Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Barnett.
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
For me it started in college, where I was a field marketing rep for the FADER Magazine/Cornerstone Agency. That experience allowed me access to real brands and labels and projects at a very young age. It was trial by fire and I learned early on that if you’re not creating things that are valuable to the client or company, they’ll quickly find somebody else.
I really cherished that opportunity and the access that the job provided me with. I was lacing DJs with new records at clubs and getting the cool poster or the sticker or the T-shirt or whatever before everyone else. Once you can hone and understand that power, you can leverage it to build very strong business relationships. Some I still have today.
After college I moved to New York City to take a full time role at Cornerstone/FADER where I got the work on some of their lifestyle and event business. From there I moved to Boulder, Colorado as a founding member of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s experiential practice “Outeractive”. After 6 years of transformative/award winning work I moved up to Boston to bring Hill Holliday similar experiential/non traditional production capabilities to the agency. After a couple of years there, I moved back to South Florida to help launch the stealth tech startup Magic Leap. From there I reconnected with some former colleagues from CP+B at Team Enterprises doing more award winning experiential work here in South Florida.
Fast forward a little to my wife and I about to have our third child. Timing felt right and we thought it made sense to jump in with my family business – DRILL AMERICA cutting tools. My current role is CCMO in which I currently oversee operations, marketing, brand, packaging and social media for Drill America, our now fourth generation “family owned and operated for over 100 years..” family business.
When Im not working on Drill America, or hanging with my family I try to spend time on my HEATsubCULTURE my passion project/brand dedication to our local sports teams and the Miami I grew up in.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
If your road isnt bumpy, you’re probably striving for mediocrity,.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m always interested in how people come up with ideas for songs, visual art, design or media that connects with audiences. A couple years ago I was listening to Jimmy Buffett’s Greatest Hits album. It’s called “Songs You Know by Heart” and my parents had it growing up around the house. It’s a really basic yellow cover with Jimmy Buffet’s name in red script. I was listening to the song “Fins” which is kind of a fun song and I was looking at the album cover which is yellow with red letters on it and was thinking, “Man, That’d be a badass shirt.”
I was able to take the idea and make it real pretty quickly thanks in large part to my production experience and the network I’ve grown through my career in advertising. I have worked Mike Del Marmol and Burnie (Alex Burnard) on various projects throughout the years and have always respected their work. They have a Studio called Sun and Sons, and I knew they’re big Heat fans as well. I texted them when I had the idea for this shirt and asked what they thought about flipping the image of the Jimmy Buffett album to read “Jimmy Butler” on a yellow shirt with a red font?
They flipped me back the design right away and was like “I think this is going to be a hit.” I had the idea at 8:30 in the morning and Mike had the file back to me 2 hours later so it all came together very quickly which is important when trying to capture a moment in real time.
” Once you had them made, how did you get them out into the world?”
I had made some t-shirts before and through that process I learned you have to give a good number away to create any kind of hype. My immediate instinct was to give them out to my buddies and to people I know would love them and the first wave of feedback was positive. Friends liked it and thought it was cool so I felt like it was a solid concept, but just like any real world marketing stunt, you don’t know what’s going to happen until you see how the public responds, or in this case, until I started to wear it out in the real world.
I knew it was a hit when I wore it to one of the Knicks games at home. I was a little early, so I went over to a sports bar to meet some friends next to the venue wearing the shirt. I was stopped by a family of like five or six. And they’re like, “Dude, that’s a Jimmy Buffett shirt that says Jimmy Butler. We all need one right now.” I told them I just made a handful of them and they told me they wanted five of them and gave me their address. Then another guy at the bar stopped me and even though he didn’t get the reference, he still liked the shirt and wanted to buy one. That’s when I started doing more on Instagram and started printing more shirts.
“You’ve managed to get your shirts worn by some influential people. How did that come about?
was watching one of the playoff games at home and I was tired and generally not feeling great. During the game, some friends had invited me over to hang out with them. I told them if The Heat won, I’d meet up for a celebratory beer and sure enough, the Heat won. So we met up at my friend Adam’s (then) new restaurant, The Schnitzel House. Billy Corben was there, South Flordia filmmaker with strong ties to the Miami sports world #BecauseMiami on Dan Lebatard network every Friday. So we made introductions, started talking, and I gave him a shirt. He told me he loved it and said he was going to wear it on the following show He later posted it on his social media and then things started speeding up. Eric Andre, who has 2.6 million followers, reposted Billy’s story of him wearing the shirt. Those things all definitely expedited the to ramp up production and promotion.
You mentioned to me that you learned some valuable lessons through the process of making and promoting these shirts. Can you dive into those because I think they have relevance beyond this story?
The first lesson is to put yourself out there. 80% of the most interesting things in life come from attendance. Just getting off your couch and going outside can result in greatthings happening. You never know who you’re going to meet when you go out, who may end up being your next business partner, your future wife, your new best friend,etc. Every time you leave the house and go out, anything can happen.
The second lesson I learned was to maintain a healthy curiosity.If you look at the world in a curious way, things will happen for you. But if you don’t care enough to meet someone, to have a conversation in person or to leave yourself open for experiences, you’ll never have them. And you’ll think the world is this lonely, closed place. It only happens if you allow it to happen.
The third lesson I learned is to leverage cultural moments when possible. Part of what made these Jimmy Butler/Jimmy Buffett shirts interesting was the timing and the cultural moment that was unfolding when I put them out. There was already momentum for the Heat because the Playoffs had begun and I was able to piggyback on the energy around Jimmy Butler’s performances all the way to the NBA Finals.
You mentioned this has been your favorite project you’ve ever worked on. What’s been the most gratifying part of the experience for you so far?
I’ve been working in marketing and creative production for most of my adult life, and I’ve been lucky to work on some fun projects with some really interesting culturally relevant clients. But at the end of the day, this HEATsubCulture brand has been far and away my favorite and the most gratifying project I’ve ever worked on, its comes from a place of pure passion and fandom.
Long story short, after making these shirts and getting a little buzz for them, I got some feedback that the man himself, Jimmy Buffett, quote ” LOVED ” the shirts. His family ended up buying a handful for their crew. So that right there was the most gratifying part, just knowing that the inspiration for this niche little shirt for a few friends reached the inspiration for it…and supported it.
I saw Jimmy Buffett when I first moved to Miami at Marine Stadium. I was in elementary school, and that “Songs You Know By Heart” record has been in my household my whole life. I made a thing because his music made an impression on me. We still play his music at the house, and to know that the guy who inspired me to create something also loved it (at a time that he was having to cancel his tour due to health issues) is still so humbling to think about. To know I was able to bring joy to this person who has given me and so many millions of others joy for so many years is so fufilling.
Like this type of satisfaction and fulfillment is something that I’ve never felt before from a project I’ve worked on and I love it. Just a feeling of pure joy and happiness.
My whole goal when I worked in advertising was to leave a little dent or scratch on culture, if I achieved that, I had done my job. That’s what kind of got me excited to go to work every day. And in this instance, not only am I influencing a culture in the moment, but the person who gave US collectively so much culture and music and things to enjoy is appreciative and also getting joy from the thing that I’m created. That’s magic.
What are your plans for the future?
I have a handful of new designs up on HEATSUBCULTURE.COM Im really excited about for this year’s squad. Ive also branched out into some Panthers and Hurricanes gear people are gravitating towards so its all a collaborative effort. I do alot of listening and communicatingn with my customers and they tend to guide new designs and help bring them to life. A few new ones to look out for will be centered around: Jamie Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic, Norm Powell, Simone Fontecchio, Bam, our mascot Burnie and Coach Spo to name a few.
Stay tuned to heatsubculture.coim and @heatsubculture on instagram for the latest
Pricing:
- Most Shirts are $30 or less on the site
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heatsubculture.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatsubculture/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Heatsubculture-61558531418025/
- Twitter: https://x.com/HEATsubCULTURE
Image Credits
Andrew Barnett, Eric Andre’
