When Kendall Jenner attended the 2022 Met Gala in a Prada robe with an infinite flowing skirt, getting her to the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork required particular transportation. A limousine wouldn’t do, nor would an SUV — strolling within the costume was a problem; sitting, unimaginable. The answer: Ms. Jenner could be pushed, standing, in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.
On the best way to the occasion, as a option to relieve her nervousness about working late, Ms. Jenner relieved herself in an ice bucket whereas standing within the van. “Greatest choice I ever made,” she stated of that second in an episode of “The Kardashians” on Hulu.
The Sprinter van, a towering field on wheels with almost six-and-a-half toes of head room, is a direct descendant of the earliest motorized caravans developed by Karl Benz in 1896. (Some 30 years later, he and Gottlieb Daimler based the Mercedes-Benz firm.) The Sprinter, first launched in Europe in 1995, began being offered domestically in 2010. Final yr, Mercedes-Benz unveiled an electrical model.
The van — which can be utilized to move as much as 15 passengers (or cargo) — is appreciated by automotive fanatics for its construct high quality, reliability and flexibility, in addition to for the thrust and longevity of the diesel engine in most variations.
However different folks have come to acknowledge the Sprinter for various causes, amongst them its proximity to celebrities. The van has grow to be a most popular mode of transportation for actors, singers, athletes and “Actual Housewives,” and is now a staple in streets outdoors star-studded occasions just like the Oscars and the Met Gala.
The vans have grow to be so well-liked as transportation to the spring gala in New York that demand for them can outstrip the native provide. “Sprinters are being introduced in from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami,” stated Etienne Haro, the overall supervisor of the Mark Resort on the Higher East Facet of Manhattan, the place many Met Gala visitors spend time each earlier than and after the principle occasion.
Lately, between 50 and 70 visitors have traveled to the gala from the Mark, with about 40to 50 of these folks driving in Sprinters. A lot of these vans are rented and pushed by visitors’ private chauffeurs. On the day of the gala, the Mark has a crew of about 30 folks monitoring autos’ places to make sure their passengers arrive punctually, Mr. Haro stated.
Sprinter riders usually make the most of the van’s roomy inside to make sure in addition they arrive trying flawless. “The entourage, glam crew, stylist — everybody can hop in to placed on the ending touches,” Mr. Haro stated.
However sometimes, he added, some Sprinter passengers have hit bumps within the highway on their option to and from the gala.
“Getting out of a Sprinter with a voluminous robe and excessive heels may be difficult,” Mr. Haro stated, noting one occasion by which a Mark worker caught a Met Gala visitor “in midair” as she was falling out of a van. He recalled one other visitor “whose costume was so intricate that she couldn’t enter her automobile.”
Although it bears Mercedes-Benz’s three-point-star brand, the Sprinter has an in any other case innocuous exterior that, for some well-known followers, has as a lot enchantment as its capacious inside.
“Our shoppers say, ‘The paparazzi are chasing us round; we don’t wish to be in one thing that’s protruding like a sore thumb, like a Rolls or a Bentley,” stated Howard Becker, the founding father of Becker Automotive Design in Southern California, which has personalized Sprinter vans and different autos for folks just like the director Steven Spielberg, the actor Mark Wahlberg and the tv host Steve Harvey.
“The Sprinter form of fades in,” stated Mr. Becker, 75.
The beginning worth for a diesel-engine van is about $50,000; electrical Sprinters begin at about $72,000. However fashions outfitted by Mr. Becker or by Gabi Mashal, whose Southern California firm Bespoke Coach additionally customizes the vans, usually value between $350,000 and $450,000.
Their distinctive options can embody temperature-controlled, lie-flat seats with built-in massagers, safe web routers, state-of-the-art stereo and video programs and onboard bogs for his or her homeowners.
“These folks can’t use a public restroom,” stated Mr. Mashal, 60, who has personalized vans for the singer Mark Anthony and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The Sprinter’s measurement and opulent fame are causes it has changed autos like limousines and SUVs because the rental transportation of alternative on many variations of “The Actual Housewives,” stated Nate Inexperienced, an government producer of “The Actual Housewives of Miami.” He described the Sprinter as a good friend of the “Housewives,” utilizing a time period given to supporting characters within the franchise who seem frequently in episodes.
Mr. Inexperienced stated his present’s crew additionally favors Sprinters as a result of the van’s cabin has sufficient room for digicam operators to face — and to movie from a number of angles.
“That is actually essential,” Mr. Inexperienced stated, “as a result of ‘Housewives’ is typically extra concerning the response than concerning the precise dialogue.”
All through the fact TV franchise’s 18 years on Bravo, Sprinter vans have been a spot the place housewives have drunkenly fallen down, signed divorce papers, passionately kissed co-stars, engaged in verbal spats and been approached by officers with the Division of Homeland Safety.
“When folks see a Sprinter van, they know that there’s going to be one thing that occurs that’s going to be iconic,” stated Lisa Shannon, an government producer of the New York and Salt Lake Metropolis installments of “The Actual Housewives,” in addition to its “Final Ladies Journey” spinoff.
The Sprinter, whereas strongly related to the “Housewives” franchise, has appeared in additional than 4,000 motion pictures and TV episodes. Like many tokens of popular culture, it has been imitated on “The Simpsons,” and it not too long ago joined considered one of cinema’s most distinguishable automotive fleets: the autos in “Ghostbusters.”
Within the collection’s newest movie, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” launched in March, a brand new van known as Ecto-Z — a black Sprinter outfitted with racks for proton packs — is featured alongside the tail-finned 1959 Cadillac ambulance recognized to many because the Ecto-1.
Eric Reich, an government producer of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” stated a Sprinter was chosen for the Ecto-Z function after Mercedes-Benz and Sony, the movie’s distributor, had conferences to debate product placement. He added {that a} Sprinter, like a Cadillac, made sense for transporting the Ghostbusters and their gear as a result of each autos mix “luxurious and performance.”
That amalgamation has additionally made Sprinters well-liked amongst so-called vanlifers — folks recognized for cavorting, touring and sleeping in personalized vans. A lot of them doc their life on-line, together with Peter Holcombe, 51, who has spent a lot of the final decade residing together with his spouse, Kathy, 50, and daughter, Abby, 19, in 4 Sprinter vans outfitted by the motor-home firm Winnebago. (The Holcombes are model ambassadors for Mercedes-Benz and Winnebago; they purchased three of their vans at a reduction.)
Of their vans, the household has visited all 50 states, a number of nationwide parks and 19 European nations. (Final yr, Abby moved out of the household automobile and into considered one of her personal.) The Holcombes are at the moment driving what’s referred to as the Pan-American Freeway, a community of roads that runs from Alaska to the southern tip of South America.
“We’ve executed over 400,000 miles in Sprinters,” Mr. Holcombe stated.
Wes Siler, a backcountry camper and a columnist for Outdoors journal in Bozeman, Mont., is much less of a fan.
Mr. Siler, 43, who camps out of a transformed pickup truck, stated the price of shopping for and customizing a Sprinter for out of doors exploring is extreme for what he described as little greater than a “poseur backdrop.”
“They’re cool on Instagram,” he stated. “That’s, like, your complete story.”
However even Mr. Siler, who grew up in Europe, acknowledges that the van has a sure enchantment. He recalled attending to promenade at his highschool in London in a Sprinter that had been outfitted as a celebration bus.
“You couldn’t need a greater limo,” he stated.
