Boxed In - nostalgic hot-rod themed merchandise success

Brandweek, June 8, 1998 by Becky Ebenkamp

Big Daddy Roth's designs find a new fan base A book is only as good as its cover. It's an old adage that every packaged goods company has taken to heart, but one very few apparel marketers ever have reason to consider, or heed. The exception would be House Industries, a design house-turned-shirt manufacturer that specializes in a package that's as much a selling point as what's inside.

When Brand Design Co. opened a few years ago, owners Rich Roat and Andy Cruz had a tough time distinguishing their firm from others in the field. To draw attention, they came up with the idea of selling a 'product" to help advertise the company's services. They created House Industries as a division to design for BDC, and in essence, became their own client. Cruz had long been a fan of '60s custom hot rod designer and artist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a hobby that inspired House to license the Big Daddy name for the Rat Fink font collection, named for Roth's hairy, fly-infested mascot. Derived from the hand-lettering Big Daddy used on his show car displays, T-shirts and model boxes, the line of custom typefaces were packaged in a dead ringer for Revell's plastic model kits of Roth cars sold in the '60s, popular items on the collector circuit. Completing the font kit were hot rod icons like flames and flying eyeballs and a Rat Fink T-shirt. But what was intended as a trade tool quickly gained attention beyond graphic design professionals, among the legions of Roth fans who weren't likely to shell out $150 for fonts they had no use for. "We found there were a number of people who just wanted to buy the T-shirts," Cruz said. Thus, a cottage industry was born. Soon, the company introduced two lines of packaged shirts bearing Roth's designs: Monster T-shirts featuring creatures such as Mr. Gasser and Chevy Man, and the Showcar series, with the Beatnik Bandit, Mysterion and other famous dragsters. Among the zillion retro licenses on the market, House's strong suit is an unflinching attention to detail-the heart of a true fan combined with the eye of a designer, the stuff it takes to painstakingly recreate something that can make fans' eyes bug out of their head just like Rat Fink's. "A lot of people improve' and streamline [historical icons] for the '90s and ruin them," Roat said. "They take it out of context. We wanted to put this next to an old Revell model and not be able to tell the difference." Matching original package colors was a challenge, as was finding the proper weight of cardboard-modern technology fought against creating a package that looked properly dated. "They've come up with more efficient ways, it's now cheaper, they use a lighter hoard" Roat said. "It's pretty hard to get crummy printing these days." Naturally, the same care went into designs on the shirts. Paying that little extra for "crummy" boils down to a heavier price tag: Wholesale goes for around $12, retail hovers in the $20-25 realm. "Some [retailers] have approached us to sell the shirts without the box," Roat said. "But the packaging makes the product." The relatively small but hardcore fan base doesn't mind investing a little extra to ensure these details are correct. The Big Daddy lines have found a two-tiered market in the auto enthusiasts who read Petersen publications like Hot Rod, and in low-brow art circles, a movement that centers around accessible art that encompasses anything from black velvet to hot rod inspired paintings by Roth and Robert Williams, from last year's punk concert posters to big, teary-eyed Keane paintings of the '60s. "We get the hipsters out front," Roat said. "But it's also nostalgia for some. We rely on the motorheads. They call us up and want to gush about their old car and how they ran with Roth." House relies heavily on mail order too, but retailers like Urban Outfitters and punk shoe chain NaNa have picked up on the packaging's appeal. By far, the most lucrative channel has been the Japanese collector market, which can't get enough of American pop culture. Of last year's crop of shirts, 75% were sold overseas, and at a recent trade show Japanese retail buyers five to 10 deep clamored to place orders at a booth showing the shirts. On the success of the Roth line, House Industries expanded its offerings of T-shirts, fonts and other products, with a common denominator of cool, clever packaging. The best include a line of "Tiki Tees" housed in a canister that resembles a Polynesian tiki mug and ''Krazy' Striped Ts," a series based around auto pinstriping and packed in one-quart paint cans. Don't expect to see House going license crazy. It's been fun and all, but it's time to get back to the company's main purpose-creating original designs. 'We've turned into such a licensed culture," Cruz said. "It's safe, but being the 'artistes' we are, we want to create our own stuff, like the tiki line. I think we're going to try to avoid licensing in the future."