take some of the crowding away from the Museum building since this is the first year the new IMS Museum has opened.

I noticed last year they had started carrying Lululemon-branded IMS merchandise. If you are unfamiliar with Lululemon, it is an upscale workout-wear company. This addition goes for a very different customer. It’s not a cheap brand, and the prices reflect this. The gift shop carries a limited amount of men’s and women’s Lululemon products—all branded with the wing and wheel logo. I may not be able to afford the brand unless it is on deep sale, I can understand where there would be a demand for upscale IMS merchandise. In the past Nike Golf had been the highest end merchandise, but their clothing was lightweight and suitable for golfing. They still carry some lightweight clothing that is higher end.

One of the things that struck me the most is the vast section of caps available. There are two WALLS of caps with almost every design and driver imaginable. The average price is about $40, I think that is a reasonable price to pay for a licensed cap. You may also purchase a tie-dyed giant cap to annoy the people sitting behind you in the stands during the race. There are more offerings for children and babies also—along with licensed plush animals/people from the Peanuts franchise. You can also buy my personal favorite—a plush turkey leg. There are some toys for younger children along with more clothing options.

I saw fewer die-cast cars this year—or maybe the liveries are not set in time for the vehicles to be made and shipped here from the manufacturing hub. Some of the liveries have been added just this week, so it is nearly impossible to get the large die-cast cars from some of the newer drivers. It seems like there are only about 7-10 liveries that appear at the beginning of the year and carry through the whole season. There are plenty of Hot Wheels-sized cars, those can be manufactured prey quickly and the shipping is not as long.

If you are in the market for a t-shirt or a jacket, they have you covered. The T-shirt offerings are vast for men and women and the driver-branded clothing is also plentiful. Sweatshirts and jackets abound for those who want to carry their fandom throughout the year—or you have a son like mine who likes to wear a hoodie year-round.

The gift shops are definitely worth a visit this year—don’t forget to budget money for souvenirs. Like everything else in our world, prices have gone up. The offerings at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway gift shop are plentiful and I saw several things that  I wanted to purchase.

This entry was posted on May 18, 2025 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.