Johnny Cupcakes

by Eddy C.

It’s the term, “rags to riches” that can sum up my response to living in America for a prospective businessman. You can either fail or you can wipe your butt with one hundred dollar bills every single day. However, how do young innovated businessman become rich? Do they stick with their 9 to 5 job? Do they spend hundreds on lotto tickets for billions? Or do they start out making t-shirt designs with little cupcake designs on them?

This is where I proudly introduce Johnny Cupcakes, a t-shirt store in Boston, Massachusetts founded in 2001 in the back of “Johnny’s Old 1989 Toyota Camry” (not a store but a beat up old car.) The business quickly grew and four years later. Ding! Johnny opened his first shop in Boston.

It took four years for Johnny Cupcakes, ten years for Microsoft, and five years for the iPod to become big. So, why do people like the Johnny Cupcake’s brand? Is it new and refreshing? Is it because of the funky art style? Is it a type of fad/ hype? How did this business grow so quickly to achieve a 914.3% growth and 3.0 million dollars in revenue in the year of 2008 from 300,000 dollars in revenue in the year of 2005? Let’s investigate.

Johnny Cupcakes was started as a joke or a hobby as I like to say. It was a company made of risk and standards like trying to not go mainstream and choosing quality over quantity. This in my eyes is very respectable. It’s respectable because he isn’t selling his soul for millions of dollars and being ripped off like the true inventor of Tetris. He’s managed to develop a small independent business where he can save his family form their dead end jobs and bring them into a new environment.

Plus, the man is a natural businessman. He has been selling things like candy and pranks every since high school like one of my friends, Alex. Alex has started his own business following the Johnny Cupcakes business model. Which clearly states, start in high school, hire friends and family and develop your craft after high school. It seems to be working for him too. Check out his page after you read this post. Good Luck, Alex!

Now, let's get back to baking. While Johnny was working at Newbury Comics, he began to wear his shirts there and it caused a stir. While at work people began to ask him about the shirts, where did he buy them and if they can get some off of him. So, by the rules of supply and demand, he began to sell his shirts. He sold his shirts during work and while he was on tour with his band, “On Broken Wings.” With each shirt brought, a new type of cult started, the cupcake-cult. Different types of people would buy and collect his shirts and soon after he became an icon.

Then something happened, Johnny realized he didn’t like seeing more of the same. He made this realization, when he saw a bunch of kids wearing the same sneakers he was wearing. He wasn’t really into seeing more of the same but something different. He wanted to make his t-shirts more then a t-shirts line but something limited and special. He opened his first shop in 2006 and the shop has been his passion ever since.

But why is this an inspirational story to me? Why should I care about businesses that try to be humble? It is because it deals with the way I was raised. My parents want me to be humble and avoid being prideful and bashful. (But I still think a person can have silent satisfaction in their work.)