David Dermer and his wife Linda faced every entrepreneur’s nightmare: the wholesale suppliers they depended on for their fashion jewelry business became their direct competitors. Sales dropped. They let go of longtime employees who had become friends, scrambled for side work, and watched a business they’d spent years building teeter toward closing.
Then an e-mail arrived from Amazon.
“Amazon sent a letter and said, hey, would you like to sell your brand in the store? I mean, it’s just like a gift from God,” recalled Dermer, CEO of Funky Junque.
Today, Funky Junque is a family-owned and -run headwear brand based in Northbrook, Illinois, celebrating 25 years in business this August. The company hit $10 million in sales in 2025 and has posted 47% year-over-year growth. They have also expanded to selling in Amazon stores in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.
Funky Junque uses Amazon’s Creative Studio to generate lifestyle images, video ads from static product images, and ready-to-run audio ads.
When they started selling in Amazon’s US store in 2013, the Dermers first tried selling their fashion jewelry—without success. They pivoted to boot cuffs, then beanies, which took off immediately. When seasonal demand shifted, they transitioned again to baseball caps, trucker hats, and year-round headwear. The business now has 5,000 active product listings in the Amazon store.
Dermer credits his step-daughter, Lauren Brzys, with creating hats that they sell well. As the product development lead, her creations now account for more than 60% of sales. Brzys draws product inspiration from pop culture, then validates ideas using Amazon data. One of her first designs, her bachelorette party trucker hats remain one of Funky Junque’s top-20 items and her two-tone hat design holds the #1 bestseller position in both women’s and kids’ novelty baseball cap categories.
With each strategic decision to test new products and pivot at the right moment, Funky Junque has consistently grown. They sell headwear across women’s, men’s, baby, toddler, and kids categories, including beanies available in 30–50 colors and hats featuring 30–100 sayings.
“Everyone says that creating your own website will control your destiny. But the customers Amazon brings you, people don’t recognize how much that costs to acquire on your own,” Dermer explained. “How many people buy more than one or two hats a year? You’re not getting the kind of repeat business and brand loyalty in a hat that is worth the investment. Our brand loyalty is being under Amazon’s umbrella and the comfort customers have buying on Amazon.”
Amazon sent an e-mail and said, hey, would you like to sell your brand in the store? I mean, it’s just like a gift from God.
Amazon seller tools help Funky Junque stay lean and efficient. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which lets sellers outsource order fulfillment to Amazon and offer customers free, two-day shipping through Prime, handles 90% of Funky Junque’s orders.
Funky Junque has also seen their shopper conversion rates increase by 57 percent year-to-date, driven by Amazon’s AI tools. One of those tools is Creative Studio to generate lifestyle images, video ads from static product images, and ready-to-run audio ads. They also build their product listings with Amazon’s A+ Content and optimize them for Alexa for Shopping, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant.
“AI just changed the game completely,” Dermer said. “Half of it is the quality of the product and half of it is the quality of our visuals, our content, our marketing.”
Looking ahead, Dermer envisions his granddaughters eventually running the business. “Amazon is great for small business and it’s great no matter what age you’re at,” Dermer said. “Amazon brings the customers, technology, and help.”