This T-Shirt Niche Is 8 Days Old — And Half the Sellers Will Get Banned (Lake America)
About this video
The creator argues that a t-shirt niche about eight days old arose after, in his account, an August 27 executive order renamed Lake Ontario to Lake America, ordering the Interior Department to update the official names database within 30 days, with Google Maps updating two days later. He says both sides are emotional and buying: he shows 862 Amazon results for ‘Lake America shirt’ with sales ranks around 60K-110K, and over a thousand results for ‘Lake Ontario t-shirt’ with some ranks around 10K-42K. His central claim is that no one can own a descriptive place name, so ‘Lake Ontario’ and ‘Lake America’ are free to use — with a disclaimer that he is not a lawyer — but everything around the name is risky. He gives seven rules: no real names or faces; no official seals, logos or emblems; no screenshots or photos you do not own — draw your own lake; search the phrase first because he shows pending trademark filings for ‘Lake America’; know each platform’s line on political content versus hate, violence or pretending to be official; keep one lane per listing (pro, protest or history, never mixed); and treat news niches as a sprint, listing within the week while building a longer-term Q4 catalog. He demonstrates Ideogram designs for both sides, such as ‘Lake America established August 27th, 2026’ as transcribed, and ‘It will always be Lake Ontario,’ and promotes his Top Research Design Vault, described as $10/month with over 2,300 niches and 20 new niches weekly.
Key takeaways
- His thesis: descriptive place names themselves are not ownable, but names/faces, seals/logos, and copied screenshots/photos around them create ban and takedown risk
- Search the exact phrase for pending trademark filings before designing, even for a geographic name
- Keep pro, protest and history angles in separate listings with separate keywords — never mix opposing lanes in one listing
- Create your own lake artwork, e.g. in Ideogram, rather than using Google Maps screenshots or signing/wire photos
- Treat a news-driven niche as a short sprint: list fast, ride the search wave, and do not build your whole shop on a headline
Episode details: published September 3, 2026 · 9:33 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.
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