Viet Hoang just planned to show off his arms and maybe give a few friends a a nice gift.
But when he designed a tank top with his own muscular version of Reddit’s alien in homage to the r/fitness community, he was overwhelmed with demand for his design.
He decided to turn all the buzz into something positive, by selling the shirts to support After-School All-Stars, the charity founded by the most famous member of /r/fitness and our executive editor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Why donate the profits when he knew he was sitting on a potential goldmine?
“I decided to donate to ASAS because of the awareness Arnold brought to it while crushing bench records, doing AMA’s, contributing to /r/fitness, and just being an awesome redditor,” Hoang says. “Support for after-school programs for children is just a no brainer. Both my parents were immigrants from Vietnam and migrated over during the War. When they decided to have my brother and I, they both had to work full time jobs to support our family. We were fortunate enough to have access to after-school programs which gave us a safe place to learn and have fun.”
His post drew the attention of the Austrian Oak himself. Arnold jumped into the conversation to thank him and shower him with compliments.
“I just saw this and I want to tell you three things I love about it.
You look fantastic. Absolutely ripped.
You’re creative. It is a great design and I need one.
You’re giving back. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that your first thought wasn’t profit but After-School All-Stars. I have a good feeling you’re either already really successful or you’re on your way.”
As of this writing, the tank top and t-shirt campaign on Booster.com has raised $3,720 dollars for After-School All-Stars, through the sale of 554 shirts.
Congratulations on making such a fantastic impact, Viet. And the arms aren’t too bad either.
