Kosher Ham ships funny Tees worldwide

Amid oxymoronic creativity and a continuous flow of green beer, Kosher Ham was born.

“I was probably about a dozen beers deep during St. Patrick’s Day of ’07 when I started thinking, ‘Everyone gets to be Irish for a day. Why can’t everyone dress Jewish for a day?’” said Jeremy Bloom, founder and president of the ironically named T-shirt company. “I was starving and thought, ‘Kosher Ham – I’ve got a great idea!’”

Bloom said many people donning his T-shirts are college students – a demographic from which he draws inspiration.

“I’ve been to Bloomington multiple times,” he said. “So many kids from Chicago, where Kosher Ham is based, go to IU. It’s prevalent.”

Bloom, a self-proclaimed fan of humorous apparel, said he began brainstorming immediately. By February 2008, a Web page peddling the shirts was up and running.
Since then, orders have been delivered daily to comedy lovers in 50 states and 12 countries.

One of every three orders is sent to a campus address, Bloom said.
“I’m not a designer by any means, but I’m sarcastic and witty, and so are many of my friends,” Bloom said. “We also keep fan submissions. ‘I’m Kosher, but I love to pork’ came from a fan.”

The shirts, characterized by clever puns and a small cartoon pig logo, have caught celebrity attention.

Notorious blogger Perez Hilton was photographed wearing actor Zac Efron’s face across his chest with “I Efron love you” inscribed below.

“The sarcastic messages and bluntness of some of the shirts add to the Kosher Ham appeal,” said Julie Bloom, Jeremy  Bloom’s sister and T-shirt model. “I wore the ‘Tony Danza is the Manza’ tee to Lollapalooza this year and had multiple people coming up to me to find out where the shirt was from.”

When the Kosher Ham Web page received more than 11,000 hits in one day, Jeremy Bloom said thinking of lines such as “Friends don’t let friends drink and dreidel” and “Michelle Obama is one hot momma” was no longer just a hobby. Now, he hires designers who contact him from New York and Los Angeles, and he works closely with his business partner, Ian Harrison, for financial advice.

“I see the company growing from just a site with funny shirts to a brand representing creative expression,” said Harrison, Kosher Ham’s primary accountant. “It will be a culture – thousands of people wearing funny, thought-provoking products as a form of self expression.”

But once the shirts are on bodies, the shirts become world travelers.

“In each order, we give away a button and a sticker,” he said. “People send us pictures of themselves wearing the button and sticker, sometimes in inappropriate places, from states around the U.S. to Oktoberfest in Germany.”

Bloom said starting a company with worldwide influence wasn’t easy, but it’s an achievable concept for dedicated young entrepreneurs.

“Go with your heart, and do your research,” he said. “I know nothing about the apparel industry, but I would spend countless hours studying it. It’s about having your bases covered and not giving up.”