Commentary March 26, 2025
Bluesky’s Viral T-Shirt Mocking Mark Zuckerberg Embodies Moment Merch Success
The social media platform’s CEO wore a shirt on stage at South by Southwest mocking a shirt that Meta CEO Zuckerberg wore to hype himself. Fans (or haters) wanted in on the Bluesky action.
Key Takeaways
• The Start: Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wore a T-shirt mocking Mark Zuckerberg at South by Southwest in reaction to a perceived hubris-heavy shirt the Facebook leader had donned.
• Viral Moment Merch: Graber’s shirt became a sensation; fans bought batches worth, surpassing the company’s custom domain revenue in one day.
• Capitalizing on Trends: Bluesky’s success with the T-shirt sales demonstrates the potential effectiveness of turning viral moments into revenue-generating merch.
Mark Zuckerberg is really feeling himself right now. The aging wunderkind behind Facebook – now Meta – has positioned himself not only as one of the technology industry’s biggest players but, by extension, an influential personality in government and society. At least that’s how he seems to see it, donning a T-shirt in a recent public appearance that said “Aut Zuck aut nihil,” inserting himself into the Latin phrase “Aut Caesar aut nihil” – “Either Caesar or nothing.”
That hubris has ruffled a few feathers.
Bluesky, a new social media platform that looks a bit like pre-Musk Twitter (back when it was called Twitter instead of X) is a natural competitor of Musk and Zuckerberg. So, when Bluesky CEO Jay Graber wore a T-shirt poking fun at Zuckerberg’s oversized ego (and matching oversized T-shirt) at South by Southwest – “Mundus sine caesaribus,” which translates to “a world without Caesars” – people were all too eager to get one of their own. It turned out to be a huge moneymaker for the fledgling social media company.
Ever thought a T-shirt could stir discussions about online control? That's exactly what happened with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber's recent choice of attire. Find out why everyone is buzzing! Read more: #TechTalk #OnlineControl #Fashion #Bluesky #JayGraber pic.twitter.com/1NsYXbKNnR
— VibesDigest (@VibesDigest) March 14, 2025
As social media twittered on about Graber’s statement shirt, Bluesky announced that it would sell the shirt for $40. The first print sold out almost immediately. The second print, which the company said would be available for a week, ending March 25, also sold out almost immediately. According to Fortune, Bluesky made more from the T-shirt sales in one day than it has in two years of selling custom domains. Though, as Fortune pointed out, Bluesky hasn’t pushed the custom domains too hard or made it a central part of its business.
The proceeds from the shirt sales will reportedly benefit the AT Protocol open network development system that Bluesky is built upon.
That’s it. Pivoting to a tshirt company… had more money coming in today than we did the last two years selling custom domains
— Rose 🌹 (@rose.bsky.team) March 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
No doubt Bluesky had a fun time dunking on Zuckerberg and the Goliath that is Facebook, but the real lesson here for print and promotional products pros is that the company took hold of a viral moment and capitalized on it by selling cleverly messaged printed apparel. The shirt that Graber wore wasn’t trademarked, so anyone can sell it. Right now, there are plenty of copycat designs on Etsy.
But what Bluesky did well was announce that you could buy it right from the “source,” and that it would in turn benefit the platform itself.
The design was simple, and didn’t even include any logos, which allowed it to focus on the messaging instead. Nonetheless, people knew what it stood for, and in that moment, it was Bluesky. That not only created a lasting branding impression, but a good bit of revenue for the business on something relatively simple.
Given growing capabilities of print-on-demand and quick turns, distributors and decorators can potentially help their clients do the same.