FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TWIN TEENS CREATE AN ENTREPRENEURIAL “WAVE”
Local 14-year-old twins have established a business gaining popularity nationwide
BOSTON, MA- Aug 11, 2014 – Most teenagers dream of driving and owning their own vehicle one day. For Peter and Alex Ackerman, 14-year-old twins from Boston, MA, a vehicle actually inspired them to dream up their own business. Excited by the close camaraderie of the Jeep® community, the brothers created JeepWaveFan.com, an online store that offers merchandise featuring a logo of their own design. The store and its products are quickly gaining attention nationwide.
Jeep Wave Fan provides a logo for the time-honored tradition of Jeep® owners, known as the “Jeep® wave.” Traditionally, when one Jeep® Wrangler owner encounters another, it is customary for the two to share a wave in acknowledgement of their shared choice of vehicle and lifestyle. The Ackermans embraced the gesture by capturing it in a logo, which now appears on their Jeep Wave Fan T-shirts and bumper stickers.
“Some time after our family had bought our Jeep®, we were talking about how much we love the wave. It just makes you feel good when going down the road.” said Alex Ackerman. “That's when we came up with an idea to sell merchandise around the wave.”
Three years later, the twins brought the idea to fruition. The teens set to work designing a logo and using it to create merchandise. With the help of family and friends, they created an online store using the Shopify ecommerce platform and set to work promoting it using grassroots marketing and online via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
The business and its merchandise have quickly gained popularity in the Jeep community, with followers growing on social media and orders for Jeep Wave Fan merchandise coming in from all over the U.S. and even the U.K.
“We are very happy about the success so far. Our initial goal was to sell one T-shirt, and we did that on our first day!” said Alex.
Peter Ackerman added “Our expectations were never set too high so even a "retweet" of a picture or quote on Twitter gets us excited. The response online has been very positive and we've received great feedback on the high quality of our product. It's fun just seeing our ideas come to life.”
The twins recently started a Kickstarter campaign to help continue growing their business. They plan to use the funds raised through the effort to create more merchandise and expand their offerings to include ladies apparel.
In an effort to give back to the community, Peter and Alex have elected to give a portion of their sales to the One Fund (www.OneFundBoston.org), an organization committed to helping those most affected by the Marathon bombings.
Someday, the teens hope to use the profits from their business to buy their own Jeep®…once they’re old enough to drive, that is.
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To learn more about Jeep Wave Fan and purchase merchandise, visit http://jeepwavefan.com or follow “jeepwavefan” on Facebook , Instagram and Twitter. To watch a video about the project or contribute to the Jeep Wave Fan Kickstarter campaign, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2024533558/jeep-wave-fan-t-shirts-and-bumper-stickers.
Jeep® is a registered trademark of Chrysler LLC. JeepWaveFan.com is not affiliated in any way with Chrysler LLC.
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