Local company cashes in on election merchandise

Election season is big business — especially for the San Mateo company selling scores of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin merchandise.

CafePress.com is an online marketplace where anyone can design their own merchandise, like shirts, hats and campaign buttons and sell them to the world. And what the world wants now — at least in America — is campaign merchandise.

Campaign sales usually represents 20 percent of CafePress’ business, but the recent Democratic and Republic national conventions have pushed that number closer to 40 percent, said Vice President of Marketing Amy Maniatis.

If America rules with its pocketbook, than maybe the number of shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, dog clothes and even thongs selling on the site offer some indication who the public supports.

"Really up till now it’s been all about Obama,” Maniatis said, adding that McCain and Palin material is skyrocketing.

Prior to last week’s announcement by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, that he chose Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential pick, the two leaders had a combined 2,300 items tagged with their names selling on the Web site. The morning immediately following the announcement, items with their names jumped to 6,000. As of yesterday morning, more than 137,000 different items for McCain and Palin were for sale, Maniatis said.

"It seems like she was the best accessory for him — in a way,” Maniatis said.

While workers across the country gather at water coolers this morning to discuss last night’s McCain speech, CafePress employees will check out the new items for sale.

For example, Palin said during her speech Wednesday night the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom is lipstick. Now there are 967 items for sale referencing pitbulls and Palin. And it doesn’t stop there. There are 1,050 Palin inspired thongs — "I [heart] caribou Barbie” is one that references her affinity for hunting.

Election sales are tracked and posted in the Web site each week. It’s too soon to see how Palin ranks in sales, but she likely pushed McCain sales up toward 40 percent, Maniatis said.

That is a big jump from the 13.8 percent he was at last week but not as much as Obama, who represented 62.5 percent of election sales. As of last week, Joe Biden was showing the biggest gain — up nearly 13 percent. Before Obama announced him as the Democratic vice presidential pick he was ranked closer to Ron Paul’s one percent, according to the Web site.

There’s no telling if presidential merchandise sales is any indication of who will become our next leader. One thing is for certain, CafePress is already a winner.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.