It was winter break of the 2004-2005 school year. While most college students were enjoying their five weeks of vacation, Micha Weinblatt and childhood friend, Jon Mervis, were trying to come up with something, anything¸ “to avoid entering the real world,” according to Weinblatt. They decided to create a t-shirt company, which they later named Crooked Monkey.
After netting $3,000 in profits from selling 500 of their infamous “Fu*k Duke” shirts within three days in March 2005, Weinblatt and Mervis raised enough initial capital to get their business off the ground. With an official launch party in May 2005 at Cornerstone, the company was official. Weinblatt bought out Mervis’s portion of the business in 2006, as Mervis pursued business school.
Running the business from Weinblatt’s parents{ basement, the company grew quickly. With humorous shirts that target the college market, such as, “I’m not a gardener, I just like hos”and “Break dance, not hearts,” the company reached $700,000 of revenue in its fourth year, 2009. It was not an easy journey though. According to Weinblatt, the first couple years involved a lot of cold calling to stores, making trips to New York and Los Angeles to talk to companies and essentially “bending over backwards for customers.”
However, after getting the Crooked Monkey line into Lord and Taylor department stores in March 2006, the hard work began paying off. This was the first major turning point for the company, according to Weinblatt. Six months later, Crooked Monkey was featured in GQ magazine and the buzz began to grow. Currently, Crooked Monkey is sold in over 550 retailers including Nordstrom’s and Urban Outfitters, and in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Saudi Arabia.
The company is experiencing 10-15% year-over-year growth and Weinblatt’s goal is to continue with the sustainable growth. After initially starting with only humorous shirts, Crooked Monkey launched a graphic arts department to expand their customer base. A kid’s line was launched a year and a half ago and a higher-end line, called Blueprint, will be launching soon.
Weinblatt says to be a successful entrepreneur; you have to be determined and creative. He discussed that at the beginning, you will have to do everything yourself such as the bookkeeping, the marketing, and more. “It’s not easy, you got to stick through it and think long-term,” said Weinblatt. He went on to say that problems will come up but “if you keep on track with your goals and business plans, you’ll get [success].” And success is something Weinblatt is very familiar with.