Last Sunday, my daughter and I stopped by the Buc-ee’s in Denton on the way home from a weekend trip to DFW.
After using their clean-as-a-Cadillac restrooms, we proceeded to buy:
• Buc-ee’s keychain
• Carolina pulled pork sandwich
• Beaver Nuggets
• Hot sugar roasted pecans
• Sweet & sour candy strips
• Buc-ee’s blanket
• Buc-ee’s nutcracker
Even though they had plenty of branded Buc-ee’s merch available, one thing I didn’t buy was underwear.
Why? Because I, a savvy Oklahoma shopper, know I can always get my cute, caffeinated rodent-branded underwear from Nut Hugger Apparel – an OKC-based company that produces tight, form-fitting, cartoon rodent-branded undergarments.
It’s basically a Temu Buc-ee’s:
If you’re a fan of Nut Hugger, you better buy it while you can.
According to KFOR, the company has been a bit too successful cashing in on the cute bucktooth rodent craze, and as a result, recently got a cease and desist from Buc-ee’s:
Via KFOR:
An Oklahoma small business is preparing to battle with gas station giant Buc-ee’s.
Jarrad Hewett, who has owned Nut Huggers Apparel for three years, said he received a three-page letter from attorneys at Buc-ee’s that demanded he stop using his logo.
Hewett said he received the letter weeks after having his most profitable month of sales since he launched his business. His company focuses on underwear and apparel, using a patent to redesign the inside of his underwear to accommodate more active people.
Hewett said he came up with his logo, which features a cartoon squirrel holding two acorns.
That stinks. I reached out to one of my copyright attorneys who specializes in copyright law, and they said they wouldn’t be surprised if Buc-ee’s holds broad trademark registrations for apparel—including underwear. If so, Nut Huggers is in some trouble.
Despite that, the folks at Nut Huggers seem defiant.
Even though their squirrel-and-acorns design looks like the kind of bootleg Buc-ee’s underwear you’d buy at the Old Paris Flea Market, they’re vowing to stand their ground and fight for every man’s right to have his nuts hugged by a cartoon squirrel.
The letter demanded that the business stop using cartoons, rodents, the colors red, yellow, and brown, and stop using baseball hats. It also demanded that Hewett only use front-facing images.
The small business owner, who has a trademark for his logo, said he emailed Menning back and said he would stop using specific colors. He said he would also stop using a side profile of his image, but even that was not enough.
“They came back and basically said, ‘Great, now that you’ve given us this, we want everything else,’” said Hewett.
Hewett said what was happening to him was different, and he was going to fight.
“I think that it’s time that somebody stands up and says, this isn’t right. There’s no infringement here,” said Hewett. “You all don’t have the right to be doing this and take away people’s local livelihoods.”
As someone who always roots for the little guy, I genuinely wish Nut Huggers the best of luck in their fight against the Buc-ee’s legal machine. They’re going to need it.
To get out of this mess, they have two options:
1. Come up with a new mascot and color scheme. Elephants like nuts, right? They’re not rodents, and they have a trunk!
2. Buy the old Beaver Express logo and use that. I’m pretty sure Buc-ee’s stole their logo from the now-defunct Oklahoma trucking company, so it would be kind of fitting and full circle.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
