Today I bring you a tremendous print on demand brand.
They make high six figures per month, have brand deals with Tetris, Exploding Kittens, and Munchkin.
Their work is featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
They collaborate with amazing artists.
They, unlike most POD businesses, don’t live off of high-impulsive purchases. Their customers keep coming back.
And they don’t hide that they’re running a print on demand business.
In fact, they make it very public and use it as a lever for growth. They call it “made-to-order”.
The brand I’m talking about is Geek Tropical.
A hyper-niche brand; shirts for geeks.
During my time as the Head of Marketing at Loox, I had the chance to speak to their founder.
He’s a chill dude and the success of his brand was a logical byproduct of his efforts. He’s not even surprised by his success.
Why?
Because he understand two things:
- The power of a real, honest-to-god, community.
- The power of relevant collaborations.
Both enable growth for others; a real community provides a sense of belonging. And collaborations provide a chance for others to show their work (and make a buck or two).
Building a community and establishing relevant collaborations can ONLY be achieved in a hyper targeted niche. (You simply can’t pull this off with a general fashion store).
All this; hyper-niche, community, and collaborations leads to trust and appreciation. Which, eventually, leads to people speaking to their peers about the brand.
Geeks have geek friends. And these geek friends have other geek friends. That’s how the word spreads.
Even better: The shirts are super visible. Every time someone wears them they’ll be recognized. Distribution is built into the product.
These efforts might not be as quick as ads, but they sustain and – most importantly – they compound.
Geek Tropical built a real brand, which is very rare in the POD space.
I think you can do this, too.
Go for it.
