"I figured no one would see it under my jacket" Valkyrae responds to backlash for wearing Fortnite x Balenciaga merch

In a recent Rachell “Valkyrae” livestream, the YouTube superstar was called out for wearing controversial merchandise. Underneath the streamer’s jacket, she wore a Fortnite x Balenciaga hoodie, which she did her best to hide. She understood the company was “canceled” on social media, due its recent actions.

Though Valkyrae was trying to hide the hoodie, some of her fans addressed this, so she decided to speak up about the merchandise she was wearing, clarifying that she’s not going out and buying more Balenciaga items.

“Yes, I know Balenciaga was canceled, I understand, but I figured no one would see it under my jacket.”

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Valkyrae was called out during a recent livestream for wearing a Fortnite x Balenciaga hoodie

The streamer was not openly wearing the hoodie with the company logo on it. Instead, she had it hidden underneath a denim jacket. After being called out for wearing it by some viewers, she decided to speak up, stating that she thought nobody would see it. But since it was noticed, she had to discuss it.

“But a few of you have noticed, so now I feel insecure, now I feel like I have to go change!”

Balenciaga recently courted controversy with a photo shoot that involved young children, and many consumers of their product have openly criticized the company on social media. Valkyrae insisted that she already owns the product, and wasn’t displaying it proudly for everyone to see.

“I already own it! It’s not like I’m gonna go buy more. It’s just, I have this, it’s a Fortnite x Balenciaga collab, they were canceled, they had a really bad promo, thing, I actually don’t know the full story, but it was a bad thing, I just saw, Oop, Balenciaga, that’s bad!”

The YouTuber admitted she didn’t know the whole story, only knowing that Balenciaga was in hot water and hiding her hoodie. She was convinced nobody would see it, but that was unfortunately not the case.

"I thought maybe they wouldn’t notice, but people in chat noticed!”

Not everybody in Valkyrae’s chat seemed to mind, with her reading out a viewer’s “Girl, we don’t care” reply. It sounds as if her chat was trying to pressure her to change out of it, given her next talking points.

“Don’t make me change. I feel like you guys just wanna make me change because you can. But new leaf Rae, alright? It’s true, it’s Capricorn season, alright? It’s fine. Just don’t look!”

The content creator did everything she could to hide the logo, pulling her hair down over it and lifting the hood onto her head.

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YouTube responds to Valkyrae’s backlash

There were quite a few responses on YouTube after this clip from Rachell’s stream surfaced on the content creation website. Some people didn’t see the big deal with wearing the Balenciaga shirt, which led to people comparing it to wearing a shirt featuring Adolf Hitler.

Some were quick to take Valkyrae to task, citing it being similar to wearing merchandise of people like Adolf Hitler (Image via Jeru TV/YouTube)

Others called Valkyrae’s chat “weird” but also mocked the streamer for caring about what her chat says and thinks about her. YouTube commenters highlighted times when she had to apologize to her chat.

Some made fun of Valkyrae's chat for being "weird" and trying to force the streamer to change (Image via YouTube)

When it came to this particular situation, commenters were divided. Some saw it as a streamer supporting a company currently under fire by the public, and others thought it wasn’t a big deal. It seemed like the article of clothing was just an expensive piece of clothes that she forgot she had and wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of it.

The responses were divided, with some saying it wasn't a big deal and others taking her to task since she has such a large audience and didn't speak up (Image via YouTube)

YouTube commenters quickly took the streamer to task for choosing that particular item of clothing when she could have worn anything else. Many of her fans didn’t think it was a big deal, but a louder, more vocal portion of her community was quick to condemn the streamer for wearing the merch in the first place.