Dad Gang Co., a global community and lifestyle brand redefining modern fatherhood, recently announced that Gary Vaynerchuk, serial entrepreneur and CEO of VaynerMedia, has joined the company as a partner and active strategic advisor.
Vaynerchuk joins co-founders Grant Eastey, Bart Szaniewski and Ejay O’Donnell, who built Dad Gang from a USD 750 investment and 100 hats into one of the fastest-rising community-driven brands in the fashion industry. In only four years, what began as a group chat among three friends has grown into a movement with more than one million dads, surpassing USD 35 million in revenue, and now counts one of the most influential voices in entrepreneurship and culture as its fourth partner.
“I have a fun feeling this business is going to get much, much bigger,” said Vaynerchuk. “What Dad Gang has built is rare. These guys are entrepreneurs trying to build as big a company as possible, but the collateral value to the world is what makes it special. Dads supporting dads is one of the great ways to make the world a better place. Two dads seeing each other in an airport wearing this hat and feeling just a little more supported with a micro ounce of humanity. That matters.”
Vaynerchuk, known for his early bets on companies including Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Venmo, says his decision to take on an active role reflects the standard he holds for his own involvement. “I have to say no a lot,” Vaynerchuk continued. “For me to say yes and get involved and be required to contribute, that is an incredible indication of my belief in what these guys are doing. I look for remarkable execution, and these three are that.”
For the co-founders, welcoming Vaynerchuk as a partner is a full-circle moment. Bart Szaniewski credits Vaynerchuk with shaping the mindset that led him to eventually leave a 15-year career to pursue Dad Gang full time. Szaniewski shared, “Through Gary’s mentality of ‘stop overthinking, be patient in your process, post it and take another shot on goal,’ that is how we built Dad Gang. When we started, all we had was hats and our phones. That was it.”
The partnership is expected to accelerate Dad Gang’s community growth through growth strategies and content programming, including a “Dad Hour” series where Vaynerchuk will join the co-founders for live Q&A sessions with Dad Gang’s global network of dads around the world.
The announcement arrives on the heels of Dad Gang hitting the milestone of 1 million hats sold, in addition to a recent partnership with Shopify, and its largest physical retail expansion to date with Lids, which quickly expanded from 90 stores at launch to 200 locations nationwide in less than a month. The brand also has a presence at SCHEELS, Pro Image Sports, and a growing network of independent retailers, a remarkable physical footprint for a brand that was built entirely online.
Dad Gang’s growth has been powered by community and storytelling, regularly spotlighting the dads behind the hats, sharing their stories across social media. Limited-edition collaborations with athletes including Mookie Betts, Justin Turner, Teofimo Lopez, Alex Verdugo, Juwan Johnson and Justin Britt have come organically. Meanwhile, NBA Champion Josh Hart, along with celebrities like Post Malone and Teddy Swims have been spotted in the hat unprompted.
At its core, Dad Gang exists to represent a generation of fathers who have rewritten the job description. Where previous generations defined fatherhood as providers and protectors, today’s dads prioritize being present. It’s these evolving values that have catapulted Dad Gang into the cultural stratosphere, and the same ones that have inspired Vaynerchuk to partner in their mission to support dads everywhere, so that they can best show up for their families. “From day one, this has been about creating something dads could see themselves in,” said the co-founders, “because the role is 24/7.”
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