If you’re a Red Line devotee or a Yellow and Green Line party animal, WMATA is unveiling a new merch pop-up you may be excited about. The new collection is designed for Metro’s 50th anniversary and the coinciding 250th celebration of the United States’ founding.
The new bags, clothing, and posters drew attention on social media on June 22, when WMATA teased a few items.
How do I link this to my wedding registry?
— kira (@MissKiraJade) June 23, 2026
The pop-up will be running from June 25 to July 10 out of their building at 300 7th St., SW. It’s just a few blocks from Metro’s exhibition at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, which will be running on the same dates.
At the fair, visitors will get to see inside Metro’s newest rail fleet and learn about the transit company’s history. The exhibition will also be handing out limited-edition collector’s cards. However, the new merchandise will be sold exclusively at the pop-up, available in-person only.
Georgetta Nicol, Metro’s Director of Marketing, said she expects the overlapping events will draw a lot of customers to the pop-up.
“There’s already so many people who are excited and invested in seeing what’s happening at the fair so I expect a lot of foot traffic,” Nicol said.
Nicol said that her design team wanted to draw on a ’70s theme for the anniversary collection, given that the Red Line opened in 1976. Inspiration also came from WMATA’s One Metro rebrand, which is a project underway to unify WMATA’s bus and rail services.
“You’ll see a lot of browns and creams, leaning into our new branding,” Nicol said. “From there we built out things that focused on the lines.”
In addition to the vintage vibe, the pop-up has several items that allow you to represent your Metro line—be that miniature trains and colorful T-shirts or rail dots in all shapes and sizes.
“A lot of our customers were like ‘We love the rail dots! How can we see more of the rail dots?’ so that inspired the line,” Nicol said.
The collection features rail-dot studded pajamas, socks, bibs, umbrellas, mugs, stickers, and magnets. Design features also extend to the walls of the store, which are adorned with vintage photographs, posters, and maps that showcase Metro’s history.
This will be the fourth pop-up that WMATA has hosted at the storefront. Peter Walsh is a special projects officer for WMATA and said the process for designing the space involves lots of deliberation within the design team.
“It’s a lot of back and forth,” Walsh said. “Every little piece, it’s probably been set up two to three times.”
Alongside the items celebrating Metro’s 50th, there will be merchandise designed for America’s 250th. Keeping the retro vibe, the collection sports red, white, and blue tanks, tees, pullovers, and socks, among other items.
Zoe Harvey, a marketing assistant, said the America 250 collection is her favorite part of the pop-up. In the process of creating a collection, she said she does a lot of research.
“I like to look at a lot of the stores that I find trending for people in my age group,” Harvey said. “It’s a fun process.”
WMATA is also issuing a Smart Trip card with a limited-edition 250th design. Starting on June 25, the cards will be issued at Metro Center, L’Enfant Plaza, Navy Yard, Smithsonian, Union Station, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and Washington Dulles International Airport.
Below is more of a sneak peak at the pop-up.
