Saturday, April 17, 2010

Johnny Cupcakes is Awesome!

We visited  Johnny Cupcakes on Melrose on Tuesday. It is next door to Tarina Tarantino & across the street from Betsey Johnson's boutique. It is my all time favorite store for Design & Marketing.  At first, my friend and I thought we were going into a bakery. Who doesn't like cupcakes? We were definitely surprised when we went in.
The whole store is really cool. It is designed to look like a bakery, but they don't sell cupcakes.
Here I am taking a photo of my friend Linda & I in the mirror with a wall full of vintage oven doors behind us.



My girls choosing their Johnny Cupcakes tshirts.  Reminds me of Disneyland.


T shirts are displayed in bakery cases. See the stove? That is where you pay.  Soooo cute!


These are the shirts my girls chose. The one on the left glows in the dark.

T shirts are packaged in cute little bakery boxes & wrapped in tissue.
Every package has a little something in it.
 

So who came up with this brilliant idea? A big marketing company? Nope. His name is Johnny Earle. He is currently 28 years old.
"Earle says he initially started the Johnny Cupcakes brand "as a complete joke." The clothing line has its origins back in 2000 when Earle worked at the Newbury Comics music shop in Braintree, Massachusetts. Each day brought about a new nickname for Earle as coined by his co-workers: Johnny Appleseed, Johnny Pancakes, Johnny Cupcakes, Johnny Coffeecakes, etc.
In 2001, while ordering screen-printed shirts for the metalcore  band he played in, (On Broken Wings) Earle printed up a few shirts designed with the "Johnny Cupcakes" nickname. Almost immediately, co-workers and store customers noticed the cupcakes-themed shirts whenever he wore them and many inquired about how to purchase them. Sensing the demand, Earle started selling the shirts from the trunk of his car to local customers.
When On Broken Wings signed with a record label and began touring  in 2002, Earle stuffed his suitcase full of Johnny Cupcakes shirts to sell at shows and give to other musicians on the bill. This helped expose his designs to new audiences across the country, and the brand began to develop a cult following. The following year, Earle quit the band to focus full-time on his fledgling business." 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cupcakes
Some more great things about Johnny: he unabashedly proclaims an alcohol & drug free lifestyle, both his parents & many of his friends work for him & he travels around & lectures at Colleges and Universities speaking to kids. I would encourage you to read more about his story on his website. It is really good.

 Hope you enjoyed reading about Johnny Cupcakes.

Thanks for stopping by...Have a great weekend!

Pam

3 comments:

  1. How cool is Johnny? i love that place, what a neat concept! He sounds like an awesome young man! Hi Parents must be super proud of him!

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  2. Pam, it looks like y'all had the best time there hitting all the great shopping spots. I have picked you to join in a blog game if you want. Come over to my blog for the info.

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  3. just spent the last hour reading the story of Johnny Cupcake. amazing.

    ReplyDelete

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