What I Learned From Going Shopping With Tesla Bull Dan Ives

When I saw a man walking down Prince Street in canary yellow pants, a bright blue Aviator Nation sweatshirt, custom sneakers, and a hat that said “GOAT,” I knew my wait was over.

I was meeting up with Dan Ives, who isn’t just a well-known tech analyst and major Tesla bull, but also something of a fashion icon. CNBC is used to guys in Brooks Brothers, but when Ives is on, it’s Lilly Pulitzer blazers and lots of hot pink. During our SoHo shopping excursion, Ives didn’t look twice at anything in a neutral tone. My white T-shirt, medium-wash vintage jeans, and simple jewelry quickly started to feel like a bad choice.

Ives ran his hands through button-downs in Faherty, the first store we went to, while explaining that he’s dressed “super different and funky” since he was a kid in Long Island. He eventually landed on a $58 powder blue hat that said “SOHO SURF,” even though he was already wearing a hat and holding another one from where he’d gone to lunch. We walked slowly, Ives swinging the paper shopping bag and occasionally checking stocks or texts on his phone.

Ives told me he tends to wear Vuori or Lululemon at home, and that Aviator Nation is a go-to, but he didn’t take me to any of those places. Instead, he led us farther downtown to Snow Milk, where he recently launched a fashion line. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that our afternoon turned into something of a business opportunity. Ives told me his sense of style is authentic, but it’s also helped boost his brand, especially on social media.

“It’s definitely played a role in the global success, because of the way that I dress,” he told me. “Even people who don’t know my stock calls, they know me as the person who wears the funky shirts on CNBC.”

The brand ties go beyond recognition online and on the street.

Ives is as bullish on tech stocks as he is on clothing. In addition to Tesla, he’s one of Wall Street’s biggest optimists when it comes to mega-cap titans like Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palantir. Any sell-off in these names is usually followed by a research note from Ives imploring investors to buy the dip.

But his most outspoken moments involve the EV maker. You might remember when Elon Musk told Ives to “shut up” earlier this year, after the Wedbush Securities analyst said Tesla’s board needed to have “oversight on political endeavors.” It was out of character for Ives, who usually gives Tesla an “outperform” rating. (He told me thinks Musk has “pivoted very nicely” since.)

“The way that I cover tech stocks goes to the beat of a different drum,” Ives said of his decadeslong career. “I don’t worry about others, because maybe it’s an unconventional way that I look at names, and I dress similar to how I cover tech.”

Ives thinks people accept his clothing partly because he covers tech companies, not banks. Finance, he said, is way more buttoned up, though he thinks Wall Street is slowly becoming a little bit more casual. Men on Wall Street who are scared to dress “different and funky” will sometimes ask him for advice.

As much as bringing me to Snow Bird might have been a good business move — he was careful to point out his shirt hanging on the wall — it was also a chance for me to see Ives in his element. Jamie, a Snow Bird employee who worked on the brand collaboration, had picked out blazers to try on, and Ives reached for a New York-themed gray number. When Jamie started to say it might not fit over his sweatshirt, Ives, very politely, set him straight.

“That’s part of the look,” he said. Ives ran his fingers over baby pink and tie-dye sweatshirts. He tossed around the words, “Oh, that’s so cool,” about piece after piece. My white T-shirt and I slowly faded into the background.

I tried asking Ives about what tech stocks he finds most exciting just as Jamie handed him mint green and lilac hats, but I’m not sure he heard me.

“Dude, that thing is sick!” he said instead.