Big Johnson is a brand that is marketed by Maryland Brand Management, Inc. (MBM), known for its t-shirts featuring E. Normus Johnson depicted in comic art featuring humorous sexual innuendos. MBM is the successor company to Maryland Screen Printers Inc. (MSP) and G & C Sales, Inc. At the height of Big Johnson's success in the 1990s, it sponsored a Big Johnson NASCAR automobile and MSP was twice listed in the Inc. list of America's fastest growing companies. The sexual innuendo has been controversial leading to court rulings banning sales in federal buildings and corporate decisions banning wearing the shirts.
In 1986, Garrett and Craig Pfeifer created G & C Sales to create and market apparrel relying on suppliers. The explosive growth of the company which surpassed the capabilities of the company's suppliers led to the formation of MSP in 1988, which gave the brothers control of their own production.[1] MSP was named to Inc.'s List of Americas fastest growing companies in both 1993 and 1994.[2] Big Johnson T-shirts and apparel are by far the most famous product of MBM.[2] The brand peaked in the 1990s, with 1992 sales of $6.5 million ($10.1 million in current dollar terms); 1994 sales of $16.5 million ($24.2 million) and 1996 sales reaching $20 million ($27.7 million).[2][3] These sales were on shirts that wholesaled for $7.50.[3] At that time, the company sponsored the Big Johnson NASCAR race car of Dick Trickle.[2] For a time, the company also sponsored the Busch Grand National Series NASCAR driver Johnny Rumley.[3] In 1995, the Big Johnson fan club had 13,000 members.[3] In 2006, Garrett Pfeifer created Maryland Brand Management, Inc.[1] During that period Big Johnson accounted for 60% of MSP's sales and profits doubled every year from 1990 to 1994.[3] In 2009, MBM celebrated 20 years of Big Johnson apparel.[4]
In 1995, the company's products became part of a United States Constitution First Amendment case when a gift shop proprietor at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland was forced by a U.S. District Court ruling to take sexually suggestive T-shirts and cards out of his store, which was located in a federal building. The order noted that "The sale . . . of items which denote sexually offensive and discriminatory statements, depictions or pictures is in violation of federal law and presents a hostile and sexually offensive environment". The proprietor sought an injunction against the U.S. Fire Administration.[5] A few months after the ruling, the case was settled with the gift shop being granted expanded space in exchange for surrendering the right to sell the offending materials.[6] Although both Disney World and Kings Dominion, are both large customers of MBM, Big Johnson shirts are banned in their amusement parks.[2] Big Johnson has expanded beyond E. Normus Johnson shirts with lines of shirts for firefighters, police, and bikers.[2]
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