At this year’s SXSW, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber made waves with a T-shirt. Her choice of attire at her keynote event appeared to take a sly dig at Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg. The design, featuring an obscure Latin phrase printed in black on black fabric, was subtle yet potent. The response was so overwhelming that Bluesky decided to mass-produce and sell the shirt.
Bluesky’s Chief Operating Officer, Rose Wang, revealed that the company’s single day of T-shirt sales outperformed two years of revenue from their custom domain business. In a tongue-in-cheek post on Bluesky, Wang quipped, “That’s it. Pivoting to a t-shirt company…”
The $40 shirt in question serves as a direct response to one worn by Zuckerberg last year. His shirt bore the phrase Aut Zuck aut nihil, meaning “Zuck or nothing,” a nod to the Latin expression Aut Caesar aut nihil. The phrase likens the Meta CEO to Julius Caesar, positioning him as an all-or-nothing force in the industry.
Graber’s shirt, on the other hand, carried a counter-message: Mundus sine Caesaribus, translating to “a world without Caesars.” This subtle yet sharp retort resonated with many, particularly those critical of Zuckerberg’s influence in the tech world. The demand was so high that Bluesky’s initial batch of shirts quickly sold out. To accommodate eager buyers, the company reopened its Shopify page for a limited time.
Bluesky’s surprising T-shirt success underscores the unpredictable nature of monetization in the tech industry. Despite the company offering custom domain services—allowing users to integrate domains into their social handles—this revenue stream was never a major focus. As Wang noted, the domain sales feature was never fully integrated into the Bluesky app.
If their alternative monetization strategies don’t pan out, perhaps Bluesky has found an unexpected niche in statement-making fashion. After all, who knew that a Latin phrase on a T-shirt could prove more profitable than a tech feature?
