\n<\/p>\n
When Kendall Jenner attended the 2022 Met Gala in a Prada gown with an enormous flowing skirt<\/a>, getting her to the Metropolitan Museum of Art required special transportation. A limousine would not do, nor would an SUV \u2014 walking in the dress was a challenge; sitting, impossible. The solution: Ms. Jenner would be driven, standing, in a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van.<\/p>\n On the way to the event, as a way to relieve her anxiety about running late, Ms. Jenner relieved herself in an ice bucket<\/a> while standing in the van. \u201cBest decision I ever made,\u201d she said of that moment in an episode of \u201cThe Kardashians\u201d on Hulu.<\/p>\n The Sprinter van, a towering box on wheels with nearly six-and-a-half feet of head room, is a direct descendant of the earliest motorized caravans<\/a> developed by Karl Benz in 1896. (Some 30 years later, he and Gottlieb Daimler founded the Mercedes-Benz company.) The Sprinter, first released<\/a> in Europe in 1995, started being sold domestically in 2010. Last year, Mercedes-Benz unveiled an electric version<\/a>.<\/p>\n The van \u2014 which can be used to transport up to 15 passengers (or cargo<\/a>) \u2014 is appreciated by automotive enthusiasts for its build quality, reliability and versatility, as well as for the thrust and longevity of the diesel engine in most versions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But other people have come to recognize the Sprinter for different reasons, among them its proximity to celebrities. The van has become a preferred mode of transportation for actors, singers, athletes and \u201cReal Housewives,\u201d and is now a staple in streets outside star-studded events like the Oscars<\/a> and the Met Gala.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The vans have become so popular as transportation to the spring gala in New York that demand for them can outstrip the local supply. \u201cSprinters are being brought in from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami,\u201d said Etienne Haro, the general manager of the Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where many Met Gala guests spend time both before<\/a> and after<\/a> the main event.<\/p>\n In recent years, between 50 and 70 guests have traveled to the gala from the Mark, with about 40to 50 of those people riding in Sprinters. Many of those vans are rented and driven by guests\u2019 personal chauffeurs. On the day of the gala, the Mark has a team of about 30 people tracking vehicles\u2019 locations to ensure their passengers arrive punctually, Mr. Haro said.<\/p>\n Sprinter riders often take advantage of the van\u2019s roomy interior to ensure they also arrive looking flawless. \u201cThe entourage, glam team, stylist \u2014 everyone can hop in to put on the finishing touches,\u201d Mr. Haro said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But occasionally, he added, some Sprinter passengers have hit bumps in the road on their way to and from the gala.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting out of a Sprinter with a voluminous gown and high heels can be challenging,\u201d Mr. Haro said, noting one instance in which a Mark employee caught a Met Gala guest \u201cin midair\u201d as she was falling out of a van. He recalled another guest \u201cwhose dress was so intricate that she could not enter her vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n Though it bears Mercedes-Benz\u2019s three-point-star logo, the Sprinter has an otherwise innocuous exterior that, for some famous fans, has as much appeal as its capacious interior.<\/p>\n \u201cOur clients say, \u2018The paparazzi are chasing us around; we don\u2019t want to be in something that\u2019s sticking out like a sore thumb, like a Rolls or a Bentley,\u201d said Howard Becker, the founder of Becker Automotive Design<\/a> in Southern California, which has customized Sprinter vans and other vehicles for people like the director Steven Spielberg, the actor Mark Wahlberg and the television host Steve Harvey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sprinter kind of fades in,\u201d said Mr. Becker, 75.<\/p>\n The starting price for a diesel-engine van is about $50,000; electric Sprinters start at about $72,000. But models outfitted by Mr. Becker or by Gabi Mashal, whose Southern California company Bespoke Coach<\/a> also customizes the vans, typically cost between $350,000 and $450,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Their distinctive features can include temperature-controlled, lie-flat seats with built-in massagers, secure internet routers, state-of-the-art stereo and video systems and onboard bathrooms for their owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThese people can\u2019t use a public restroom,\u201d said Mr. Mashal, 60, who has customized vans for the singer Mark Anthony and the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.<\/p>\n The Sprinter\u2019s size and luxurious reputation are reasons it has replaced vehicles like limousines and SUVs as the rental transportation of choice on many versions of \u201cThe Real Housewives,\u201d said Nate Green, an executive producer of \u201cThe Real Housewives of Miami.\u201d He described the Sprinter as a friend of the \u201cHousewives,\u201d using a term given to supporting characters in the franchise<\/a> who appear regularly in episodes.<\/p>\n Mr. Green said his show\u2019s crew also favors Sprinters because the van\u2019s cabin has enough room for camera operators to stand \u2014 and to film from several angles.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really important,\u201d Mr. Green said, \u201cbecause \u2018Housewives\u2019 is sometimes more about the reaction than about the actual dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the reality TV franchise\u2019s 18 years on Bravo, Sprinter vans have been a place where housewives have drunkenly fallen down, signed divorce papers, passionately kissed co-stars, engaged in verbal spats and been approached by officers with the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen people see a Sprinter van, they know that there\u2019s going to be something that happens that\u2019s going to be iconic,\u201d said Lisa Shannon, an executive producer of the New York and Salt Lake City installments of \u201cThe Real Housewives,\u201d as well as its \u201cUltimate Girls Trip\u201d spinoff.<\/p>\n The Sprinter, while strongly associated with the \u201cHousewives\u201d franchise, has appeared in more than 4,000 movies and TV episodes<\/a>. Like many tokens of pop culture, it has been imitated on \u201cThe Simpsons<\/a>,\u201d and it recently joined one of cinema\u2019s most distinguishable automotive fleets: the vehicles in \u201cGhostbusters.\u201d<\/p>\n In the series\u2019s latest film, \u201cGhostbusters: Frozen Empire,\u201d released in March, a new van called Ecto-Z \u2014 a black Sprinter<\/a> outfitted with racks for proton packs \u2014 is featured alongside the tail-finned 1959 Cadillac ambulance known to many as the Ecto-1.<\/p>\n Eric Reich, an executive producer of \u201cGhostbusters: Frozen Empire,\u201d said a Sprinter was chosen for the Ecto-Z role after Mercedes-Benz and Sony, the film\u2019s distributor, had meetings to discuss product placement. He added that a Sprinter, like a Cadillac, made sense for transporting the Ghostbusters and their gear because both vehicles blend \u201cluxury and function.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That amalgamation has also made Sprinters popular among so-called vanlifers \u2014 people known for cavorting, traveling and sleeping in customized vans<\/a>. Many of them document their lifestyles online, including Peter Holcombe<\/a>, 51, who has spent much of the last decade living with his wife, Kathy, 50, and daughter, Abby, 19, in four Sprinter vans outfitted by the motor-home company Winnebago. (The Holcombes are brand ambassadors for Mercedes-Benz and Winnebago; they bought three of their vans at a discount.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In their vans, the family has visited all 50 states, several national parks and 19 European countries. (Last year, Abby moved out of the family vehicle and into one of her own.) The Holcombes are currently driving what\u2019s known as the Pan-American Highway<\/a>, a network of roads that runs from Alaska to the southern tip of South America.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done over 400,000 miles in Sprinters,\u201d Mr. Holcombe said.<\/p>\n Wes Siler, a backcountry camper and a columnist for Outside magazine in Bozeman, Mont., is less of a fan.<\/p>\n Mr. Siler, 43, who camps out of a converted pickup truck, said the cost of buying and customizing a Sprinter for outdoor exploring is excessive for what he described as little more than a \u201cposeur backdrop.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re cool on Instagram,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s, like, the entire story.\u201d<\/p>\n But even Mr. Siler, who grew up in Europe, recognizes that the van has a certain appeal. He recalled getting to prom at his high school in London in a Sprinter that had been outfitted as a party bus.<\/p>\n \u201cYou couldn\u2019t want a better limo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n