Are you tired of sleeping on an uncomfortable pillow in your intolerable bed? There must be a better way. A new kid on the block is grabbing his bedsheets and engaging in a pillow fight. Will the feathers fly in corporate America, or will this startup be put to bed early? America’s favorite gun control activist, David Hogg, is going corporate. He is ostensibly hitting the snooze button on his anti-gun activism to launch a pillow crusade that attempts to take down Mike Lindell, the owner of MyPillow and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. The young man seems to think he possesses the business acumen to launch a successful pillow company. Is this the beginning of the Hogg Town Empire?
The Good Pillow Manifesto
On February 4, Hogg announced on Twitter that he and William LeGate, a software developer, were starting a "progressive" pillow business with the sole purpose of competing against MyPillow.
".@williamlegate and I can and will run a better business and make a better product all with more happy staff than Mike the pillow guy while creating US based Union jobs and helping people. This pillow fight is just getting started."
The March for Our Lives co-founder outlined the Good Pillow manifesto that contained several core tenets of his soon-to-be pillow kingdom. These included creating union jobs, supporting progressive causes, made in America sustainability, and a pledge not to "attempt a white supremacist overthrow" of the U.S. government.
Good Pillow's immediate goals are to sell $1 million worth of products in its first year, with a launch date of six months. Apparently, the company has "an exciting influencer network with a combined reach of over 250 million people and counting."
Is Lindell losing sleep at night? He told Axios: "Good for them.... nothing wrong with competition that does not infringe on someone's patent."
Pillow Talk
Cameron Kasky, Hogg's classmate at the Parkland high school, called it a "pillow grift." He tweeted that he was offered free shares, but rejected the proposition because "I'm not that much of a grifter." He later added that he promised so many people that the gun control activism would not transform into "a cash grab," but now he will be "applying my own clown makeup with the shame I deserve." This comes as the tragic shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas approaches its third anniversary.
It is rather rich that he has decried capitalism, yet he uses the same system's tools to earn (he hopes) a million dollars. In September 2020, he tweeted:
"The use of violence to acquire political power is deeply rooted in imperialism, capitalism and white supremacy I personally refuse to believe that the use of this same violence will ever create nonviolent systems of government that represent and support everyone."
It is unclear if he will be selling his pillows at a loss to support non-violence.
Hooray for Capitalism
The global pillow market is worth approximately $15 billion. Can Good Pillow survive, thrive, and capture a slice of this enormous pie? It is unclear if there is that much consumer demand for another pillow brand on the open market. But if Hogg and his team design a superior product, make shoppers go Hogg-wild, and turn a profit, more power to him. As Lindell noted, competition is great for everyone – both businesses and customers. In the end, this might turn into a great American story of a kid who transformed the pillow market, improved everyone’s sleep, and earned $1 million in only 12 months. Or it could metastasize into an American horror story of a kid whose dream of manufacturing the best darn pillow the market has ever seen became a nightmare. Either way, the country anticipates a better night’s sleep.
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Read more from Andrew Moran.
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