Still in Boston, but now traipsing through the trendy boutiques of Newbury Street. Still stuffed from the Tremont 647 brunch (see yesterday’s post), but this bakery made me an offer I couldn’t refuse:
By the way, pardon the pun, but the icing on the cake was the third window sign which read: Zero Sugar (never mind the heavenly fumes wafting from within the place).
So, I climbed the stairs, justifying the unnecessary snack with visions of additional sessions in the gym, and found this:
Can there be any more blatant Pow!? Despite the bakery display cases, the bake sheets, mixing machines and wide-handled boxes, the only cupcakes for sale here were on the t-shirts and accessories created by their eponymous designer.
Even more impressive than this supreme Pow! Moment was the story behind it. Full details can be found on the Johnny Cupcakes eye-cradling website, but here is a guy who eschewed mass merchandising and built a multi-million-dollar business selling clothes to a hip and exclusive few…which had led him to being labeled a “branding genius,” and a hot property on the college lecture circuit (no fool is Mr. Cupcakes; his lecture tour is akin to a band’s, where he rakes in bushels of bucks by selling merch directly to his audience).
So instead of a tasty but gratuitous two-or-three-buck nibble, I instead picked up a stylin’-but-superfluous $35 t-shirt. You do the math.
And as a bonus, it added loads to my street cred account with the younger and hipper members of my staff back at the office as apparently, Johnny Cupcakes is quite the benefactor and supporter of the extreme edges of the indie music scene, providing merch and other help to bands like A Day To Remember.
Sweet...
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And speaking of cupcakes, check this out. Passed along to me by my son Aidan, from the blog of much-admired author and personal fave Daniel Pink, comes this story of ethereal, edible art. The picture below is just the start; Dan's great blog will tell you the rest.
Wonder who's doing the t-shirts?
