MLB barred Dion Cini for repeatedly hanging "Trump Won" banners at stadiums.- Cini sells the banners and other Trump merchandise; he said sales had surged since the stunts.
- Cini said his products are manufactured outside the US to cut costs.
The man who was recently barred from MLB venues for hanging "Trump Won" banners says he's watched his Trump-merchandise
Dion Cini, an avid supporter of Donald Trump who runs an online store called YugeFlags.com, said sales of his Trump products had surged since he dropped a "Trump Won" banner at Yankee Stadium on May 27. He posted body-camera footage of his stunt on Twitter and YouTube with a watermark advertising his website.
Cini said that dropping the banners at the Yankees game and other stadiums had sparked demand for his products after sales declined harshly following the Capitol insurrection on January 6.
"My factory can't even keep up with the amount of orders," Cini told Insider. "It went up thousands of percentages because there were no sales - well, not really no sales - between January 6 and early June. So sales were just flat for flags."
A viral photo of Cini's stunt at Yankee Stadium, where he and an accomplice hung the flag over the second deck as a fan gave him the middle finger from a lower level, has been valuable
"After the Yankees, the sales just exploded, and I didn't expect it, and the reason why is because of that money shot. That's what I'm always after - I'm always after the money shot," Cini said. "You can't pay for advertising like that. It would cost millions if not tens of millions of dollars to get that kind of advertising."
He added: "Another thing I've been trying to do is help Trump also get free advertising too by injecting the words 'Trump Won' into the media."
Cini took his stunts to Citi Field, Fenway Park, and Citizens Bank Park before getting a letter from MLB in June saying he was no longer allowed to attend games.
But Cini found a way to use his banishment to market his products. He told his followers on Twitter that if they purchased a banner from YugeFlags.com and posted a video of themselves hanging it at a sporting event, they'd get a full refund.
One person took Cini up on the offer by dropping a "Trump Won" banner during a San Diego Padres game at Petco Park.
-Dion Cini (@dioncini) July 6, 2021
"The secret of flag-dropping is not the flag drop, it's the photography," Cini said. "It's all part of the guerilla marketing experience."
He added: "I'm also getting phone calls from a lot of people who want me to work on their campaigns or work on their advertising agencies because I figured out an algorithm on how you can get $100 million in advertising for a $10 ticket."
Cini's business originates from a similar stunt at Yankee Stadium in July 2018, when he hung a "Trump 2020" banner during a game against the Kansas City Royals. Cini said Trump himself reached out to encourage him to continue hanging the banners.
"I am a software developer by trade ... I never sold a flag before that ever. I only started selling that because people were like, 'Wow, I like that flag, I wish I could have one,'" Cini said. "Then I started selling the flags outside of Trump Tower once a week for three years."
Cini turned that stunt into a growing business over the past three years. He's found ways to get not only cheap marketing but cheap manufacturing.
"I use an international factory," Cini said. "Unfortunately, I can't use an American factory because the cost of the manufacturing wouldn't justify the buyers, because nobody is going to spend $30 for a 3-by-5 flag, and that's what I'd have to charge."