A Bazooka Joe lookalike contest is happening on the Lower East Side

The days of scrappy lookalike contests might be coming to an end, the death knell sounded by a Bazooka Joe contest that comes with a side of fashion. 

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On Thursday, July 9, candy brand Bazooka and downtown fashion label Siegelman Stable kick off a new collaboration with a Bazooka Joe lookalike contest in Lower Manhattan, celebrating the mascot's New York roots and introducing a limited-edition capsule collection.

Designed by Siegelman Stable founder Max Siegelman, the collection includes a T-shirt modeled after Bazooka Joe's signature outfit and a cap in the brand's classic red-and-blue color scheme, with a tiny pocket to stash your next piece of Bazooka bubble gum.

“Bazooka Joe is one of the great American characters — a guy with a story you found inside every piece of gum,” said Max Siegelman, founder of Siegelman Stable, in a statement. “We’ve always built Siegelman Stable around New York storytelling, so when the question was will you embrace Bazooka Joe, the answer was easy: of course we will. This new hat design is the story of Bazooka Joe, retold through fashion, culture and sport — and in the city he was born in and will always belong to.”

For Bazooka, the collaboration is about more than selling gum. The brand is leaning into the collectible culture it arguably helped create decades ago, when kids bought gum as much for the comic tucked inside the wrapper as for the bubblegum itself after Bazooka Joe debuted in 1953. Created by the Topps Company, the eyepatch-wearing, crew-cut kid quickly became one of the most recognizable mascots in American candy.

By the '70s, Bazooka Joe comics had become a pop-culture institution and one of candy's most enduring images. His return through the Siegelman Stable collaboration is a nostalgic nod to a character who has been part of pop culture for more than 70 years. Now, he may get a second lease on life worthy of his all-American white T-shirt as both brands bet that one of the country's most recognizable mascots still has some cultural mileage left.

That will be put to the test on July 9 when attendees will have the chance to see just how many Bazooka Joes show up to compete. The event takes place at the candy and antique shop Zaidi’s, 139 Division Street in Dimes Square, from 5pm–7pm.