Tesla's Elon Musk Launches A New Line Of Products -- Short Shorts
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/CNN) -- San Francisco Bay Area tech guru Elon Musk always likes to push envelop whether its building electric automobiles or launching rockets into space or selling personalized flamethrowers.
So it wasn't entirely surprising that he took to Twitter Monday to unveil his newest venture -- this one with a little bit of a smile. Musk is launching a line of short shorts.
Limited edition short shorts now available at https://t.co/5EmNcTBvJv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2020
Musk's Tesla is having a great year. Its stock is up 200% in 2020, its market value now exceeds every other carmaker on the planet, as well as Disney and Coke. CEO Elon Musk may truly have proved Tesla's haters wrong.
But it wouldn't be like Musk to celebrate quietly with a bottle of champagne (and maybe his friend and new Presidential hopeful, Kanye West).
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No, instead, Tesla is selling on its website a branded pair of red, satin short shorts — a jab at investors who "shorted" the company, essentially betting on its stock falling.
Unfortunately for any readers who would have been willing to shell out $69.420 (yes, really) for a pair of tiny Tesla gym shorts, they're already sold out. Apparently they went fast: Soon after announcing the shorts were on sale, Musk tweeted, "Dang, we broke the website."
"Tesla will make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim," Musk tweeted last week, hinting at the new merch. "Will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult times."
In typical Musk fashion, that tweet came shortly before another off-color quip apparently also aimed at his doubters and the Securities and Exchange Commission: "SEC, three letter acronym, middle word is Elon's."
Just last year, Tesla was strapped for cash. In May 2019, the electric carmaker was selling debt and additional shares of stock to raise $2.7 billion to replenish its coffers. A depressed share price forced the company to pay off a $920 million bond in cash rather than stock. In its ten-year history, the company had only posted a handful of quarterly profits.
But in January, the company posted its first-ever annual profit — and the company's positive momentum has continued from there.
Despite interruptions from the coronavirus pandemic — including stay-at-home orders which Musk referred to as "fascist" — Tesla last week posted relatively strong car delivery numbers for the second quarter of the year.
The company delivered 90,650 cars to customers during the quarter, down 5% from a year ago, but far less than the drops of 30% or more reported by other automakers. Tesla's second-quarter sales were also up a bit from the 88,400 cars it delivered in the first quarter.
The cars are celebrated on the new Tesla shorts. The rear of the shorts features each of the Tesla model numbers, "S3XY," emblazoned in gold lettering.
According to Tesla, the shorts will provide "exceptional comfort from the closing bell."