User talk:Hblasko/sandbox/Chubbies

Overview
Chubbies is an online men’s clothing company founded out of San Francisco whose shorts has become a fashion icon. These “short shorts” have become popular on numerous college campuses because of their style, fun, and carefree appeal. The 5-inch-seamed-tightfitting shorts have an ironic appeal to them since men are not normally the ones to wear such revealing clothing. However revealing, the shorts have become the something a man’s man would wear (Huntington). When describing what Chubbies is about, the company said, “We don't do pants. We don't do cargos. We don't do capris. We do shorts and only shorts. We have put painstaking effort into these shorts. We have engineered them for the toughest shorts critics - ourselves. And after years of development and fine tuning, we have finally emerged with a product that meets - nay, exceeds - our highest standards for shorts excellence (Chubbiesshorts.com).” History

Lake Tahoe, July 4th 2011, four post grad college students by the names of Kyle Hency, Rainer Castillo, Preston Rutherford, and Tom Montgomery are enjoying their Independence Day weekend. Being college students who value patriotism, fashion, and getting a good laugh out their friends have the idea of making American-themed shorts. Inspired by the 80s, they decided to make the shorts way above the knees (TechCrunch).

The four friends went to a nearby fabric store and bought red white and blue fabrics. When they made the shorts they got a lot of positive feedback from their friends. People requested the guys to make them a pair, so they started selling the shorts for $50.0 a piece to their friends and after selling 20 pairs they realized their shorts had potential (Forbes). They decided to start a online business and named to company Chubbies because “you can gain some weight and your shorts still fit like a dream (Outmagazine).” Soon after Chubbies launched, the company found 25 southern college students to be Chubbies ambassadors. The company quickly gained popularity throughout many college campuses and their sales skyrocketed in first year. In 2012 they were recurrently sold out for 6 weeks at a time (Forbes).

Style
The style is nothing but unique. With now over 126 designs they sell everything from shorts with American flags on them to bright pink shorts (Forbes). Obviously these shorts are short, but the company has put in great effort to make quality and comfortable clothing. “Simply put, Chubbies are the best shorts out there. Comfortable, flexible, aerodynamic and most of all utterly Radical, Chubbies are everything a short should be and more (Chubbiesshorts.com).” The shorts have become something many college fraternity’s brother’s wear. According the Huffington, the shorts “promotes classic fraternity loves like patriotism, drinking and matching outfits with such an excess of enthusiasm that it's impossible not to laugh (Huffington Post).”

Sales
In 2012, company sales grew 600% within a 3 months span and has only been growing since. Chubbies has had great success over the last few years by averaging $600,000 in sales each day (Forbes). Selling for approximately $50.00 dollars a pair, the company most likely has a large profit margin. According to Chubbies, shorts is a 3 billion dollar that isn't dominated by one a single company(TechCrunch). With this being so, the company has had an easy time in their market since they have limited competition. Along with very successful sales, the company has gotten 4 million dollars of investments from large retail investors (TechCrunch). The company’s sales continue to rise as the short shorts gain more popularity.

Marketing
Chubbies’ marketing is much different from the typical online shopping website. The http://www.chubbiesshorts.com website is very clean and easy to navigate like traditional retail website, however the language used sounds like it was written by a colege frat. Things like “The ultimate party creature hath returned” or “These babies are 10,000% made in the USA (Chubbiesshorts.com)” are written throughout the website. The marketing appeals to the young college crowd and young adults by casual “bro” language throughout their website. When describing each pair of shorts, Chubbies says gives you the sense that if you don't wear these you’re not cool.

Ambassadors
Even from the start of the company, Chubbies has used young college students to be ambassadors who advertise the shorts at their local college. This advertising method has given much success in spreading the word about chubbies, and currently they have over 100 ambassadors at numerous colleges (Chubbieshorts.com).

Facebook
The company uses Facebook along with other social medias as another way of advertising to the young crowd. Generally they post humorous pictures of customers wearing their shorts on the page or funny videos relating to the weekend. The page is more about the chubbies lifestyle rather than simply advertising, however the page has almost 100,000 likes.

'Mericas
The ‘Mericas are one of many styles of chubbies whose design were the initial inspiration for the short and are the companies best sellers. Along with the shorts being wildly patriotic, the company often sends a pair of these shorts to veterans, soliders, and other heroes as a sign of thier gratitude. (Salonmagazine).

Brown, Geoffrey. "Interview: The Designers of Chubbies Shorts." Out Magazine. Here Media, Inc., 06 July 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

"Chubbies Shorts Is on a Mission to Own the Men's Shorts Market and Define the 'weekend Lifestyle' - StartUp Beat." StartUp Beat. BRK Media, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.

"The Company." The Manifesto – Chubbies Shorts. Chubbies Shorts, Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Colao, J.J. "Meet The Stanford Bros Conquering Men's Shorts: Inside The Frat-Empire Of Chubbies." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 06 May 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Shieber, Jonathan. "Chubbies Raises $4 Million Giving Bros A Weekend Uniform | TechCrunch." TechCrunch. Tech Crunch Network, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Hines, Alice. "Chubbies Shorts Meets 'Bro' Branding: Thighs Out, Fellas."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.

Miles, Chris. "George W. Bush Loves His ‘Merica Chubbies." Saloncom RSS. Salon Media Group, 17 Nov. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.