Mike Draper has only one regret after someone threw a rock wrapped in a sock at one of the display windows at Raygun’s Crossroads store last week.
“We did not keep the rock,” lamented the boutique retail operation’s Des Moines-based founder. “People were like, ‘Oh, you should sell the rock in the sock’ and we’re like, ‘Oh, wait, do we still have it?’”
Like the topical, trendsetting, and, yes, sometimes snarky T-shirts — and other progressive statement products — the brand sells, the team at Raygun dealt with the post-Thanksgiving week vandalism with good spirits, dubbing it “the holiday hole” and joking about the incident on social media.
Statement tees and topical cultural and political debate mix at Raygun
The vandal’s failure to identify exactly what cultural or political disagreement — with many to choose from at the Kansas City store — sparked Raygun’s targeting became a particular source of levity.
“Dear (rock) thrower, we have so many opinions, we don’t know WHICH the (rock) was meant for,” a post on Raygun’s Instagram account read. “Next time, please leave a note so we get the message loud and clear!”
Click here to shop Raygun and its mix of Kansas City-centric, pro-Midwest and statement products.
The Raygun team chose to diffuse with humor, Draper said, because if the person who threw the rock sees they aren’t that upset about it, then it defeats the purpose of their vandalism.
“We are annoying to try to harass online because we don’t really care that much,” Draper continued. “We’re not getting riled up about things. So it’s hard to quote ‘own the libs’ when it’s us and we’re kind of jokey about everything; It’s just hard to own jokey people.”
Taylor Swift-meets-Chiefs inside Raygun’s Kansas City store; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Despite a brand that he calls a mix of Midwestern, funny, and progressive with collections like the Snowflake Agenda, the Feminist Agenda, and the Gay Agenda, Draper noted this is the first incident of its kind at any of Raygun’s nine locations (six in Iowa, one each in Kansas City, Chicago, and Omaha, Nebraska). They have typically just dealt with retail challenges like break-ins and thefts.
“We’ve never really had anybody physically vandalize the premises,” he added.
Raygun’s store in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
Draper — who founded the brand in 2005 and opened the Kansas City store in 2014 — noted that it’s clear from security footage that it wasn’t an accident, yet it remains unclear why the person threw the rock. (The projectile didn’t go completely through the window because of a plastic protection barrier.
“Nobody’s been fired recently, so it doesn’t really seem like a disgruntled employee situation,” he explained. “We don’t have any current online disputes with anyone. So when you don’t have any clear possibilities, then you kind of think like, ‘Well, maybe somebody was upset about something.’ And you look around the store and you’re like, ‘Woooo, it could be anything.’”
Sure, it could be something political, he said; the store sells shirts that say, “Defund the NRA” and “Abortion Saves Lives.” Or it could be about Raygun’s recent “Death to Leaf Blowers” shirt, which got a few people fired up, Draper said.
“So it could be somebody who’s really into their leaf blower,” he continued. “It goes from like gay stuff, women’s stuff, progressive stuff, but this could also be leaf blower related. So we didn’t want to waste the police’s time and be like, ‘Hey, we can narrow it down to about two and a half million suspects.’”
The store window at Raygun; photo courtesy of Raygun
Xavier Shoemaker Jones, manager of the Kansas City store, initially discovered the shattered window. He noted that community members were worried because the rock was thrown right next to a sign that read “Warning: Gay Product Designs Inside.”
“A lot of people have been concerned and have been like ‘Was it a hate crime?’” he said. “‘Is everybody OK?’ Because a lot of the staff here — myself included — are LGBT and trans. It’s mostly just been positive concern for our stores because we have a lot of people who love us.”
Although the Raygun team — which does all of its designing and printing in house — chose to deal with the vandalism with humor, Draper said, it’s also important they don’t discount the incident too much.
“There’s a lot of wackos in the world and America is heavily armed,” he explained. “So you’re always in the back of your mind a little bit nervous about things, but you could say that about going to preschool, grocery shopping, or church.”
Even with Raygun’s tongue-in-cheek, at-times aggressively opinionated and pro-Midwest products, Draper continued, the brand isn’t trying to incite anyone, choosing to handle online debates as respectfully as possible.
“You don’t have to be an asshole about things,” he said. “We never make a product that intends to be mean or intends to offend. I just have never really found the humor in antagonizing people, no matter who they are.”
