In 1986, Haring opened the Pop Shop, a retail store in Soho (New York), to sell merchandise.

The store offered shirts, posters, magnets, and buttons with his artwork on them. Aiming to make his art accessible to a larger audience, Haring opened another Pop Shop in Tokyo in 1987.

Critics accused the artist of engaging in crass commercialism, but Haring asserted that he was doing the opposite of “selling out.”

“My work was starting to become more expensive and more popular within the art market,” Haring said. “Those prices meant that only people who could afford big art prices could have access to the work. The Pop Shop makes it accessible.”