Dad Gang: The Group Chat That Became a $35 Million Fatherhood Movement

In 2022, three friends were texting each other about the parts of fatherhood nobody warns you about: the sleepless nights, the tighter budgets, and a loneliness they hadn't expected. One phrase kept surfacing in that group chat, half joke and half lifeline. They called themselves the Dad Gang. Four years later, that phrase has become a brand with more than $35 million in revenue, over a million hats sold, and a community of a million fathers, built almost entirely without paid advertising. This is how it happened, and why the hats were never really the point.

The group chat that started it all

Grant Eastey, Bart Szaniewski, and Ejay O'Donnell were each figuring out early fatherhood on their own, scattered across the West Coast, and leaned on a running text thread to vent, swap advice, and remind each other they weren't the only ones struggling. "Dad Gang" kept coming up in that chat until it started to feel like more than an inside joke. The three had kicked around business ideas together for years, so in May 2022 they decided to find out whether the phrase could stand on its own.

They each put in $250, a combined $750 with no investors and no safety net, and ordered the factory minimum: 100 A-frame snapback hats stitched with "Dad Gang." The batch sold out in 36 hours. The founders assumed it was friends and family being supportive and expected the excitement to fade, but strangers kept ordering through the next few drops. That was the moment the idea shifted. They weren't selling hats. They had named a feeling a lot of fathers were carrying quietly, and given them something to wear that said it out loud.

The early operation was as unglamorous as it gets: a tiny garage that couldn't fit a car, boxes stacked to the ceiling, hats piled on folding tables, and three dads packing and shipping every order by hand, driving to the post office to keep up. When the volume outgrew one garage, it moved to another, and eventually to a dedicated facility in Tennessee. The company still marks May 11, the date of its first sale, with an anniversary hat every year.

Three dads, three roles

The division of labor fell into place naturally. Bart Szaniewski met Grant Eastey as a student at Washington State University, spent roughly 15 years in direct-to-consumer marketing, and ran much of the brand's early logistics and shipping. Grant Eastey brought storytelling and community-building, and became the voice behind much of how Dad Gang talks to the fathers who follow it. Ejay O'Donnell connected with Szaniewski through an earlier venture, ran a sticker-printing company whose clients included Nike, and had already helped print a for-fun T-shirt project the other two started before Dad Gang existed. He designed the original logo on his first attempt, and was the last of the three to leave his old work and go full time, doing so in early 2026.

Why the hats sold out when nobody was advertising

Dad Gang has never run a conventional ad campaign, and its growth is the clearest evidence of what organic content can do when it's built on something real. The founders posted every day, and the content was almost never about the product. It was about fatherhood itself: the late-night feedings, the mental health struggles, the funny moments, and the steady reminder that nobody has it all figured out. The hats showed up in the photos, but they were rarely the subject. Everything was shot on an iPhone, with no polish and no production budget.

Whatever money the brand earned went straight back into the next batch of hats. When there was a little left over, Szaniewski would put roughly $10 behind a post that was already performing organically, and he boosted it for profile visits rather than sales, because a post that already earned comments, saves, and shares is market-tested in a way a fresh ad never is. He has described the early days as the Girl Scout cookie method: your first customers are people who already know you, and everything after that has to be earned on the strength of the product and the story.

The community became the engine and the R&D lab at the same time. The brand runs a private Facebook group where members see hat samples, give feedback, and vote on what gets made next, which is the literal reason "Designed by Dads" is more than a tagline. That loop is also why Dad Gang's celebrity following looks the way it does. MLB players Mookie Betts, Justin Turner, and Alex Verdugo, NFL players Juwan Johnson and Justin Britt, boxer Teófilo López, NBA champion Josh Hart, and figures like Kirk Cousins, DJ Envy, Post Malone, and Teddy Swims have all been seen in the gear, and in every case it started as a personal purchase or a gift rather than a paid placement. The brand's proudest sightings, though, are the ordinary ones: a random dad at the airport or on the street with a Dad Gang hat on.

What "IYKYK" actually means

Every Dad Gang hat carries the same three letters stitched into the side: IYKYK, short for "if you know, you know." It's a quiet signal between fathers, meant to land instantly for anyone who's lived it and need no explanation to anyone who hasn't. It also captures the middle of the brand's three stated pillars: quality, community, and strength. Quality is the promise that the hat itself is built well, with heavyweight materials, tested fit samples, and construction that survives repeated washing, a deliberate contrast to the flimsy dad hats the founders were tired of. Strength is the insistence that fatherhood takes vulnerability and showing up daily, not just the jokes. Community is the part they treat as the actual business.

Two stories explain why. Early on, a father who had just been evicted, fresh off a breakup and trying to sort out custody, messaged the company. He wasn't asking for money, just a hat, and they sent one. Nearly four years later he wrote back to say he had a new job and had rebuilt his life, and that the hat had been a small, constant reminder to keep going through the hardest stretch. In another case, a family whose relative and his one-year-old son were killed while crossing a street asked Dad Gang for a replacement hat so the father could be buried in his favorite one, after the original was destroyed in the accident. They sent it. The founders have been consistent that stories like these, not the revenue, are the accomplishment they actually care about.

From a garage to 200 stores

For most of its life Dad Gang was a purely online brand, and in 2026 it moved into physical retail fast. It launched in roughly 93 Lids stores and expanded past 200 locations nationwide within weeks once early sell-through came in. It's also carried at SCHEELS, Pro Image Sports, and a network of independent retailers, and it struck a partnership with Shopify that included a limited-edition co-branded hat. The catalog has grown well beyond the original snapback to tees, hoodies, a golf line called Golfin' Dad, a youth line called Kid Gang, and a collegiate collection, with more than 60 hat styles planned for 2026 alone. Alongside the site, the brand now runs its own mobile app, giving its most loyal customers a direct line to every drop.

Why Gary Vaynerchuk said yes

In June 2026, Dad Gang brought on Gary Vaynerchuk as a partner and active strategic advisor, the first outside partner in the company's history. The relationship is older than the deal by more than a decade: all three founders had followed his content and books since around 2010, and Szaniewski credits that influence, the push to stop overthinking, stay patient, and keep taking shots on goal, with the mindset that eventually led him to leave a long career and go all in on Dad Gang. The introduction came together through VaynerSports, after the brand had already worked with Vayner-affiliated athletes.

Vaynerchuk frames his involvement as a high bar cleared. He says no to most things, so a yes that requires him to actually contribute is a strong signal of belief, and what he saw in Dad Gang was remarkable execution and three founders who could will a business into existence. His role is essentially an on-call resource for strategy, hiring, and a potential future exit, while he's been explicit that the culture and the day-to-day stay with the founders. The first thing the partnership is putting into the world is "Dad Hour," a live Q&A series where he joins the founders in conversation with the community on the things it's actually navigating: early parenthood, mental health, and loss.

Dad Gang milestones at a glance

The lesson underneath the hats

Dad Gang is easy to describe as a hat company that got big, but that misreads what happened. The founders built a place for fathers to feel seen, and the product became the way people carried that with them. The daily storytelling, the $10 boosts, the community that votes on the next drop, and the stories in the inbox are all the same strategy: show up honestly, every day, and let the people you're building for build it with you. As Grant Eastey puts it, if you stay patient, stay humble, and keep putting in the work when nobody is clapping, incredible things can happen over time. Dad Gang is the proof.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Dad Gang? Grant Eastey, Bart Szaniewski, and Ejay O'Donnell founded Dad Gang in 2022. Eastey and Szaniewski met at Washington State University, and O'Donnell joined through an earlier business connection.

How did Dad Gang start? It began as a group text among the three friends about the struggles of fatherhood. They each invested $250, ordered 100 hats printed with "Dad Gang," and sold out within 36 hours.

What does IYKYK mean on a Dad Gang hat? IYKYK stands for "if you know, you know." It's Dad Gang's motto, stitched into every hat as a nod to the shared, often unspoken experiences of being a father.

Is Gary Vaynerchuk part of Dad Gang? Yes. He joined in June 2026 as a partner and strategic advisor, the company's first outside partner, and is launching a live "Dad Hour" Q&A series with the founders.

Where can you buy Dad Gang hats? Directly from dadgang.co, through the Dad Gang mobile app, or in person at more than 200 Lids stores, SCHEELS, Pro Image Sports, and select independent retailers.