The Mittens Meme
One photograph, one pair of mittens, and the most wholesome meme of 2021 — the facts behind it.
The photograph
On January 20, 2021, at the inauguration of President Joe Biden, photojournalists captured Bernie Sanders seated alone in the stands: arms crossed, legs crossed, bundled in a winter coat, wearing thick patterned mittens. The widely shared photograph was taken by Brendan Smialowski of Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This site does not reproduce the inauguration photograph: it is a copyrighted news photograph, and no freely licensed version from Wikimedia Commons was available. The portrait above is a freely licensed photograph of Sanders for identification.
The mittens
The mittens were made for Sanders by Jen Ellis, a Vermont elementary-school teacher, from repurposed sweater wool lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles. She had given them to Sanders previously; he wore them to the inauguration against the January cold.
The meme
Within hours, the image was among the most shared photographs in the world. Internet users edited Sanders into famous paintings, film scenes, album covers, and landmarks — always seated, arms crossed, unimpressed. The meme’s appeal, as commentators described it at the time, was its contrast: a powerful senator dressed like everyone’s practical Vermont grandfather.
Sanders’s response
Asked about the phenomenon that day, Sanders said: “It makes people aware that we make good mittens in Vermont. We have some good coats, as well.” (Interview, January 20, 2021 — see the sayings page.)
His campaign later sold sweatshirts and stickers using the image; according to his office, the proceeds were directed to Vermont charities.
Why it endures
The mittens meme is arguably the single most recognized image of Sanders’s public life — more widely seen than any debate clip or Senate speech. It also illustrates this site’s imagery rules: the famous photograph itself cannot be freely reproduced, so it is described rather than shown.
Source notes
The photographer’s credit, the mitten-maker’s account, and Sanders’s quoted response were documented in contemporaneous reporting from January 2021, cited on the sources page.
Factual baseline: September 2026.