No Matter the Size of the Market, All Business Is Local

If you’re big, act little. If you’re little, peacock.

Doing the unexpected will get you noticed. That’s branding. Look at Threadbare. Here’s a bunch of buddies that are grossing $20 million but, surprise, won’t do the paperwork to get them increased sales channels.

Via Jason at 37 Signals:

“It’s about time the Chicago press noticed a few dropouts in their 20s selling nearly $20,000,000 worth of T-shirts on Ravenswood Avenue.”

“It certainly doesn’t hurt our PR when we go to speak and stuff like that to say, ‘Yeah, we turned down Target. We turned down Urban,’ ” Kalmikoff says. “But honestly, a little bit of it was laziness. We were like, ‘Well, who’s gonna fill out all this paperwork? I’m not doing it. Are you gonna do it?’ It just sat for like two weeks. Then we’re like, ‘Just tell ‘em no.’ We couldn’t take the time away from our client work for our side project to be filling out the paperwork to get into Target.”

Don’t think that they’re naive. They’re doing the unexpected and getting recognized. The fact that they turned down Target and Urban Outfitters just adds to their underground mystique.

Besides, you have to love a bunch of guys who are sticking it to the man just because they’re too lazy to sign the contract. That’s exactly the attitude they’re cultivating. That’s their brand.