Selling t-shirts was not part of Mike Draper’s post-graduate plan, but after he was rejected from a master’s fellowship, the 2004 Penn graduate found himself with a history degree and nowhere to go.
Draper had been selling t-shirts on his campus, so he decided to keep his operation going after commencement. He hung around the east coast, until a friend from Des Moines told him the city was renovating some buildings on the east side, suggesting he could come back to his home state and open up a store.
So, in 2005 he packed up his belongings and moved back into his childhood home in Van Meter. That fall he opened Smash, which later became RAYGUN, the self- proclaimed "greatest store in the universe.”
“My wheelhouse was going to be inside jokes about Iowa and Des Moines and ultra positive slogans about Des Moines,” Draper said.
For two years, Draper was the only employee.
“Since I had no printing experience, no design experience, no retail experience — I'd never even worked in a retail shop, the first cash register I ever operated was the one I bought for the store — investors were not lined up around the block to jump in on this just solid gold idea,” he said.
I always kind of knew if we did just a slightly more tongue in cheek, ironic humor, the people here will respond well to it.Mike Draper
But Midwestern humor was very much in demand, and the simple all caps lettering on much of the merchandise has become an iconic style many Midwesterners recognize as the RAYGUN brand.
Some of his early t-shirt ideas are still in print, like, “Des Moines: Hell yes” or “Des Moines: Let us exceed your already low expectations!”
Draper said he believed Iowans were funnier than they gave themselves credit for.
“I was privy to the humor culture in Iowa in general. My mom's family is all from here, really funny people. The state produced Johnny Carson. So, we've got this top-notch comedy history, but we always seemed to dumb it down for ourselves with corn jokes and pig jokes,” he said. “And I always kind of knew if we did just a slightly more tongue in cheek, ironic humor, the people here will respond well to it.”
The store has become known for turning the news of the day into the t-shirts of tomorrow, with topical slogans whipped up at breakneck speed.
One of Draper’s favorite shirts, “America Needs Lesbian Farmers” was inspired by a comment Rush Limbaugh made that the Obama administration’s USDA policy to improve rural life for LGBTQ people would lead to lesbians flocking to rural America and turning the states blue.
“We try to find things where it’s hyper connected to something that just happened, but if you saw it out of context years later, would still be funny,” he said.
Over the last two decades, RAYGUN has grown, partnering with The Onion, donating to some proceeds to nonprofits and opening new stores. There are now six Iowa locations, as well as stores in Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City and Lincoln — plus a new store coming to Madison this fall.
For all the success the store has had, Draper doesn’t see himself expanding beyond the Midwest — take that Penn!
“As far as I own it anyway, [RAYGUN] will never open anywhere outside the Midwest, not Brooklyn, not Austin, not Portland, not Los Angeles, for that reason that it has to belong just to us,” Draper said. “If we did a Brooklyn pop up shop, it would only sell Midwestern items.”
RAYGUN is an underwriter of IPR.
