As thousands of Swifties flex their Eras Tour outfits on TikTok, some are incorporating a key garment to make sure they don’t miss a single moment of the concert: an adult diaper.
“The amount of stress and time it took me to get Taylor Swift tickets, I will be getting an adult diaper because I’m not missing a minute of it,” said @therealkatherine, a TikTok creator with 103,900 followers, in a video posted on March 31. In the post, which has 13,400 views, she spotlights a product listing for an 18-pack of diapers by the brand LivDry and offers to share the 17 other diapers with any fellow Swifties wanting one.
The cult-like fan following of Taylor Swift has sparked an obsession with every aspect of the Eras Tour on TikTok. According to reporting by Sara Spruch-Feiner for Glossy, related hashtags have received billions of views and caused sales spikes for fashion trends such as the clear bags required by stadiums and friendship bracelets.
While adult diapers may not be as widespread of an Eras Tour trend as cowboy boots or short fringe skirts, the products generally used for urinary incontinence issues are generating buzz on TikTok as a hack to avoid the bathroom line.
A May 18 video with 264,900 views by user @madelinedolaway shows a friend putting on a diaper underneath her sparkly gold fringe dress for the concert, showing off that the short skirt covers it. Commenters were divided on the decision. “You can’t hold it for 3 hours,” said one incredulously, while others liked the idea and said they also would wear diapers to the concert. “I’ve been waiting for someone to bedazzle Depends for their Eras Tour outfit,” said one commenter.
“No one knows I’m wearing a diaper for this,” posted TikTok user @ilovejalapenochips from an Eras Tour concert on March 18 in a video that received 20,000 views. She received multiple comments praising her dedication and statements by users saying they were considering the same thing. “You’re so slay,” said one comment, while another said, “I salute you.”
Dealing with long bathroom lines in public places is a common experience for women in the United States, and the problem can be especially acute at stadiums. But the experience varies from venue to venue. One commenter discouraged the need for adult diapers at the Eras Tour, stating that the bathrooms had been empty and they only missed a third of one song while taking a break.
Not all Eras Tour attendees are supportive of the idea of wearing a diaper for three hours. Influencer Audrey Solarz (@audrey.solarz; 198,700 followers) posted a video on March 17 implying that her friend had said, “We need to wear diapers to the Eras Tour so we don’t miss any of the show,” lip syncing to the Taylor Swift lyric, “Oh my god, she’s insane.” But multiple commenters said the idea was smart and that they were considering it.
While some videos seem serious about the choice, others are less clear on whether it’s a joke. User @jennifermeganhunsicker posted in the caption that she’s “srsly considering a diaper” on a video discussing how hard it was to choose a “bathroom break song.” A post by influencer @jorgecollects (30,100 followers) stitches a clip asking, “what would be your bathroom break song?” with a clip of a TV show depicting a surgeon planning to wear an adult diaper to last through a long surgery. The video received 703,000 views and 106,800 likes.
A post on March 13 by Swift fan @tswiftums that received 235,600 views stated, “Just letting everyone know I’m contemplating a diaper to the Eras Tour so I don’t miss Cruel Summer.” One commenter responded, “I have been joking about this for awhile but I was kinda not joking.”
The next day, a post with 16,100 views by the account @myhairpintriggers (17,400 followers) joked that Swift friend Karlie Kloss’s partnership with baby-care brand Coterie launched in March may have been so “Swifties wouldn’t have to miss the bridge of Cruel Summer during the Eras Tour.” In a TikTok post by bag designer Soraya Hennessy (6,800 followers) talking about her Eras Tour outfit, she talked about overhearing a story of someone wearing a diaper, saying “What?”
When baby-diaper brand Dyper posted an Eras Tour-themed TikTok video, it was met with multiple comments talking about the idea of using diapers for their Eras Tour outfits.
TikTok user @chloeevansj (7,300 followers) critiqued the adults wearing diapers to the Eras Tour, but made it clear that she was not judging anyone who needed them for medical reasons.
Baby and mom-care brand Frida posted a TikTok video by influencer Bailee Jordan (@bailee.jordan; 19,400 followers) about what it was going to be like attending the Eras Tour during the postpartum period. Sharing a video wearing breast pump devices and a postpartum adult diaper, she said, “When your fyp is full of everyone’s OOTD for the Eras Tour but you’re due June 1st and you have tickets on June 9 so you’ll be showing up wearing this.”
For people with incontinence issues, anxiety about long bathroom lines in public places is very real. Comments on several pregnancy “Eras Tour” fit check videos address the need to wear them to the three-hour concert. Both regular TikTok users and celebrities have been speaking out to break the stigma about incontinence issues women face during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Shay Mitchell has posted on YouTube about needing to wear them while pregnant, while Chrissy Teigen has been candid about wearing them during her postpartum experience.
Adult diapers were a $9 billion market as of 2019, according to Euromonitor data. An estimated half of all American women experience some level of urinary incontinence, with childbirth serving as a major risk factor.
Wearing adult diapers at a major event for non-medical reasons is not unprecedented in America. Times Square ball drop attendees are known for wearing them to hold their spot at the front of the crowd through midnight. One user (@samebrainsisters) showed a video of her friends talking about diapers while watching the ball drop on TV on New Year’s Eve, with a caption joking about her fear of the prospect of going to the Taylor Swift concert with friends who are “curious about diapers.” The video received over 61,000 views.
