The project
Traeger teamed up with workwear label Dickies on a pair of grilling shorts built around one specific detail: a holder for your tongs.
How it scored
Product: 8.2
Genuinely practical, purpose-built workwear for a real activity, not a generic apparel item with a logo on it.
Branding: 6.5
The Traeger x Dickies pairing makes sense on paper, but the shorts themselves don't visibly carry much of either brand's identity beyond a small logo. The utility is the whole story here, not the branding.
Activation: 7.5
It's for sale, which caps reach, but the tong-holder detail is exactly the kind of specific, shareable feature that gets people talking without any extra push.
The verdict
One of the most practical merch products we've reviewed. The idea does the heavy lifting; the branding could have leaned in harder.