Hats… and now flamethrowers. Elon Musk’s Boring Company has so far been more of a ‘lifestyle’ brand (and a weird one at that) than a company that, you know, digs massive tunnels through the earth as a going concern. But it’s making bank.
The hats, which retailed for $20, were capped at 50,000, thus netting The Boring Co. a cool $1 million. The flamethrower, which went up for pre-order yesterday, is selling for $500 a pop, and Musk says the total number sold will max out at 20,000. As of late last night, the total sold was already at 7,000, which amounts to $3.5 million in fire-breathing merch thus far. Likely, it’s already earned more, since pre-orders have been open through the night, though it’s still available as of this writing and so presumably hasn’t sold out.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/957854470221660160
All told, 20,000 flamethrowers would bring in $10 million in total, so 10x the hat heist. Tesla, one of Musk’s other businesses, has made a common practice of taking pre-orders for cars before they ship, including sizable up-front down payments (which are still small compared to the total cost of the car).
The Boring Company can’t exactly pre-sell huge holes in the ground, or at least not as easily, but the merch market for the venture is hot, and clearly Musk intends to ride that Hyperloop all the way into the underground station.