Dressing a dog like a human can make you rich. Life is awesome
If you’re going to teach your dog a new trick, teach it to make money. Lots of it. I didn’t even know this was a dog-training option until I heard about Bodhi, the 5-year old, handsomely built, fashion-blogging Shiba Inu, known to many as Menswear Dog. This week, Fast Company reported that Bodhi rakes in $15,000 a month for his mom and dad. Yup. Fifteen grand. A month. (And now, please excuse me while I find a dog to put a pair of pants on.)
Bhodi’s crazy-good income may be news, but Bohdi’s career is already well-established. He’s been pretty famous ever since 2013, when his human parents— designer, Yena Kim, and her boyfriend, David Fung—first started posting pictures of him dressed in men’s fashion on Tumblr. Kim and Fung initially set up Menswear Dog, as a way to parody those ubiquitous creatures known as fashion bloggers—many of them big earners, themselves. But Bodhi was such a natural, and such a hit, they just kept the ball rolling. And that basically changed all of their lives.
They found once they dressed up Bodhi and got him ready for his photo shoot, Kim says, “he started posing for us, and doing like [Zoolander’s] Blue Steel and Magnum. We originally posted his photo to Facebook as a gag. ” The gag worked. Big time.
Since quitting their full-time jobs in 2013 to focus fully on Bodhi, the dandy dog has racked up hundreds of thousands of followers via Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr (of course). He’s also snagged campaigns for Coach, Ted Baker, American Apparel, Revlon, Ferragamo and ASOS, just to name a handful. Bodhi has appeared in countless magazines, been in attendance at Fashion Week parties, and, naturally, has a book in the works. He’s also available for paid appearances and has a Capsule collection for Menswear Daily. Oh and he has his own WALL CALENDAR. He’s basically a brand and a profitable one at that.
But the best part about Bodhi is that he still gets to be a regular dog — running around, eating treats, and being loved by his two industrious and adoring owners. And it’s nice to know Kim and Fung have this whole unbelievable venture in perspective. “When I left my job, everyone in my immediate office knew [what was going on], but I just told HR I was starting a company,” Kim tells Fast Company. “I didn’t want to be like, ‘I’m leaving you guys to dress up my dog.’”
But seriously, look at how well they dress up their dog. He wears everything from Coach to Ferragamo. And the weird thing is he looks really good in all of it. See?
So, ladies and gentleman, it’s best time you start get to appreciating your dog’s natural gifts — you might have the next Menswear Dog on your hands. But judging from most dogs (like mine) it’s far more likely we all just have the next same-wonderful-dog-who-eats-garbage-and-destroys-furniture-while-still-managing-to-be-adorable type pooch on our hands. Oh, well. God bless Bodhi and America!
Images via Menswear Dog
