What do T-shirts and cupcakes have in common? A guy by the name of Johnny.
Today I spoke at an event for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). They are an amazing organization that teaches entrepreneurship to high school kids, many of whom are in the inner city.
I did a breakout session for about 50 students. We had a blast.
The keynote speaker was Johnny Cupcakes (that wasn’t his given name, but is the name he now uses).
Ever since he was in high school, he has been an entrepreneur. He bought candy in bulk at Costco and sold it to students. He bought gag items (whoopi cushions, itching powder) and sold those – until one student had a bad allergic reaction that landed that kid in the hospital. He made buttons that were sold in a comic book store. While there, people gave him various nicknames – Johnny Appleseed and Johnny Cupcakes, for example. One day, as a gag, he made a Johnny Cupcakes T-shirt. People loved it. He made more designs. After selling them out of the back of his car for a while, he started selling them on the web. His fan-base grew until the point he opened a store on Newbury Street in Boston. This is a VERY fancy and expensive retail street.
Johnny is a great role model for the students. He has never had a drink, never did drugs, and has dedicated himself to his business. He said his happiest moment was when he could hire his mother as his bookkeeper so that she no longer had to do a job she didn’t like. When I spoke with him after the event, he said he would never sell the company for any amount of money. The business is now pulling in millions of dollars per year.
What does this have to do with innovation? Quite a bit actually.
Johnny has dedicated his life to his business. He even left college to stay focused in his business. Most of the money he makes he puts back into the company. He took big risks. He signed a multi-year deal for $7,000 a month retail space. You have to sell a lot of T-shirts to recover that kind of money! He did a brilliant job with word-of-mouth marketing. He has never done any advertising. But people line up days in advance when he launches a new line of limited edition T shirts.
And this is his brilliance.
Although he had requests to sell his shirts in all of the big stores, he declined. He wanted his T shirts to be exclusive. You can (for the most part) only buy his items from his stores and online. The stores are AMAZING. They are done up just like a bakery. He has been meticulous with the details. Mock ovens that open randomly shooting off steam. Cupcake scent. The doors to the storage room are made from huge 10 foot tall oven doors. The T-shirts are displayed in bakery cases and refrigerators with the motors removed. The labels in his T-shirts are in the shape of oven mitts. The boxes are beautiful and are in the shape of a muffin box. He even sometimes throws random things in the boxes of T shirts ordered online (e.g., a battery, 37 pennies, or a baseball card).
I could go on and on.
In previous articles I describe the bell curve of innovation. Johnny has been masterful at working the right side of the bell curve. Exclusivity. Creating an experience. Limited editions. Attention to details. A conversation piece. Johnny is not about T-shirts. He is about a life style, a story, and an experience.
If you are not familiar with Johnny’s work, please visit his store or his website. He’s an inspiration.