Kim Kardashian West is facing ridicule for her latest vehicular offering to the gods of Instagram an apparently shearling-covered Lamborghini Urus.
Immediately, comparisons to the Dumb and Dumber “Mutt Cutts” van were drawn and with good reason. There is an undeniable likeness. In general, though, the reaction hasn’t been great to the shearling (or fleece?) Urus. Here’s my hot take, though, I kind of like it. Honestly!
Yes, the arguments against this SUV are clear: if it gets wet it would not only smell horrible, it would presumably weigh quite a bit, too. Even if you didn’t get stuck in the rain, it would get horrifically dirty after almost any driving. Worse still, the wrap has covered the intakes and the door handles making me uneasy about driving it more than a few feet at a time.
View this post on Instagram
I also have no issue with poking fun at a weird car owned by a ridiculously wealthy person, but I would also argue that this isn’t really supposed to be a car. It is explicitly an ad for Kardashian‘s clothing brand “Skims,” which makes underwear and shapewear. That makes it a little more like the Mutt Cutts van, but it also makes it more like countless other impractical but charming vehicles (see: everything that has ever been to SEMA).
This is a somewhat more liberal interpretation of the ‘Lamb’orghini, but I think this is a hilarious commentary on the supercar industry. The Urus only just qualifies as a supercar, but Lamborghini’s other vehicles and the countless other ridiculously powerful cars that supposedly push at the limits of what’s possible on the road often never get used on the road. How many stories have we run about super-, hyper-, and otherwise superlative cars being auctioned off with almost no miles on the clock?
In essence, these cars are a financial proposition for the extremely wealthy people who buy them and will keep them in a room to look at and then sell them on at a profit. By adding a wrap to the car that explicitly takes away the “performance” technology, this becomes a commentary on what those cars are for and what that technology is actually being used for.
Those cars are, effectively, a way for rich people to make money. Why, then, should we be upset when Kim Kardashian finds an interesting way to use her car to make herself some more money? Especially one that looks this cozy.
My final argument for the ‘Lamb’orghini is that I just like the way it looks! I could do with a little less of the material inside, even I admit it’s a little oppressively monochromatic but it’s hardly the first and at least it looks like a wildly comfortable place to sit. Why don’t any supercar manufacturers offer cars with fleece seats? The rich people who buy them could presumably afford to keep them clean and it would be so much more interesting than the acres of unoriginal and unchallenging leather that we now have to sit with? Why aren’t automakers more adventurous with fabrics, why never experiment with wool or fleece or Egyptian cotton with a fun design?
Kim Kardashian has used her design eye to make her car more interesting than Lamborghini, supposedly one of the most adventurous automakers out there, would have ever dared to. I think that’s great and silly and I also think Kardashian understands how silly it is.
Opening screenshot Kim Kardashian @ Instagram
Harry and Lloyd did this first. pic.twitter.com/jqnUdxIyI4
— Safemoon Swayze (@749Comedy) June 11, 2021