‘We sell out within 24 hours’: Young man, 24, makes $8.5MILLION in just 16 months after launching a range of men’s boardshorts from his living room – as he shares his clever social media strategy for success
- Melvin Chee, 24, is one of the co-founders of Australian swimwear label Eubi
- The company makes t-shirts, towels and boardshorts for men across the country
- Mr Chee said they sold over $8.5 million worth of stock, or 100,000 shorts
- They have 60,000 customers around the world including Tim Robards
Founder Melvin Chee (pictured)
Melvin Chee’s reason for creating Eubi, a men’s boardshorts brand, was to stop guys wearing ‘boring’ outfits.
The 24-year-old from Melbourne would have been hoping for some revenue but could never have anticipated that within 16 months he would have sold $8.5 million worth of the shorts to 60,000 customers around the world.
Eubi has now expanded to include T-shirts, towels and stretchy chino shorts, with plans to make another $15 million by next year.
‘We design with our customers in mind, taking into account what is trending at the moment,’ Mr Chee said, citing fabrics that have banana, watermelon and pineapple designs on them.
‘We have a Facebook private community where we actively post and ask for suggestions. They get to also vote for what they’d like to see us release whether it is design or the product.
‘Our recent release of shorts sold out within 24 hours.’
Some of their loyal customers include Simu Liu from Kim’s Convenience, Tim Robards from The Bachelor Australia, Codi Butts from MTV Australia, Steve Pennells from Channel 7 and Brock Ashby from The Voice.
Melvin Chee created Eubi (pictured), a brand which specialises in men’s swimwear shorts, because he wanted people to stop wearing ‘boring’ outfits
Their prices range from $29.95 for swim shorts to $64.95 for chinos and they regularly have sales to promote the business
Their prices range from $29.95 for swim shorts to $64.95 for chinos and they regularly have sales to promote the business.
‘If we were told 16 months ago that our brand will be where we are today, I wouldn’t have believed it,’ Mr Chee said.
‘But as fast as we grew, we experienced many bumps in the road that sometimes felt like a dead end.
‘We’ve faced issues with fulfilment, logistics, products, you name it. We sometimes found ourselves fulfilling orders up until 6am in the morning from our living room as we did not have enough funds to engage with a fulfilment centre in our first year.
Because the brand grew so quickly in a short amount of time the group of founders find themselves ‘working harder to achieve more’
‘Many times we wanted to throw in the towel and give up but our belief in our brand kept us going during the hardest of times,’ he said
‘Fast forward to today and we currently have two central warehouses in the United States and Australia.’
Because the brand grew so quickly in a short amount of time the founders find themselves ‘working harder to achieve more’.
‘Many times we wanted to throw in the towel and give up but our belief in our brand kept us going during the hardest of times,’ he said.
At present their marketing team is in contact with more than 5,000 influencers, who are helping build revenue for the business.
‘As an online brand, we’ve also been capitalising on the scalability of online ads to scale our brands now to over 75 countries worldwide,’ he said.
They sell their shorts on The Iconic marketplace to those wanting their deliveries within the day.
You can find the brand at their website or Instagram page.