A Clothing Brand with 'Chutzpah'

You won’t find Kosher Ham T-shirts in your Bubbie’s closet, but you will find them in the closets of celebrities like Eli Roth, Perez Hilton and Guns N’ Roses’ Steven Adler.

Their T-shirts feature slogans like “I put the ‘oy’ in goy” and “I love bagels,” as well as lines like “I Efron Love You” (in honour of Zac Efron) and “Jewish Girls Are Hot” (with an image of Natalie Portman) – and those are the tamer ones.

Kosher Ham president Jeremy Bloom dishes on how he came up with the brand’s name, what prompted him to start the company and what he would feature on a Canadian-inspired T-shirt.

What’s the process for creating new shirts at Kosher Ham?

It all starts with some ham. Wearing anything else just isn't kosher!

How much time goes into crafting a shirt?

Sometimes 15 seconds while surfing the web, reading news and blogs, or going for a run, while some ideas take a few days to develop because we love to get our Facebook fans and Twitter friends (facebook.com/KosherHamTees and twitter.com/kosherham) involved. We give away free Kosher Ham gear to our fans each and every week. We provide our customers with multiple options (10 colours, 10 sizes) for adult shirts printed on American Apparel. We print our shirts on-demand so our customers can choose their own colour.

Who came up with the brand's name?

I give a lot of credit to my family, friends, and fans, but the idea came to me when I was doing what most nice Jewish boys do - drinking pints of Guinness and shots of Jameson in the middle of winter on a Saturday afternoon! I figured if everyone can celebrate "Being Irish" with a bunch of punny merchandise for one day a year, why in the world can't we do the same thing with Jewish culture? I made a shirt that said Irish Chicks Love My Kosher Corned Beef to wear out for St. Patrick's Day. Throughout the day and night, dozens of random people asked where I bought my shirt and if they could take pictures with me. While thoroughly engaging in Irish celebration and culture that day, the phrase “kosher ham” popped into my head.

How has the company expanded since it started?

It was hard getting people to believe me when I told them I started a company called Kosher Ham Ventures, LLC. I was initially creating the site, working with designers, filing for business licenses/trademarks, and pressing and shipping out every individual shirt every night of the weekend. My close friend, Ian Harrison, has helped me from the beginning by creating a plan, structuring the budget, managing the books, modeling shirts, and ultimately doing anything and everything in between. My fiancée Sally has been incredibly supportive by giving up numerous nights and weekends to assist me with logistics and shipping. My sister, Julie, helps out on a marketing/social media front, as a go-to model, and a slew of friends help out by modeling and ultimately supporting Kosher Ham's vision and growth. Since 2008, we've sold thousands of shirts throughout the United States, Canada, and abroad.

What has been your most popular selling item this year?

We just added hoodies this past month, and they're selling like tickets to a one-night Barbara Streisand show at the Miles Nadal JCC!! Our Kosher Ham logo tees and Attack Of The Pig are our best sellers, but our pop-culture and Jewish humor tees sell well too. One of the biggest challenges is deciphering what's going to sell well and what might be clicked on but rarely bought (it's happened).

It’s no secret that Perez Hilton loves your Zac Efron T-shirt. How did he hear about Kosher Ham?

We've been featured by some extraordinarily cool and niche publications and media outlets like Thrillist.com (leading men's lifestyle guide) and Us Weekly, and uncovered by top indie apparel bloggers on the web. I realize how important marketing, customer service and keeping our fans engaged are for the success of Kosher Ham.

Some of your shirts feature Natalie Portman, Larry David and other celebrities. Have any of them reacted to the shirts?

We've recently had the pleasure of serving up Kosher Ham gear to NFL superstar Chad Ochocinco, critically acclaimed actor-director Eli Roth, the cast and crew of reality shows such as Celebrity Rehab, Steven Adler of Guns N' Roses, and thousands of mensches and sarcastic people that love our iconic pig and all things Kosher Ham.

You’ve already expanded to other items like tote bags and hoodies. Are you thinking about expanding into other areas?

You've heard it hear first - baby and toddler clothing will be hitting the site this month (May 2010)! We're introducing our line of Lil Kosher Ham within the next few weeks! We're in a handful of retail stores across the States, but we're really looking to gear up by entering more boutiques, gift shops, and increasing our awareness. We're not one of these fly-by-night apparel companies that come and go. What sets us apart from our competition is that we pay tribute to our roots and recognize the cultural importance of Jewish humour. Anyone can come up with a funny idea for a shirt, but we're looking to expand the brand Kosher Ham and what it means to Jews, their non-Jewish friends, and everyone that gets a kick out of sarcastic, light-hearted humour.

If you were to make a Canadian-themed Kosher Ham shirt, what would be on it?

Canada: America's Yarmulke, and then we'd have an image of the U.S. with an oversized yarmulke with some payos coming out of Seattle and Boston. If that's too Jew-ish, we'll do the stereotypical "Ehhhh, B, C" joke. Sorry, Canada, we went there.

Do you have a personal favourite T-shirt?

Let's just say I haven't had to go T-shirt shopping in quite a long time. That's like asking a parent to pick his favourite child....short answer -- the Kosher Ham logo shirt is my favourite.