Revolt merch scam: Everything you need to know!

Selling merchandise is one of the simplest ways for content creators to monetarize their fanbase. All you require is a drop shipping company that creates merch (with your preferred designs, logo, tagline, or quote), stores the inventory in their warehouse, and ships it when you receive the order. However, finding a trustworthy merchandise partner is one of the hardest factors in this otherwise perfect plan! Ryan Piasente’s Revolt is one of those merch companies that have been accused of conducting financial fraud, sending inferior quality merch, not paying content creators, and even engaging in predator-like behavior. In this article, we have talked about the Revolt merch scam in detail.

Revolt merch scam: A quick overview

Revolt merch scam involves financial fraud committed by Ryan Piasente in the merchandise business.

The main accusations are as follows.

·      Having hundreds of thousands in outstanding payments to content creators

·      Delivering inferior merchandise

·      Not delivering on time or missing delivery at all

·      Misrepresenting the financial statements

·      Manipulating cost of goods sold (COGS)

·      Charging creators more than the actual factory cost

·      Failing to respond to 100k+ customer support tickets

·      Asking for n*des from content creators, including a minor in exchange for money

·      S*xually assault content creators

Revolt merch scam: In detail

For more than a year, there have been scattered negative reviews going about Revolt's merch but for the first time, online investigator Stephen Findeisen, who is a Youtuber and founder of Coffeezilla, a subscription-based page on Patreon, has come up with a well-conducted investigation video about the revolt merch scam on 27 Dec 2023.

He started the video by mentioning that he received a tip from an anonymous person about Revolt’s financial scams. When he started investigating, content creators from Misfit complained about the missing payments and delivery delays but most of them wanted to stay anonymous. Later on, Coffeezilla was successful in collecting robust proofs and having people give their statements on record.

How did the problem start?

Phase 1: Financial mismanagement

Ryan Piasente had a spending problem which he also confessed in a video. According to Coffeezilla, they found receipts of the following transactions done by Ryan during their investigation. Ryan was paying these bills from their business account, Revolt Enterprise LLC, and not from his private account.

·      6 private jets in a month

·      1,000s of dollars every night on dinner

·      $25,000/week for an LA rental mansion

·      $20,000/week to rent a Ferrari  

·      2021- 20 million just from 5 merch drops

According to Coffeezilla, Ryan Piasente was mismanaging the funds. For example, let's say, Revolt makes $1M from Bob's branded licensed merch. Ryan spends all this money for his personal usage instead of paying Bob's share from it. Later on, Revolts made $1.5M from another creator named Alice. Ryan pays Bob $1M from this money, spends the rest of the money, and waits for the next consignment from another creator to pay Alice).

Phase 2: Minimum guarantee

Revolt also brought popular influences to the platform to sell their licensed brand name merch. These creators required a big minimum guarantee i.e. a minimum baseline amount even if the merch is a success or a failure. But a lot of them didn't do well.

Hence, Ryan started facing issues with paying the minimum guaranteed amount plus having previous pending transactions to creators. 

Phase 3: Non-payments to creators

Creators started complaining on record about the non-payment. For example, a creator Tubbo said in an interview that he doesn’t want to talk about the company (Revolt) that made his merch because they stole his money. Another creator Niki Nihachu said to Coffeezilla that Revolt owes her $300,000.

Coffeezilla also showed proof of how Revolt overestimated revenue numbers to bring Mr. Beast to onboard and later on, charged him more than the actual factory purchased prices.

Phase 4: Logistic issues

According to an employee, Revolt was facing logistic issues. They were not able to handle thousands of orders every day which caused delays in orders.

Customers started posting online that their money had been debited from the bank but they hadn't received their merch and the customer support was not helping, either.

An insider told Coffeezilla that by Dec 2021, Revolt had over 100,000 open customer support tickets, mostly for items not being shipped or quality issues.

When Revolt started to face financial troubles, they were unable to pay for storage facilities. Hence, they tried to get rid of the unsold merch on eBay and later, donated a large chunk of merch to the thrift stores.

More serious accusation

While investigating Revolt’s financial frauds, Coffeezilla also comes across some disturbing accusations against Ryan Piasente. Many creators reached out and talked about sexual exploitation and predator-like behavior from Ryan. He was also asking for naked pictures from creators in exchange for money, which was paid from Revolt's official account.

Looking for a better and more ethical alternative to Revolt? Try Stitchi

The Revolt merch scam serves as a stark reminder for creators about the potential harm a misguided merch partner can inflict, affecting both their finances and mental well-being. At Stitchi, our utmost priority is fostering ethical business practices. A substantial 70% of our merchandise is proudly crafted in the US and exemplifies top-notch quality. Our track record includes collaborations with major brands like Morning Brew and smaller enterprises such as MagLaw. For business inquiries, kindly contact us at hello@stitchi.co. Explore our impressive catalog as well!

 Final Words on Revolt Merch Scam

We haven't heard about any official police inquiries or lawsuits against Revolt or Ryan yet. The entire Revolt merch scam is an indication of how mismanagement of money and not having long-term financial planning can ruin a well-established and high-performing business. We are thankful for investigators like Stephen Findeisen for exposing such frauds and saving thousands of other creators being victims. If you are a creator or know any creator looking for a better (and ethical) Revolt alternative, recommend Stitchi. As an early-stage startup, we embody a dynamic spirit of growth while maintaining high professional standards.