Cupcakes Of A Different Sort

I have been following Johnny Cupcakes for a while now ever since I seen some of his amazing store designs with their great 50's retro feel. It has amazed me how popular a brand can become just from a simple cupcake idea. O.K. his clothing range is pretty good but when you analyse his style, it isn't that difficult to replicate but he has such a loyal following.

On the Dieline website this week, there was an article on his latest tee shirt incarnations. I would buy the tee shirts just for the packaging alone.

When you look at his brand, it is so iconic and can be applied to any product. These frosting cans have been so thoughtfully crafted that their value is as much if not more than the limited edition tee shirts. They have already sold out and some are fetching over one hundred pounds each on Ebay already.

You have to admire his spirit as he started selling a few designs from the back of his car with very little money but an instinct not to sell out to any large chain stores. This keeps his product fresh and in demand as there is only one place that you can buy them from.

His first job on leaving college was making button badges and when he started wearing his tee shirts to work, loads of people wanted them and then he had some of the regular customers actually take them round for him selling them on various college campuses. Also at concerts where he was selling some of the badge designs, he realised that he could make a lot more money from shirt sales than he imagined. After opening a few stores in America, he opened his first one in London on Carnaby Street which is alright but lacks the size and imagination of the larger US stores, citing the alarmingly high rates of setting up a shop in the U.K. No surprise there then.

As well as coming up with new designs, he gives lectures at colleges all over the U.S. There are always special events being held in stores all based around the baking theme such as bouncing balls into cupcake trays to win a free limited edition tee shirt or special screenings of classic movies such as Ferris Buellers Day Off or Ghostbusters etc etc.

You can never begrudge anyone like this who has had a great idea and expanded it into a worldwide phenomenon. Even when his London store opened there were people waiting in line who had travelled from America for the weekend just to be at the opening. The only similar devotion of this kind I can think of is when a new Apple store opens. So the next time you're in London, you have got to visit the store and experience just a small piece of a cupcake revolution.