Dad Gang Co., a hat brand that has sold more than 250,000 hats in just two years, started with a simple idea among friends. Co-founders Bart Szaniewski, Grant Eastey, and Ejay O’Donnell noticed a gap in the market for cool, wearable products that celebrated fatherhood without resorting to cheesy jokes or slogans.
“You get lawn mowing jokes, you get New Balance sneakers, you get just goofy stuff,” Bart says. “We wanted to find a product that was simple, but was very high quality. And that meant something.” He explains he was looking for something to wear more regularly that represented his life of being a dad.
The term “dad gang” originated in the friends’ group chat as a way to signal when parenting duties called. This inside joke evolved into a brand that resonates with fathers everywhere, offering them a way to proudly display their role without resorting to clichés. Ahead are some of the strategies Dad Gang Co. used over the past two years to grow and scale.
Building a community-driven brand
Dad Gang’s success stems from its ability to create a genuine community around its products. One example is in its design. Every hat has “IYKYK”—short for “If you know, you know”—stitched onto the side. “It’s like that little nod. …'I know what you’re going through,'” Ejay says.
Dad Gang also started a Facebook group for VIPs, where the brand’s most ardent fans could join to chat about fatherhood and Dad Gang’s products. It was like the founders’ group chat, but shared with a larger community.
Scaling fulfillment
For a brand that started as a small side project, the founders had to be scrappy. They started with just $750 in an initial investment to purchase the first round of 100 hats, and sold out in three days. Then they put in a bigger order, and it sold out in a week. It was clear they were on to something.
The challenge, though, was fulfilling orders from their homes before partnering with a third-party logistics provider (3PL). EJ turned his house into a fulfillment space for a few months—just in time for the fledgling company’s first Black Friday rush. “EJ was doing [fulfillment] during a crazy period of where we were getting, like, 800 orders a day,” Bart says. He was balancing not only fulfillment, but also a full-time job and his responsibilities as a dad.
After that first holiday season, Dad Gang Co. found a 3PL to help the growing business with fulfillment.
Collaborating with athletes
Grant explains that partnerships with celebrity dads have come about organically. In fact, the founders usually find out about athletes wearing their hats the same way everyone else does: watching TV or seeing it on social media.
Buddy sends me video.
— Bart (@TheSzef) July 26, 2024
🤣 pic.twitter.com/jKczKrynrz
Dad Gang has partnered with high-profile athletes like baseball player Mookie Betts, using these collaborations to show how celebrities embrace fatherhood.
Staying true to friendship—and community
Dad Gang has now sold more than 250,000 hats and counting, but the brand remains focused on its core community of everyday dads. “We want to be known as Dad Gang, a hat company for the most part, but the community is much bigger than anything," says Bart.
The team continues to listen to their customers, developing new products like flat-bill hats, new colorways, and bucket hats based on community feedback.
As Dad Gang looks to the future, it remains committed to its original vision: creating high-quality, affordable products that allow fathers to proudly display their role while building a supportive community.
“We don’t have any scale-to-the-moon goals,” Bart concludes. “We just want to keep building a fun brand together as three best friends and keep that kind of rhythm going.”
To learn more about Dad Gang Co. and how its founders grew their community online, listen to the full interview on Shopify Masters.
