"When Whit Hiler launched the Web site for his new clothing line, Attus Apparel, with co-owner Jered Garrison back in March of this year, traffic to the Lexington based site was sluggish, and when there was interest, it wasn't being translated into sales.
Recognizing the current hysteria for distressed-looking threads, where big bucks are shelled out for new clothing that already looks frayed, tattered, faded or torn — anything but new — when it comes off the shelf, Hiler knew he had to do something with a little bang. About 12 gauges worth, to be precise.
Hiler and some friends, lured with the promise of free beer and armed with video and photography equipment, a few Attus Apparel shirts, and shotguns, .357 Magnums and 45s, toted some discarded mannequins to a rural farm and pumped the shirts full of lead. The limited-edition, pulverized shirts, dubbed Shot-Up Shirts, were put up for sale, the pictures were added to the gallery section of the Web site, www.AttusApparel.com, and the one-minute video was conveniently posted on YouTube, an immensely popular, Web-based video sharing site. Mark Attus Apparel up as another success story for viral marketing.
"It just started getting a lot of attention out there with blogs, fashion blogs and people writing about it. It just blew up," Hiler said. "It got in The New York Times and all sorts of other stuff."
Attus Apparel was also featured on the men's general interest site AskMen.com, which has nearly 5 million readers a month, and was prominently displayed in a Sunday insert in Australia's largest newspaper. The Shot-Up Shirts, their most expensive item priced at $100 each, sold out, but they had the opportunity to show the world the other wares available, of which over 1,000 units were sold during the month of July.
"I haven't spent any money on advertising," Hiler said. "It's just been through press."
Taking cues from other polo shirts, where each brand is distinctively, if not crucially, adorned with a marketing logo on the chest (an eagle for American Eagle, an alligator for Lacoste, a polo player for Polo), Attus Apparel fashioned its own stylistic logos for its shirts.
"A lot of them have those little animals on them, and just about everybody wears those [styles of] shirts. It's a status symbol for some," Hiler said. "It's kind of an advertising tool for those companies that make them, so we just wanted to do something that was more expressive, something that expresses a person's interests or activities that they like, or maybe a mood."
A mood like The Jerk, which comes with the logo of a middle finger fully extended in a midnight blue tread on a baby blue fabric, or an activity like The 40, which comes with the small emblem of a 40-ounce malt liquor bottle available in an olive thread on a China white shirt (the company's best seller). And if you're a little too consumed by that activity, your interest might be with The Hangover, which features the porcelain throne in a white thread on a tomato red shirt. Other styles include The Hesher, a tribute to '80s hair bands; The Sid, a mohawked profile; and The Shredder, a lone snowboarder.
The snowboarder hearkens to Garrison's daytime gig in Seattle as a graphic designer for clothing and equipment illustrations for different snowboarding companies; he comes up with the unique logos. Hiler handles the business aspect of the company from Lexington, working with a manufacturer in Peru on design specs, sizing, color combinations and orders. The company has done so well that Hiler has made working with Attus Apparel his full-time job.
But he knows that the success of the company is threaded with its ability to stay brashly unique. In the last week of August, Hiler attended the Magic Clothing Convention to meet with potential retailers, and the needles are at work on new logos, which include a stripper pole and an AK-47 on a camouflaged pattern. And in the spirit of the absurdity that first garnered the clothing line worldwide attention, Hiler has been going to Florida trying to work out a new limited edition line that's more sensational than the Shot-Up Shirts, and it involves some chum and sharks.
"The fashion business is freaking tough, especially if you've never been in it before," Hiler said. "I was in the car business, which is really competitive with big-ticket items, and sometimes you have to use theatrics to get people to your lot. So I guess we kind of used that style with what we've done with Attus — the videos, the different photos. We've taken that attitude and said: 'Who cares? Let's have fun with it. Brand it as a bunch of dudes who really don't care what other people think.'"
Sizes are available in small, medium, large and extra-large.
Robbie Clark is the editor of Business Lexington's sister publication, W Weekly, a free magazine available in racks throughout the city.