So, if you check out the splash page for Johnny Cupcakes, and keep refreshing, you can see sneak peeks at upcoming holiday releases. What do you think? I’m not too stoked on them – the handbag is gonna be bonkers, and looks well done, and the navy shirt with the pig about to eat a cupcake looks nice, but other than that…I’m just not feeling it.
I generally like Johnny Cupcakes, and I came up inspired by the dude, but sometimes…I’m not here to talk raw on anybody that I respect, but I was curious what y’all thought about these, and his work lately.
Who’s talking?
clothmoth
kyleisez
scottbot
Terror
jimmyheartcore
Time Without the E
seibei
Randomentity
chrisrushing
DCAY
jared
scapyyy
geoff
thewebguy
dobi
thebutcher
mission_alphaville
johnnyminardi
labyrinth
printbrigade
raquin
chech95
sockmonkee
Reilly
bblake
heroes
Mr.Stan Geek 
beth
LuckyStripes
LitoQ
Tender Branson
i came from nothing
Danimal!
skull with hair
Nefarious
48 Comments
clothmoth said about 1 year ago
The handbag is so great I’m thinking about going tranny just so I can carry one :-)
I’m mixed on the shirts on the splash page. The oven one with the cupcake on its tongue is not too bad, but I probably wouldn’t spring 40 bucks for any of these designs.
It’s hard to top some of his earlier shirts, though. It must be limiting to always have to be bound to the cupcake in your designs. . .
kyleisez said about 1 year ago
its pretty aweful
scottbot said about 1 year ago
I know what ya guys mean. The bag’s pattern is pretty fun. Reminds me of some of the patterns Dan Funderburgh has done. I’m diggin the huge cupcake with the kid on a sled going down it.
I wish his prices were lower…
Terror said about 1 year ago
i like his halloween stuff better, he really went all out for a holiday that been so played down lately. Theres nothing really awesome about christmas anyway. He’s just been spitting out tee shirts, i mean his inventory has tripled over the last few months.
jimmyheartcore said about 1 year ago
Do you mean aweful: possesses an archaic capacity to inspire?
Or did you mean awful: very bad or unpleasant?
Knowing you, I vote the latter! Haha
kyleisez said about 1 year ago
its bad stupid, retarded, it used to be funny, but now its just like disney. I hate it
Time Without the E said about 1 year ago
well hes lucky and has a ninche and can easily walk down the street and see and sign and make a stop sign into a cupcake and put it on a shirt. Personally i love the idea and its nice knowing he actually worked his tail off for 7 years before he started doing really well. Unlike a certain band cough panic! cough
Terror said about 1 year ago
scottbot said: I wish his prices were lower…
i wish i didnt have to sell my soul to get the air johnny crew neck..
seibei said about 1 year ago
I think the Air Johnny was overhyped – he had a preview of it up for months before it was released, which was a little much for a pretty basic logo flip with a few different colorways. I like it well enough, but it was too much build-up.
jimmyheartcore said about 1 year ago
+1
scottbot said about 1 year ago
dude i want that crew neck. i love crew necks. i agree with seibei and jimmy
Randomentity said about 1 year ago
so not a fan of it. not my style at all.
chrisrushing said about 1 year ago
i’ve never been into his stuff, thats just me… but that bag does look pretty fresh.
DCAY said about 1 year ago
I don’t understand why people are obsessed with this company. I think he’s an interesting success story, and I think some of his original shirts were great at the time, but I don’t care for the recent stuff either.
jared said about 1 year ago
that’s one good lookin’ site. loooove the store script :-x
Terror said about 1 year ago
when JC wasnt huge i used to compare them to rockett alot..
those were the two sites i would go back and forth saying
“maybe i’ll win the lottery”
Rockett-3 shirts
JC-0
scapyyy said about 1 year ago
ethan how can you compare rockett to JC? i mean JC has some cool stuff but i mean its a tiny little logo with some vectorized art. I mean dont get me wrong Johnny Cupcakes has some tight stuff, i own a couple shirts as well, but like rockett, there stuff is so tight, and how there shirts are made really well. I guess maybe im just a big fan on the over sized prints and the horror themed artwork…?
geoff said about 1 year ago
I think he was referring more to the prices.
Terror said about 1 year ago
yeah, i like em both, but i was talking about the prices, and how they pretty much sponsor the same bands and are a part of the same scene.
thewebguy said about 1 year ago
with the number of designs he puts out every year, not everyone is going to like them all.
also, I hope that if anyone else here thought they could charge anywhere near as much as he does for shirts, that they would (looking at you rob). for some its a hobby, for others its a business. “Shakespeare got to get paid too, son”
dobi said about 1 year ago
suck it! the way it see it, this is a business, but at the same time i gotta know my audience (which is primarily teens / college kids) several of my customers buy 3 or 4 shirts at a time since i keep prices low (hell, some buy 10 at a time)
it ain’t like my shirts are limited edition runs (which is why johnny can manage to do that sorta stuff) i have a feeling if i raised my prices tons of kids would turn their back instantly
at 26 and making a pretty good income, i still buy my blank tees from old navy most of the time for 3$. no way i’d pay 35-50$ for a tee even though i’m doing pretty well for myself.
dobi said about 1 year ago
ps. come over and play ladder matches on n64 again.
jared said about 1 year ago
couldn’t you compare it to design prices? at some point, you raised your prices because what you offered became more valuable. i’m sure you’ve lost design work beacuse you charge more than you used to, but it makes more sense that it worked out that way.
i understand keeping shirt costs low and why you want to do it, but as you said, it’s a business, and if you lose 10% of your item sales, couldn’t you raise the cost of shirts 25% and make up for it without a problem?
the idea of “giving up customers” is always the biggest reason to play it safe (to me, anyways- and it looks like a main reason for you, too), but taking the leap and raising prices seems like it would help a clothing line grow (in this example anyways). not to mention, people have a voice in the back of their head that says “this shirt is expense, so it must be good” AND you could always bring them back down is things slow down.
don’t get me wrong, working with Merchspin, I wear blank tees all the time, and feel retarded paying more than $10 for any t-shirt.
i think that even if JC were to continually reprint shirts, instead of enforcing limited runs, kids would continue to pay as much as they are paying now- similarly, full bleed has that power, too.
i’m just playing devil’s advocate, kind of.
thebutcher said about 1 year ago
it’s cheaper to keep customers than find new ones.
mission_alphaville said about 1 year ago
it’s just the fact that in this business (and with that I mean graphic design) every customer wants it cheaper, and when it’s cheaper they just ask you to work at even lower price rates, and hell, if you don’t do it, some kid with photoshop and an internet tutorial will do it for an even lower price rate.
I find it normal that Rob would charge more if his name becomes more famous, who wouldn’t? Ever thought of what he did to get his name out there? It’s not just doing a job and become the famous guy that everyone wants in a snap. It’s hard work, daytime, night, being underpaid, and some pretty stupid critics from time to time or even stuff that’s hard to swallow.
Simply, if you haven’t got your name out there, you’ll work for shit, or even less. So it’s nothing more than normal that you charge more when things get big, I mean, I consider it as paying for the last 5 years this designer invested a shitload of money into everything. And after all, you wear a cool shirt, have a cool design, but do you ever think of the fact that some people need to make a living out of your ‘could you do it cheaper?’
*and I’m sorry if my spelling isn’t correct but hey, foreign language?
johnnyminardi said about 1 year ago
I definitely think the new holiday stuff fits right in with his others. I’m glad he’s using more dark color shirts with ink colors that compliament the happy holiday feeling. Good shit as usually from JC.
labyrinth said about 1 year ago
personally i dont like johnny cupcakes at all.
theres a store here in boston… im not a fan of it haha.
printbrigade said about 1 year ago
I’m not a huge Johnny Cupcakes fan, although I have to say the non-traditional store layout and interior design here in Boston is definitely very cool.
raquin said 3 months ago
I have 15 Johnny Cupcakes designs. This man can do no wrong in my eyes.
chech95 said 3 months ago
OK, here is my take on Johnny Cupcakes. We all know that he was originally in a hardcore band called "On Broken Wings". And anyone remotely familiar with the hardcore music scene knows that 99% of hardcore bands will copy well known logos/designs and rework them to fit their band name. Johnny Cupcakes does exactly this with his clothing company. We see it almost all of his early releases, Air Johnny, the joker/batman tees, and correct me if I’m wrong but the cupcake logo with the fork in it design is from a pizza hut commercial. I mean shit, he inspired me want to start a company, and he did work hard to get where he is no doubt. People just need to realize that, OK, this is just some dude with a t-shirt company that takes designs and puts a cupcake in them, he is not a brilliant fashion designer by any standard. But putting a cupcake and logo in all his designs has made it easy for him to brand his product and make people believe that his shirts are "designer". I mean I bought a Johnny Cupcakes shirt recently, it wasn’t the first and problem won’t be the last, but I take it what it is.
sockmonkee said 3 months ago
....? that was kinda pointless
Reilly said 3 months ago
Opinions... yano?
sockmonkee said 3 months ago
true this, carry on.
raquin said 3 months ago
I don’t think Johnny wants to make people think anything. I think he likes designing shirts and making people happy. With bringing people joy of course joy comes back to you tenfold... Or at least that’s my opinion on the situation.
bblake said 3 months ago
I like the logo, but Im not into the clothes
heroes said 3 months ago
i could be wrong but isnt alot of the design outsourced ?
as hes a busy bee nowadays
Mr.Stan Geek said 3 months ago
He wrote this on emptees
"Since I juggle a little bit of everything in my brand & have borderline A.D.D. - I almost always send out my doodles, drawings, and/or concepts & ideas to my adobe illustrator mastermind(s)."
So yes he has designers
beth said 3 months ago
Some good ol' kids bought me the handbag last year for xmas....it made my holiday!
LuckyStripes said 3 months ago
I like to think of JC and his pricing values as a business model that shows that his 'brand' name’s strength. It is the same as Apple:
Do you notice that Apple RARELY if ever, runs a sale? If you want a new Macbook, thats the price you pay. Same for iPod, or any other of their products. It has become a standard for the Apple customer to purchase a product and not be concerned as to if the money they are spending could be lessened by another retailer or catching a sale.
I notice JC has worked into this same bracket. He rarely if at all runs a sale.
And let’s be honest, we (the emptees community) is supposed to be professional/hobby designers commuting together out of love for this industry. I am confident that the majority of us that have been doing this for a while have a very deep understanding of the t-shirt, screen printing, and design industry.
In other words, we know the difference in value between an American Apparel blank for $15 and a one color front chest print with a cupcake and crossbone logo for $35.
I may be ranting, I just wish this community would see that they are smarter and more informed in this category than the casual JC or any clothing company fanboy/fangirl. As the way it is supposed to be in any business. If it wasn’t for this idea we would not have the opportunity to make any income from what we do.
If everybody could draw in Illustrator = No Jobs.
If everybody has the guise and balls to make their own tee designs = No Jobs.
If everybody understood $35 for a one color center chest print is absolutely out of this world overpriced = No JC success.
If anybody read this entire post = Way too much time on their hands.
LitoQ said 3 months ago
= way too much time on my hands (apparently)
Tender Branson said 3 months ago
i came from nothing said 3 months ago
no hate but, no like or care...
LuckyStripes said 3 months ago
Haha - I just felt like I was ranting on..
Danimal! said 3 months ago
he just hired clark orr as his full time designer i believe.
beth said 3 months ago
Dude this kid is starting to annoy me with his JC idol... You would think he thinks of him as the real JC! We get it you LOOOVE Johnny Cupcakes...I LOVE cupcakes (the real ones that make your tummy feel good) but I dont rant on and on about it till my teeth fall out. I just go to yummy cupcakes once a week and buy a cupcake. I dont write blogs about it!
skull with hair said 3 months ago
the creepiest part is that he is apparently 28 years old. i might expect this from a 15 year old.
beth said 3 months ago
Holy Jesus! Yea...when I was 15 I had a crush on Lance Bass and I would have camped out to meet him and have his babies....I grew up...and he came out. My life of being a fan ended that day.
Nefarious said 3 months ago
never liked johnny cupcakes too much but i definitely admire what he does and what hes made of himself