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- $3M/year selling the ugliest T-shirts you've ever seen š¤Ø
$3M/year selling the ugliest T-shirts you've ever seen š¤Ø
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Finlay Williams
August 10, 2024
2 minute wacky businesses, you can tell your buddies about š§
Imagine raking in $3 million a year selling the ugliest T-shirts you've ever seen. No, seriouslyāthey're designed to be bad on purpose. It sounds absurd, right? Enter ThatShirtWasCash, the brainchild of a Reddit user who turned an anti-fashion joke into an e-commerce empire.
Ugly shirts and the hive-mind š§
Back in 2014, a guy known online as "Don" (real name Carson Jones) started ThatShirtWasCash as a side project. His big idea, was to take the worst designs submitted by Redditorsāthink pixelated clip art and garish colour clashesāand slap them on shirts, hoodies, and more. It was the ultimate anti-fashion statement that no one knew they needed, but the internet, being the internet, loved it. Fast forward to today, and ThatShirtWasCash has earned over $3 million in revenue last year alone. All with zero dollars spent on advertising
Itās not just about ugly T-shirts. ThatShirtWasCash is a celebration of meme culture, internet inside jokes, and the sheer absurdity of it all. People arenāt just buying clothes; theyāre buying into a community that finds humour in the ridiculous. And thatās why theyāve built a fiercely loyal customer baseā35% of whom come back for more, even as the brand promises, āeach shirt is worse than the last.ā
What are the nuggets? š
š½ Origin: Carsonās journey started in 2014 with a Reddit post (and 4chan I believe) asking users to submit their worst designs. The response was overwhelming, and with just enough funds, he launched the first batch from his garage. What started as a joke quickly took off, proving that thereās a market for, well, anything.
š½ Pivotal Moment: In 2016, the brand saw a massive spike during the Presidential election. By launching politically charged designs that resonated across the spectrum, they went viral, solidifying their place in internet culture.
š½ Awesome Marketing Play: Hereās where it gets even more interestingāDon/Carson doesnāt spend anything on advertising. Instead, he leans into the hive mind of Reddit, generating traction through organic posts and limited-run designs that are so bad, theyāre good. People buy because they want to be part of the joke. The reviews are hilariously bad in the best way possible, I highly recommend reading some on the site.
š½ Funding: Carson bootstrapped the entire operation, reinvesting profits to scale, creating a self-sustaining cash machine with no outside investment, meaning more control and higher margins.
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