Who doesn’t love a success story, especially when it involves a young couple in love who pivoted during the pandemic to empower others! PromoHomo.TV Producer/Host Nicholas Snow is thrilled to welcome Jesus Gutierrez and Sergio Aragon, founders of GayPrideApparel.com.

Childhood best friends turned power couple Jesus Gutierrez and Sergio Aragon were working full time – Jesus in merchandising at Cole Haan and Sergio in digital commerce at Tiffany & Co. – when they noticed that LGBTQ+-focused merchandise was being released only seasonally, particularly during Pride Month, rather than year-round.

In 2019, they launched an online store called Gay Pride Apparel selling LGBTQ+-themed t-shirts as a side gig while still keeping their jobs. Gradually, with print-on demand company Printful handling printing, warehousing and fulfillment, they expanded into other apparel and accessories like phone cases and tote bags with specific merch for customers identifying as asexual, bisexual, gay, intersex, lesbian, non-binary, queer, pansexual and trans. First-year revenue was only in the low five figures. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, both quit their jobs to dedicate full-time to the business, and everything changed.

In the first eight months of 2020, sales hit the mid-six-figure mark and monthly site visits grew to more than 100,000 – in part because Gutierrez and Aragon focused on establishing Gay Pride Apparel as an authentic voice for both the LGBTQ+ and Black Pride communities through shareable social media content that was widely reposted and a policy of giving back for every order they receive. The effort included shifting their messaging from Pride to One Community One Pride to promote acceptance and equality, adding collections with statements like “All Black Lives Matter,” “Unity” and “1969” commemorating the Stonewall riots to those proclaiming “Sounds Gay I’m In,” “Femme Queen” and “Thank You for Being Queer.”

PromoHomo.TV congratulates this inspiring couple!

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