Foursquare to sell official merchandise online

Time to wear your Foursquare mayorship on your sleeve—literally. With more than 1.6 million users announcing their location to their friends on the check-in service, Foursquare is capitalizing on its popularity with plans to launch an online store at its website possibly by the end of the summer, according to a report by Forbes.com. The store will sell accessories like T-shirts, pins and stickers, so Foursquare enthusiasts can show off their rankings on the game-like service in the real world.

Foursquare is all about pitting users against each other in its check-in game. Users compete for leaderboard ranking, badges awarded for peforming specific tasks, and, of course, the coveted mayorship status, which you earn if you’ve checked into a given location more than anyone else. According to Foursquare, fans and heavy users have approached the company for apparel they could wear. Up until now, Foursquare has had pins and such, but has never sold them, instead handing them out to people at conferences and events.

It remains to be seen how big of a business the online store will turn out to be. (The company hasn’t responded to a request for comment yet.) Setting up an online store these days doesn’t take much of an investment and shouldn’t take up too many of Foursquare’s resources. (The company already has its hands full in coping with increased traffic it’s been seeing due to its increased popularity.) Arguably, it may have more to gain from the free advertising it gets from a user wearing a T-shirt or displaying a badge to friends than in revenue from sales of physical items.

In any even, it’s just one avenue for setting up Foursquare’s break into the mainstream. 1.6 million users is a great number to have just 15 months after launch, but Foursquare is still far from being a household name.

The company plans to grow the store gradually, offering only a handful of items for sale at first and then scaling up. According to the Forbes report, Foursquare is in talks with a few companies to manage orders and distribution. For now, though, be on the lookout for a Foursquare “Super Mayor” crown stitched to a backpack on a street near you.

Don’t miss MobileBeat 2010, VentureBeat’s conference on the future of mobile. The theme: “The year of the superphone and who will profit.” Now expanded to two days, MobileBeat 2010 will take place on July 12-13 at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Register now. Tickets are going quickly. For complete conference details, or to apply for the MobileBeat Startup Competition, click here.