NicheGeek:
For 3 years, a Bush-hating Vermont pipe carver has built a million-dollar business around the digits ‘01.20.09.’
On Jan. 20, 2009 - one year from today - Elliot Nachwalter and his company, ‘Bush’s Last Day,’ will have to find new inspiration.
That’s the day President George W. Bush leaves the White House.
‘I have a couple little products lined up. Both of them have nothing to do with politics,’ Nachwalter said. ‘I’d like to think this time we won’t have to do another end-of-term button.’
First doodled on a dining room table, then slapped onto lapel buttons, ‘01.20.09′ has become wildly popular.
‘It was like a bulb, a light went off,’ said Nachwalter, who drew it in a fit of pique prompted by Bush’s refusal to sign a piece of environmental legislation. ‘I started giving them out to my friends and anybody who thought it was interesting, and I couldn’t have enough of them. I said ‘Maybe I should think about selling them.”
Now, more than 600 businesses across the country sell the T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers and other products that proclaim ‘01.20.09,’ some with the subtext ‘Bush’s Last Day‘ and ‘Earth, Water, Air.‘ The Internet has spread the message - and the products - globally.
‘The Web site became like a cult thing. Everybody would send it to their mailing list and things started to grow pretty rapidly,’ Nachwalter said. Read full article.
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