The Thompson Tee: Patented undershirts guaranteed to block 100% of underarm sweat and odor.
- KLS
- 6 minutes ago
- 10 min read
For the 220th feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with The Thompson Tee and Co-Founder, Billy Thompson. They create sweat proof and premium undershirts that block 100% of underarm sweat and odor. Armed with their patented Hydro-Shield sweatproof technology, the sweat proof Thompson Tee offers the ultimate protection from sweat marks, yellow stains and odor. As seen on The Doctors, Huffington Post, CNBC, The Today Show, ABC News and SHAPE Magazine!
"Together Talks" feature # 220: The Thompson Tee
presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
What separates you from your competition? What have been the biggest challenges? How have you dealt with being the face of the company?
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
My name is Billy Thompson. I'm one of the inventors of an undershirt called the Thompson Tee, which is a specialized undershirt that blocks underarm sweat.
And so the way it came about was necessity was really the mother of invention here, like with a lot of things.
And, you know, this was an issue I dealt with since, like, the seventh grade, and I had a few friends that dealt with it too, in my small circle.
And there really wasn't any solution. We were all wearing undershirts, like a lot of guys and gals do, for that first line of defense.
And I thought, well, if you could just create an undershirt that would somehow absorb and block the moisture from passing through, then you'd have a viable solution.
And so I set out to create this thing actually quite a long time ago now at this point. But, you know, I met my business partner, Randy Choi, who has hyperhidrosis.
And so together, we came up with this concept. Interestingly, Randy actually has a different form of excessive sweating that he dealt with, so he knew right away what I was trying to do and how important it was. So it's been a passion project ever since.
What separates you from your competition?
As far as competition goes, when we came on the market in 2012, there was literally no one else doing it exactly the way we were.
I mean, there were some rudimentary patches that were sewn into existing undershirts. They would bunch up and crinkle.
And there were some other undershirts where they just used a double layer of whatever the normal material is, which isn't effective, right?
I mean, at the end of the day, people were sweating through multiple layers as it is. And so really, when we came onto the market, there was nothing else like it.
We had a truly integrated underarm panel for our undershirt. We have a patent on the product as well because of that.
And so it was about as seamless of a process as you can get for the user, which I was a big proponent of, right?
I wanted people just to put this thing on, take it off, wash it, and dry it just like they would any other normal undershirt.
So all I was doing was switching out the product, nothing in their process. And so that worked great.
We hit the ground running. I mean, obviously, it was very, very difficult. We were bootstrapped. We had very little capital, so it was a lot of sweat equity that went into it for those first two years.
We really built it basically doing what I'm doing now in the beginning years because we couldn't afford advertising. So I hit the PR circuit and did everything, every piece of PR that we could get. I reached out to bloggers that were specializing in the space, whether it be undershirts or sweat management, and went from there.
And as far as the size of the market, it's been growing ever since. And I knew it was understated because this problem doesn't get that much attention. It's not necessarily life-threatening, although it is very life-altering for those who deal with it.
It's just because it's not your conventional life-threatening issue, it didn't really get as much attention as it probably should have.
Now that's changed over the course of the last 12 years. You're starting to see biotech companies get involved, pharmaceutical companies get involved. A lot of the stuff they were putting out there were sort of off-label results of other drugs they were dealing with.
And of course, all of them have their side effects. And since then, obviously, we've been knocked off considerably. Defending a patent is very expensive.
So we did go through that process once or twice, and then we decided moving forward that we were just going to continue to deliver the best product backed by the best service.
And that's a key differentiator now. We're one of the only players that has a full-time customer service team that is live.
We offer one of the best satisfaction guarantees of really anything in the apparel industry. We let our customers wear and wash the shirt and try it for 30 days before they decide whether or not they want to keep it.
So they're able to return it, and I think that really matters, especially when you're buying a higher-end undershirt.
I mean, look, there are T-shirts that can range up into $100 if you want for lifestyle brands, but it's not like we're selling a $2, run-of-the-mill, commoditized product.
So having service is huge because you can copy the product, you can copy the advertising, you can copy whatever.
However, you can't copy the people. And so we have an amazing team, from operations to our warehouse to our customer service, and also the leadership of Randy and I, where both of us are very passionate about this problem and providing a convenient, safe, and affordable solution for our customers.
So that really is what drives us from start to finish, especially when things get tough. You can get caught up in the nuts and bolts of running a business and lose sight of the bigger picture, and we always resort back to that.
It helps, too, that we still get amazing testimonials coming in regularly, people who have been dealing with this issue for the last 10 years, who never took their jacket off, and then they found our product. It really provided a miracle for them because there's nothing out there that can do what our product does.
What have been the biggest challenges?
A big challenge, as with a lot of businesses and products that don't necessarily exist in the marketplace, so there's no clear distribution path per se, is awareness.
Because people don't know to search for a solution like this because it didn't exist. And that's been a problem for us and continues to be a problem.
Creating enough awareness to let people know that a solution exists, especially after years of failed promises and things that just didn't work, that's always been a challenge.
Obviously, we were growing at such a rapid pace, and COVID, we’re still feeling the effects of COVID like a lot of businesses are.
One in particular is rising costs, which have been a major issue across the board. Every business is facing that.
We ran into major supply chain issues and logistics issues during the 2020 lockdowns, and that went on for a good two years. In 2021, we still had supply chain issues, increased costs, and everyone went digital, so customer acquisition costs went through the roof. Margins shrank, so it’s been challenging.
Now we've clawed our way back. Another big piece we're dealing with is office occupancy. It's nowhere near what it was pre-COVID.
This shift to work from home became a permanent thing for a lot of companies. If you're not going out into the public or going into work for eight hours a day, and you have this problem, it's much more manageable at home.
So you don't have to worry about loading up on Thompson Tees for every day of the week. That's been a challenge too.
So obviously, hammering on the fundamentals, we're also looking to seek some outside financing.
Randy and I, given the capital that we have, have taken it about as far as we can. The models are proven. We just need a capital injection to really scale advertising.
The supply chain and production pieces are in place. The foundations are there. We have a lot of runway.
But advertising has gotten very expensive, and there are more options on the market now. There are a bunch of Me Too products.
One of the big players finally moved into the space, but their design is very inferior. I think they're going to be very challenged with the core market and providing a viable solution. But time will tell.
So those are the issues that plague our business. Now it's about maximizing return on ad dollars, creating efficiencies, cutting costs, and maintaining margins.
That's the name of the game. It always comes back to the fundamentals.
Luckily, since bouncing back from COVID, we've been able to maintain a fairly healthy top line. I think we're going to grow somewhere in the neighborhood of five to six percent this year.
How have you dealt with being the face of the company?
That's an interesting point you bring up because there's such a stigma attached to this problem, like a lot of health-related issues.
When I first started the company, I did not plan on being out there. In hindsight, that was foolish, but the insecurity created by a problem like this is very strong.
I didn't want to go out into the world and admit I had this problem. I didn't even want to call it the Thompson Tee, even though that's my last name.
But the URL was available, so I took it. I quickly realized there was no avoiding it. Nobody was going to champion the product more than myself.
I got past that insecurity, and something interesting happened. I became a champion of the cause because people were writing in saying how much the product changed their life.
One guy even wrote and said, if there was a Nobel Peace Prize for something like this, you should get it.
You start hearing things like that, and you realize the calling. This problem cuts across every imaginable demographic. There's no specific group that it hits harder than another.
So I took on being the face of it out of necessity and then out of belief in the cause. There are so many people dealing with this, even younger kids.
High school is such a difficult time. You're stuck there. I wish I had this product back then.
Luckily for me, I grew up when baggy clothes were in, so I could conceal it. But it was important to get it out there and let people know it's okay and that there's a solution.
There's a conditioning loop. You start sweating, you notice it, you stress out, and it gets worse.
By wearing our shirts and not worrying about it, it actually decreases the sweating. That's something I experienced and our customers experience.
We were on Shark Tank in 2017, which created a lot of visibility. At that time, we were on pace to do about $4 million in sales.
We closed the deal with Robert on TV, but we didn't finalize it afterward. Still, it paid dividends for the business.
I'm a private person and value my privacy. I wasn't active on social media before this, which was to my detriment.
I've since built that up, especially on LinkedIn. Word of mouth has been a challenge because people are relieved to have a solution and don't want to talk about the problem anymore.
So awareness remains a challenge. If customers can't pull it through the channel, we have to push it through with advertising.
What have you learned since becoming an entrepreneur?
I didn't have entrepreneurial experience prior to this. My business partner did, and that was invaluable.
From bookkeeping to operations, he taught me a lot. I had no bookkeeping at first. I literally handed him a box of receipts.
I do believe sales is one of the best professions to prepare you for entrepreneurship. Nothing happens until someone sells something.
But nothing truly prepares you for a startup. What you don't hear about is the struggle and stress. Stress is very real.
Decision fatigue is real. You're constantly making impactful decisions.
Even as the business grows, you're dealing with the hardest problems the team can't solve.
The bigger you get, the more costly mistakes become. Getting to a certain level isn't the end. You have to maintain it and keep growing.
That was eye-opening.
Retail was another learning experience. I could get us on shelves, but I didn't understand consignment, chargebacks, sell-through requirements, and all the risks.
So we went direct to consumer, which ended up benefiting us during COVID.
We controlled our data, pivoted to making masks, and donated tens of thousands of masks with transparency.
Looking back, some things that didn't work out felt like failures at the time, but in hindsight, they protected us.
You put everything into something, and if it doesn't happen, maybe there's a reason.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
I appreciate the autonomy. I'm not in the weeds anymore, and I have flexibility in my schedule.
I can focus on higher-level and creative things. That freedom comes at a cost. Wearing T-shirts and jeans to work came with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
People forget the decades that go into building companies like Tesla or Amazon.
At the end of the day, autonomy is what I appreciate most, even though you never really turn it off.
What is your why?
I know without a doubt there are people dealing with this problem every single day, and we need to reach them.
There's a testimonial from a mom whose son dropped out of college and became agoraphobic. They were close to Botox injections or surgery. It's very invasive stuff, and they decided to give our shirt a try, and it worked, and it turned his life around, and he was back in school. And she had given me this quote that said someone once told her that a mom can only be as happy as her most unhappy child because of the truth in that statement. Not only did we make a difference in his life but hers as well, and so that – I will never forget that, right?
I get goosebumps thinking about it right now, and there are people out there dealing with it. And so that's what drives us.
They tried our shirt, and it worked. It turned his life around.
That drives us. That's the mission.
We have over 300,000 customers in more than 135 countries. Every day, someone is putting on a Thompson Tee and feeling relief.
That keeps us grounded and focused.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
The early life-changing testimonials were huge.
Another proud moment was breaking even personally. I was weeks away from bankruptcy.
My wife and I went all in. When I could pay bills again and rebuild financial security, that was huge.
Helping people and regaining stability, you can’t ask for more.
Piece of Advice
Everyone is dealing with something. Problems exist at every level.
Welcome your problems because they can become opportunities. If there's no solution and you create one, you might have a business.
Be frugal. Cash is king. Save as much as you can because you’ll need it one day.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank The Thompson Tee and Co-Founder, Billy Thompson, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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