END the VEND

…. and build a brand, dude!

Did the world really need another T-shirt company? Tap Out Clothing, created in a garage in 1997 proved that by carving out a niche with their killer brand, the world indeed had a hunger for more T-shirts and a host of other apparel leveraging sales from just $30,000 in 1997 to in excess of $200 million by 2009.

The Tap Out brand (stylized as TapouT) specializes in clothing targeted at mixed martial arts fans, typically young men between 13-27. However, don’t think of them as a just a T-shirt or apparel company. Tap Out are world class brand builders, in a world dominated by an abundance of mere vendors.

(Pictured: Tap Out Founders, Dan "Punkass" Caldwell, Timm "Skyskrape" Katz and Charles "Mask" Lewis)

90% of businesses fall into the category of vendor. Vending is dangerous to your future. Change the word vendor to the word invisible and it’s easier to get the picture. Vendors focus on selling their products and services. Brand builders champion their cause, build excitement in their market and inspire people to want, really want to be a part of their brands community, buying their products and services almost like the souvenirs you buy when you go to Disney World.

To visualize vending behavior for yourself, using T-shirts as our example, just go to any swap meet, flea market or street fare and take a look. There they are, booth after booth of vendors vending T-shirts. Quite often you’ll see signs that read “10 Shirts for $20.00”. Can you believe you can really get 10 brand new T-shirts for just $20.00? Also notice there’s no mad crowd clamoring for shirts. The vendors are not selling tons of shirts even at that price point, nor are they making much money.

http://www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net/Index.asp

Check Tap Out’s web site (http://www.tapout.com) and you’ll see they sell their shirts on-line for $23.95 each. Do the math: A well-crafted well-presented brand can increase revenue for a simple T-shirt from $2.00 a pop to $23.95. That’s over a 1000% better.