Parkland school shooting survivor and gun control advocate David Hogg plans to launch his own pillow company with the goal of competing against embattled bedding company MyPillow.
The idea was posed to Hogg, 20, in a tweet from entrepreneur William LeGate on Thursday that questioned whether the duo should start a pillow company to “put MyPillow out of business.”
The CEO and founder of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and has repeatedly promoted false claims of fraud about the 2020 presidential election.
“Mike the ‘my pillow guy’ … This pillow fight just got very real,” Hogg tweeted on Thursday.
Though it might have initially seemed like a joke, Hogg later said that he was serious about the business venture. He tweeted a list of goals for the future company, which included supporting progressive causes and hiring formerly incarcerated Americans.
“The website will be up in a couple weeks we are very much in the early stages right now,” Hogg said. “But we really are doing this if you have cool name ideas dm me- we think we have one but we are still open.”
Hogg became a household name in 2018 after a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Hogg has since become an outspoken advocate for reforming gun laws and joined several of his classmates in the founding of March for Our Lives, a student-led gun control organization.
LeGate also tweeted about the venture, asking any US-based manufacturers with experience making pillows to reach out to him.
Lindell told NBC News last month that “a group has attacked my vendors” and that retailers called him saying they had been threatened with “a boycott if they don’t comply” and drop his products. Major chains such as Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s dropped MyPillow products amid backlash to Lindell’s outspoken support for election fraud conspiracy theories.
The MyPillow Twitter account was suspended after Lindell attempted to use it when his own personal account was banned over false claims. Twitter confirmed to NBC news on Monday that the corporate account was removed for a violation of Twitter’s “ban evasion policy.”
Lindell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
*story by NBC News
