LOS ANGELES – Taylor Swift fans looking to buy T-shirts, bodysuits, friendship bracelets or myriad other tokens of devotion to the American pop star might consider going to her official online store.

But those who have tried recently were out of luck. In the run-up to the April 19 release of The Tortured Poets Department, the shop has offered only pre-orders of special-edition CDs, cassettes and vinyl of the album.

That has not put much of a crimp in the booming Swiftie economy, though, because countless retailers have popped up on Etsy, Amazon.com and print-on-demand sites – such as Redbubble – with a vast range of merchandise with Swift’s look or lyrics.

Fans are often inspired to dress like their favourite billionaire, with videos of concert attendees wearing near-exact recreations of her bedazzled bodysuits from The Eras Tour racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok.

In six months in 2023, when the 34-year-old’s tour was criss-crossing the United States and fans exchanged friendship bracelets to commemorate attendance, Etsy says, its vendors sold US$3 million (S$4 million) worth of the beaded trinkets.

Swift’s economic power is well documented, with her 53 US concerts contributing US$4.3 billion to gross domestic product in 2023, estimates Bloomberg Economics.

Gauging the reach of the unsanctioned market is harder, but many fans make little distinction between official and third-party merchandise. Shirts supporting “Taylor’s Boyfriend” – Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce – were particularly popular in the weeks before the Super Bowl.

About 95 per cent of Swifties have bought Taylor-related goods in the past year, and more than half of them have picked up some unofficial merchandise, according to a February survey by QuestionPro.

While 55 per cent said they hesitated to buy unlicensed merchandise because someone else is profiting off of Swift’s image, they still shell out an average of US$142 a transaction.

Those who caught a show spent an average of US$242 on Swift-inspired clothing and accessories – licensed or not – for each concert they saw.

Ms Maddie Bryan, a 26-year-old who works in fashion marketing in Los Angeles, attended five The Eras Tour concerts. She has built an impressive collection of official and unofficial merchandise, including three cardigans, holiday ornaments and pyjamas.

When she is looking for something inspired by a certain lyric or motif, or when she needs something on a fast turnaround, Ms Bryan will go the unofficial route. As a bonus, it is often cheaper than Swift’s website.

There is a thriving resale market for licensed products, but vendors charge premiums that can reach 20 times the price at Swift’s official store.

“Resellers see it as a chance to make a quick buck off the backs of Swifties, which makes it harder for fans to get merchandise,” says Ms Bryan. “When new merchandise drops and you see something you like, it’s like your fight-or-flight instincts kick in. You have to just check out as quickly as possible before it sells out.” 

Bravado, Universal Music Group’s merchandise wing, declined to comment.

Ms Bryan has also created her own niche in the Taylorconomy. For a concert in Los Angeles, she sewed a version of one of the star’s signature bodysuits. At the show, she recalls, dozens of other fans stopped her to ask where she got the suit and take selfies with her.

“I was met with a wildly kind reception,” she says. “It’s about as close as you can get to feeling like the real Taylor Swift.”

That inspired her to start selling bodysuits on Etsy – for US$1,150 (S$1,565) each. So far, she says, she has sold three. She has a page on Amazon with links to the materials she uses for her creations, so those into the homemade experience can make their own (and she will get a small commission).

Etsy declined to comment on any artiste merchandise with album art or other unsanctioned graphics.

But the company says Swift clearly drives trends on the site. Searches for choker-style necklaces with watch faces spiked 25 per cent in the four days after she wore such a design to the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

Since the crafty types who sell on Etsy can proceed “directly from idea to production, we quickly see emerging inventory that reflects the sartorial zeitgeist”, says Ms Dayna Isom Johnson, who monitors trends for Etsy.

Legend has it that the first band tees were do-it-yourself projects from Elvis Presley fan clubs. Over the years, musicians and managers, beginning to understand the revenue potential in such goods –and wanting to control the artiste’s image – brought the work in-house.

Now merch serves as an “extension of the brand”, says Professor Paul Hardart, director of the entertainment, media and technology programme at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

It is also a huge business, particularly for artistes as big as Swift, meaning entrepreneurial designers wanting a piece of the Taylor machine risk running afoul of trademarks and copyrights.

“Fans obviously can express themselves and can make stuff at home,” Prof Hardart says. “But when someone’s trying to make money off of somebody else’s intellectual property, that’s where it runs into trouble.”

Ms Katelinn Humm, a 27-year-old cleaner from Australia, has been going to Swift shows for more than a decade and sews replicas of the star’s outfits. When prices at Swift’s store strike her as too high, she will choose an unofficial vendor, sharing recommendations with other fans in a dedicated group chat.

But her preference is to go to the official site, even though deliveries can be slow.

“Taylor Swift gives us permission to just be girls again, make the friendship bracelets, get crafty with our outfits, scream, cry and sing without feeling embarrassed,” Ms Humm says. “That’s pretty worth it.” BLOOMBERG