Learning to run a store on your own during treatment
Alexa had never created a website or set up products in an online store.
“A lot of me just watched tutorials with two screens open. Everything was done by myself.
She jokes that her husband would say a few things about how busy she is.
The treatment didn’t end with the opening of the store. She is now a year into immunotherapy after chemotherapy, meaning she is still receiving regular infusions in addition to running the business.
This puts them in an unusual position. Most brand founders study their customers from the outside, but Alexa lives the same routine as her buyers.
“I am the patient and at the same time the founder. I wear these clothes every day and make clothes that I want to wear because I am the customer.”
Finding community through humor and honest conversations
After her diagnosis, Alexa set out to find women who felt the same way. Most of what she found were dark Facebook groups and negative spaces. She understood why, because many patients are afraid, but these groups didn’t help her.
So she built the room she couldn’t find. On Instagram, where she posts most often, she combines honest treatment stories with humor and pop culture references.
“It’s about making people laugh and giving them permission to feel good again. I built this community and then the clothes came out. People want to be a part of the community and buy the clothes. I think that’s why I’ve seen this success.”
Your audience is specific. Many of her followers are under 50, which is young in the cancer world, and they don’t want to feel like victims. She recently surpassed 5,000 followers and says engagement is high for an audience of that size.
Her years in brand marketing have shaped her approach to the whole thing.
“Often it’s emotion that sells. When you create a brand, you think about how you want people to feel and what your product represents. I never thought about the product.”
Why listening to customers shapes product design
Alexa doesn’t consider herself a designer and most of her ideas are based on creative intuition. Even their logo has a story. The roses represent breasts and femininity, and the thorny stems represent the hardships that patients have to endure. She sums it up as a soft heart and a wild spirit.
She tried to expand with sub-lines including just rose designs and a Comeback Girls line. But sales showed her that what customers wanted most was the brand’s name on their T-shirts.
“People buy the T-shirts that say ‘Killer Tits Club’ because they want to be associated with it. So I took that and created different versions of the logo. I have a cursive font instead of the roses, and that has actually become my best seller.”
She also experimented with placement, from a small print on the chest pocket to a large logo on the back.
New ideas go through a low-risk test before spending money on design work. She only uses AI for brainstorming, never for end products. Then she enters the concept into Printful’s mockup generator and sometimes orders a sample.
“It’s so cost-effective. I can visualize it before hiring a freelancer to create it, and that has helped me a lot.”
Increasing revenue with less than 2% of revenue coming from ads
Alexa has grown the brand almost exclusively organically. Product launches bring her the biggest increases in sales. She orders samples from Printful, wears them, photographs friends with them, and builds anticipation before each release. She also ensures that new products are constantly coming onto the market, so there is always something to talk about.
“My advertising spend as a percentage of my sales is below.” 2%So I spent very, very little on paid ads. However, they help. Instagram traffic ads and redirects to my website were good, along with a lot of influencer marketing and collaboration.”
Consistency is also important. When she posts on Instagram three to four times a week, she sees sales increase. Alexa sometimes sends out PR packages, but many of these creators find the brand and buy them themselves.
What customer stories reveal about the impact of the brand
Her first truly viral moment came about two and a half months later. Jesse from The Breast Chapter filmed herself post-surgery sitting with her husband as she opened her pathology results for the first time. She read that there were no signs of illness and they fell back onto the bed together. She was wearing Alexa’s shirt and Alexa had no idea it was coming.
“All of a sudden I get 20, 30 orders in an hour and I don’t know what’s going on. She had over 120,000 likes on Instagram. Then I looked at TikTok and she had over 1.2 million.”
Customers wear Killer Tits Club to their weekly chemo sessions and their double mastectomy appointments. In a single week, two women filmed themselves shaving their heads before chemotherapy while wearing the shirt.
“It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do. It used to be maybe a quiet, maybe shameful moment, and now they turn it into a feeling of pride. They see the shirt as armor, something they put on to be brave.”
None of this was part of the plan.
“I thought maybe I’d sell some funny shirts and that would be a month of my life. I never thought I’d build this.”
Learn the business side and build a career from home
Alexa didn’t plan on starting a business, so she skipped the usual setup steps. She didn’t get her certificates in order and couldn’t find a tax advisor before her first sale. That part came later.
What she gained goes far beyond the numbers. Before the brand, she worked as a housewife for a year. Now she has a career again without having to return to the office five days a week, and she can stay home with her baby. Within her first five or six months, she was contributing financially to supporting her family.
“Your mindset is everything. Being able to transform it into something where you have control over how you present your diagnosis to the world really encouraged me. And it’s so fulfilling to say that I own a business. I’m an entrepreneur and I make money.”
As profits increase, she wants to give back in a way that her community actually needs. That might include cancer research, but it’s also looking for funding for restorative nipple tattoos after a mastectomy or for fertility treatments that many women struggle with after chemotherapy.
Statement for AB1682, Scalp Cooling Access, in California
What Alexa wants every new seller to know
Alexa describes herself as a perfectionist and she admits that it held her back a few times in the beginning. Her main advice is to start before you have all the answers and then let your customers show you what to fix.
“Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Start small, test things and pay attention to what people respond to.”
Once something has arrived clearly, she says, focus on it and refine it rather than spreading yourself across too many ideas.
She also believes new sellers underestimate how far they can take a narrow niche. Targeting a very specific group gave their brand a clear identity from the start, even within a category as broad as breast cancer.
Her final advice is to stand out from the crowd. A safe brand is easy to forget.
“Do something different and bold. This name will stop you in your tracks and people will either love it or hate it.”
What’s next for Killer Tits Club?
Alexa is preparing its first major campaign, scheduled for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. The focus is on the Comeback Girls, the name she uses for the women in her community.
She selected seven survivors for editorial profiles. The group includes an ultramarathon runner, an ice climber, an anesthesiologist and a lawyer who runs her own business.
“The point is that cancer is the least interesting thing about us. I show who they are outside of cancer and hopefully inspire people to see how much their lives can go on despite the diagnosis.”
The women will also be modeling a few new products, which means fresh photography for their website. So far, Alexa has mostly modeled her designs herself, so seeing other women in them is a big step.
It also creates more space for people outside the cancer community. Backers are already buying designs like Comeback Girls, Soft Heart and Savage Spirit, and their upcoming Onward hat is for everyone.
“I always say it’s for survivors, survivors, fighters and supporters. Supporters are always welcome here.”
Alexa launched with a single pattern and no inventory. If you have an idea that people are asking about, test it with Printful. Create your first product and order a sample to see it in person before selling.
