Ten Ways Chubbies Shorts Used Social Media Marketing to Appeal to Millennials

Fashion can be a challenging field to break into. Brands either follow trends, focus on the basics, or in rare cases they become trendsetters. Often, the trendsetters don’t even focus on the fashion itself. They focus on the marketing, social causes, or celebrity endorsements. In the 00’s, everyone wore inexpensive rubber bracelets such as Livestrong bands. They were cheap and ugly, but the social awareness erased the faux pas.

In the 00’s people also wore a lot of bulky, baggy clothes. “Who wears short shorts?” was a question asked out of mockery, not with a sense of pride. In the 10’s, the brand Chubbies Shorts sought to free the thigh and make short shorts a staple of men’s fashion. Somehow, this worked. Looking back at the development of the brand, their evolution was a result of smart marketing, a focus on a millennial audience, and strategic implementation of new products.

The Beginning of Chubbies

In 2011, no one associated the word “Chubbies” with an article of clothing. The brand didn’t exist yet, but four friends who met during their time in Stanford took their love of of odd-fashion and decided to take a chance. In September of 2011 the brand’s website launched. Their goal was to appeal to a very specific demographic: college-age males. Specifically, the fraternity crowd gravitated toward their styles and products.