Jamie Tompkins works full-time as an events manager in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but stays up well past midnight to work on her budding side hustle: making friendship bracelets for Taylor Swift concert goers.
The 46-year-old mother said she sold over 5,000 Taylor Swift-themed friendship bracelets on her Etsy shop this summer, bringing in about $16,000 in sales. “There were weeks that making bracelets paid more than my full time job,” Tompkins told CNN.
She is part of a group of Etsy shop owners who are selling Swift-themed bracelets for serious cash. Tompkins said she got the idea to sell them on her store, Pigtails and Pixidust, after she was left with dozens of bracelets she didn’t get to give away at the Taylor Swift concert in Arlington, Texas, earlier this year. Her daughter suggested listing them on her Etsy shop, which typically sells hairbows and headbands for babies and toddlers.
“The Eras tour has made my business,” said Tompkins, who sells a 5-pack for $15. “I had very minimal sales before Taylor Swift friendship bracelets were a trend.” Now she’s saving her earnings to quit her job and focus on running her Etsy shop full time. “I will continue to make them as long as people want them.”
Swift will wrap up the first part of her US-based “Eras” leg this week in Los Angeles and head to several more cities this fall, before performing internationally next year.
The tradition of trading friendship bracelets at her concerts is inspired by the lyrics on her song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” from her most recent album “Midnights.”