The PopLyfe is about bringing the identity of fatherhood to life, and creating designs dads are proud to wear.
This is the story of The PopLyfe Shop, a collection of t shirts and Fathers Day gift ideas that I created in 2013 to tell the Story of Fatherhood, Proud Dads and Dedicated Fathers.
My call to action for dads everywhere:
Wear Fatherhood with Pride!
What started as an entrepreneurial experiment and outlet for my passion quickly grew into much more than just selling shirts.
In fact, it never really was about selling shirts. The PopLyfe has always been about promoting Pride in Fatherhood and Celebrating Dads.
As a designer by profession, I was looking for another creative outlet. Once I settled on tshirts as the vehicle, I searched out themes that I could build on in an expressive way, a theme that would not only resonate with my own passion in the design, but resonate with other people’s passion as well. I kept recalling the advice I’ve heard from successful entrepreneurs hundreds of times: “Build your business around something you’re passionate about”. Well, I can tell you, if there is one thing that’s true about me, I’m passionate about being a father.
There were no products telling fatherhood stories in a fun way and I thought, “There’s an opportunity to provide Proud Dads with great tshirt designs that aren’t corny.”
Frankly, alot of the shirts I was seeing aimed towards “gifts for dads” were boring and corny. They were either rehashes of the same 4 or 5 phrases or they were “World’s Greatest Farter – I Mean Father” (Seriously, who buys that for their dad? And who wears that??) There were no products telling fatherhood stories in a fun way. I wanted to create designs that would speak to dads and their commitment to being proud, involved fathers. The PopLyfe was a project rooted in my passion for design. It’s was about bringing an identity to life, and making better versions of the products I wanted to own and wear.
I created over 150 designs with multiple styles and variations for each.
Men see fatherhood differently than previous generations.
The PopLyfe Shop was a part of that shift.
The PopLyfe is a Brand that Celebrates Dads primarily and secondarily provided engaging, parenting focused content. Over the past 10 years The PopLyfe Shop experienced viral success with several designs, and developed a loyal following of fans that continue to help promote a shift in how how society views the role of fatherhood.
I am really proud to say that although the journey of The PopLyfe as a shop and a product is done, the mission of the brand lives on through the community of involved parents I connected with throughout this journey. I was deeply passionate about building an awesome brand made just for dads. We sold thousands of products over the years and had fans across the globe, and we heard nothing but positive feedback about our message and our brand. So I’d say the mission was a success.
Thank you all for joining me on this ride!
