Local trio welcomes holidays and 'ugly' sweater season with new book

When Adam Paulson was contacted earlier this year by a literary agent pitching a book project about ugly sweaters and themed parties dedicated to the worst of the worst in wool, he was skeptical.

"In the past year, we've had many offers and people contacting us with their ideas, so you never know who to take seriously," said Paulson, who lives in Crown Point and is now busier than ever with his business partner buddies running uglychristmassweaterparty.com.

"But of the three of us, now that we've divided duties, I'm the guy doing the communications and media, so I thought I'd better Google the name of the literary agent. Turns out, this person is the some one who repped the book 'Marley & Me' and this is the real deal."

Less than a year later, and just in time for this month's holiday gatherings, Paulson, 29, and partners Kevin Wool, 30, also from Crown Point and Brian Miller, 30, from St. John, are now autographing their new 152-page hardcover, "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book" (Abrams Press $16.95), which they just launched with an appearance Friday on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show."

Not bad for Paulson and Miller, both 2000 graduates of Lake Central High School and Wool, a 1999 graduate from Crown Point High School, as they enjoy a fast sleigh ride of new found success built on bad taste.

The trio, who attended Indiana State University and became friends in fall 2000, now answer to the tag of "Team Ugly" and are becoming household names as the men behind the extremely popular website — uglychristmassweaterparty.com — that was unveiled in 2009.

What started as an idea after they attended their first "ugly sweater" themed holiday party in 2006 is now becoming a major business venture and their full-time job, including running an online sales story of re-purposed Christmas-cringe sweaters sold for decades as holiday wardrobe staples.

They have a warehouse in Crown Point with an inventory of more than 15,000 holiday eyesore sweaters just waiting to be scooped up by online customers.

But they say their book is the "something shiny and new" they are proudest of for their 2011 holiday wish list.

"It's great to be asked on 'The Tonight Show' and we've done some of the national morning shows," Paulson explained.

"But the idea of getting these sweaters back into wardrobes for the holidays as conversation starters is only part of what our website is about. The really fun is throwing the holiday parties themed with guests wearing their best sweater finds. This new book helps with all of the planning for these parties, from drink recipes and party games to the invites, and also has a gallery of photos of 100 of our own personal ugly sweater favorites for our 'Hall of Fame' chapter."

He said it came together quickly, with the guys gathering together in the evenings during the off-season summer months, sharing a beverage of choice, and brainstorming for ideas to include in the book, which was sent to the printer well before the first chilly temps of the season.

And while imitation might be considered a form of flattery by some, Paulson and his pals emphasize they believe their website and sweater offerings far outshine any competitors.

"The newest trend is there are more and more businesses and websites now manufacturing new ugly-looking sweaters and selling intentional bad designs," Paulson said.

"What makes the whole concept so fun and creative is the hunt for just the right ugly sweater and knowing, that at one point, these garments were designed and sold brand new and purchased by someone else who thought they really looked good at the time."

And of all of the ugly sweaters, which sell for $24 each, one of the favorite options that always gets a chuckle are the patterns they call "16-Bit Sweaters."

"The number refers to the quality ability of the earlier printer patterns, if you think back to the types of art and graphics early computers were capable of producing back then," Paulson said.

"So the result would be all of these boxy snowmen or odd-looking distorted Santas, snowman and other images, which I'm sure seemed very cool and hip during that era of the late 1980s and early 90s."