When best friends and Fairmount neighbors Bill Bulat, KLN ‘17, and Paige Knapp, KLN ‘16, were strategic communication majors at Klein College of Media and Communication, they were constantly brainstorming and scheming to come up with their “million dollar idea.” After countless ideas for products and podcasts, the duo was struck with inspiration during the first presidential debate when President Donald Trump uttered that “bad things happen in Philadelphia,” and instantly knew that if they didn’t put those words on a T-shirt, someone else would. But Knapp knew that it needed a twist: they simply couldn’t sell shirts saying that bad things happen here. On her walk home, she realized what the t-shirt needed to say — “bad[ass] things happen in Philadelphia” [sic]. 

“We needed to take that messaging back and turn it into something that speaks to the truth of what we know about Philadelphia, which is that if you know Philly, you know it’s a very special place,” Knapp says.  

After crafting the design on the fundraising platform Bonfire and tweeting the link, Knapp and Bulat blissfully went to sleep with a goal of selling 50 shirts to friends and family, but didn’t think it would extend beyond that. However, in the morning, they couldn’t believe their eyes. Knapp’s fiancee had boosted the posts on social media overnight, and they woke up to over $1,000 in sales. 

“I don’t think we actually knew that this would turn into what it was,” Bulat says. “We really just went to bed with minimal marketing.” 

Of course, they knew that their main responsibility was to the city itself; after all, by turning the phrase on its head to read “bad[ass] things happen in Philadelphia,” Bulat and Knapp were defending the city’s honor and giving back at the same time. Thus, it was an easy decision to donate the proceeds from the T-shirt’s sales to local charities and organizations actively working within Philadelphia’s communities.

When setting the fundraiser up on Bonfire, Knapp and Bulat unknowingly positioned the campaign so that it would automatically renew itself if customers showed interest, even after the campaign had expired. Not knowing that they had set it up this way, they were delighted and shocked to find that even after it’s five-day fundraising period, the campaign had renewed itself over and over, and is continuing to raise funds for local organizations. 

One factor that helped renew interest in Bulat, Knapp and the shirts was a Tiktok that Knapp made, which drew in a whole new batch of customers when sales had lulled. Now, the Tiktok has almost 100,000 views. Eventually, they raised so much money that they exceeded the platform’s limit and were forced to establish a non-profit in order to receive the funds and disperse them to organizations. 

This organization, Bad Things Philly, has led Bulat and Knapp to think about their non-profit efforts on a much larger scale. They have started a podcast, Bad Things Philly, that aims to highlight the creators, movers and shakers who work within the city to make it a better place. It highlights the greatness in and of Philadelphia, contrary to wider belief that the city may be a place where “bad things happen.” In their first episode, Bulat and Knapp recount the story of the Badass T-shirt and how they raised over $31K by accident. In the next episode, they are to feature Taylor Cobb, KLN '16, and Shane Nelson of Philadelphia’s Reify Solutions. 

“It’s not about Philadelphia as a city, it’s about the people who create Philadelphia,” Knapp says.

The fundraiser is still up and running, and Knapp says that they plan on keeping the “renew” setting on so that they can continue to raise money for local organizations and so that anyone who wants a t-shirt has a chance to buy one. So far, they have sold over 2,600 shirts and raised over $31,000. Because they passed their fundraising goal so quickly and easily, Bulat and Knapp are still determining which organizations to sponsor and how, but insist that 100% of the proceeds will be donated to organizations working to alleviate hunger and advocating for the rights of BIPOC in Philadelphia. The list is still being finalized as they are, joyfully, able add more and more recipients to their list.