Chubbies
Yes, Chubbies is a company that sells short-shorts for guys, BUT many people don’t know the intriguing story behind how they started. The idea of Chubbies was reminding people of their dad’s and of the weekend. The founders would find retro shorts in thrift stores are wear them around.
It all started at a 4th of July party.
To test out the interest in their short-shorts they decided to bring a couple of pairs to Lake Tahoe. They ended up selling out – which proved to them that something they loved was also loved by others. Not only that, but people were open to spending 65 dollars on them. How did they come to this number? – you may ask. They wanted to see how much people would spend so they started at 10 dollars, then each pair after that they increased by 5 to 15 dollars. The last pair they sold was around $65, so they priced their shorts at that. That is an in action example of surveying your target market to see what customers are willing to pay for your product.
After discovering the interest of people, they went to their roots to use the people they know in order to promote. They connected with their past fraternity brothers to get to their target market of college age kids. In Greek life trends spread like wildfire, so it was a perfect way to go about it. Most of their sales were through word of mouth or social media.
Amazing how trends of the past can be brought back to make a huge splash in the market. I myself enjoy chubbies but I never knew how they started. My only question is, how long will it take for this trend of the past to once again become a trend of the past?
The simplicity of this product and the technique they used for their price I really like. The whole idea and how they got trending seems almost too easy.
It’s interesting how they came to their price ticket. I think as a business owners, their method of seeing the max price they could charge and still receive sales but do they need to price them so high to make a profit? I can definitely see why Chubbies are a hit and love the idea of profiting off of nostalgia and old trends. Great read, thanks for sharing!
Chubbies are great, and I love that they come in so many different colors and patterns. It was a great move on their part to connect with their old fraternity brothers to test their target market. At a price point of $65, I’m sure none of them purchased Chubbies to be nice, they had to of really liked them.
If I was in the fashion industry, I would really hate these guys for how easy they made it look and how quickly they were able to become successful. Seems like they were able to identify better ways to start their business and take advantage of them. Really cool to see how a product we may take for granted these days got its start.
This success story almost seems unreal. Its a remarkably simple concept that one wouldn’t think to be sustainable. Their pricing technique and general identity are very interesting.
To me, I see that this simple strategy would be very effective in the short term. However, how long until this trend becomes a thing of the past again? How are they going to keep up with the times and push past the point of becoming a fad?
Wow I never knew that is how they began their business but I see them around everywhere! I am impressed on how they found their target audience and built on that. I also think the different designs are great because it brings diversity in their products and broadens their audience. Great post!