Are you the proud owner of a Chevy who has recently discovered a toy shark placed on your vehicle? That means you were on the receiving end of a trend started a few years ago called “Chevy Sharking” – a way for Chevy owners to express their admiration for each other’s cars by placing a toy shark on the windshield or door handle. As we recently reported, Chevy Sharking has been growing in popularity, but that begs the question, how did it start in the first place?
Chevy Sharking is actually a spinoff of another vogue called “Jeep Ducking”, where Jeep owners show their admiration for each other’s Jeeps using, you guessed it, toy ducks. Chevy owners got in on the act later, but it didn’t begin with the owners of just any Chevy models, but specifically with enthusiasts of the fifth-generation Camaro.
In fact, members of the Facebook group “Sharked Camaros” take credit for starting the entire trend. “This page is the OG Sharked Camaro page,” boasts the intro on the group’s page, before clarifying that it’s “not the one ran by a bunch of Karens.”
Not all Camaro owners are eager to be Sharked, however. “Don’t touch my car,” expressed one Internet commenter. This doesn’t seem to deter Camaro Sharkers, as accounts on both TikTok and Instagram have sprung up documenting sharking exploits in great detail.
Why Camaros, and why a shark? No doubt, the sleek lines along the side of the Camaro leading to an aggressive front end evokes the image of a shark in the minds of many observers. But one feature in particular that is especially shark-like in appearance are the three gill-like vertical slats on the rear quarter panels of fifth-generation Camaros, just ahead of the rear wheels.
2024 Chevy Traverse with shark fin C-pillar
Camaro Sharking has since evolved into Chevy Sharking, spreading to other Chevy models like the Traverse and Equinox. The newest generations of both models feature a shark fin C-pillar, introduced for the 2024 Traverse and the 2025 Equinox. The fusion of Camaro Sharking with the shark fin C-pillar has certainly resulted in an interesting cultural development.
2025 Chevy Equinox with shark fin C-pillar
Perhaps Cadillac Wreathing (or maybe Cadillac Cresting) is next.
Comments
Yeah, I’m in the “don’t touch my effing car” corner.
This is the first I’ve heard of something like this & we’ve got 2022 & 2013 Camaro SSs now, & have other Camaros & Firebird TransAms since 1979. And I’m in complete agreement, other people should just keep their paws off our cars.
yep, belt buckles scratch.
… and some people need to get a life.
Do they keep their toy fish beside their sippy cups ?
If you would like to express your admiration for my Camaro. Please wait until I return to my car and we will have a very friendly conversation about it.
Chevy’s relationship with sharks goes back to the Mako Shark show cars that preceded the C2 and C3 Corvettes.
So I’m supposed to believe that a chick with a stock jeep, in the middle of the middlewest, with a “salt life” sticker on her plastic window, got all 124 freaking ducks on her dashboard from other people admiring her jeep? Umm, yeah, I’ll buy that for a dollar…
The ‘three gill-like vertical slats on the rear quarter panels of fifth-generation Camaros” are a throwback to the same design on the 69 Camaros. And, vertical shark gills appeared on Corvettes in 65. So whomever is starting this trend has limited knowledge of Chevy design history.
I highly doubt that the sharking trend taking placing in 2024 has anything to do with Chevy models 60 years ago. It’s far more likely that this is related to new models.