The Detroit Free Press takes a look at the entrepreneurship of the Insane Clown Posse, the Motor City duo who head up an empire that brings in—please take a second to finish whatever beverage you’re drinking—upwards of $10 million a year. They have the Gathering, of course, as well as tie-in DVDs and action figures and T-shirts and a forthcoming sequel to their 2001 film Big Money Hustlas. The combination of capitalist force and music-business longevity has even garnered them something that’s more priceless—respect!

Violent J, now a 37-year-old father of two, points to an upcoming positive article in Spin magazine — which once trashed the band in cartoon format.

Very important, that. (Look for the Slate companion piece, “No, Wait, The Insane Clown Posse Were Actually Pretty Crappy,” to come soon.) But even more important is the bottom line that they’ve been able to bolster simply by keeping their merchandising in-house!

The group’s 4,500-square-foot warehouse is lined with towering shelves of Psychopathic stock, including merch for acts such as Twiztid and Boondox. Forklifts negotiate big pallets of boxes destined for retailers such as Spencer’s Gifts and Hot Topic, while staffers process Web-order sales. Overhead is a new embroidery shop, where machinists stitch ICP’s distinct hatchet-man logo onto jackets, shirts and hats, all made in-house. Most acts farm out merch duties to specialty firms, who take a cut of revenue. Keeping it in-house likely saves ICP up to 20%, estimates merch industry veteran Bill Blackwell.

Which means: More Faygo for everyone. Merch masters ICP cash in on Detroit music culture [Detroit Free Press via The Daily Swarm]