Raygun business owner wants Rachael Gunn in US after ‘insane’ interest in Australian breakdancer

One American business mogul loves Rachael “Raygun” Gunn’s Olympic exploits so much he wants to take her to the US, and he has the T-shirt to prove it.

Mike Draper is the founder of Raygun clothing, whose business has been ‘breaking’ internet records since our Aussie internet sensation strutted her stuff on the world stage in Paris.

Draper’s company have had to bow to worldwide weight of interest in Australia’s “Raygun” and declare themselves the ‘second most famous Raygun on the internet’.

“After 15 years of being the most famous Raygun in the world (at least measured by the internet search engines!), we’ve been bumped,” Draper declared.

“It’s insane!

“Like a lot of stuff that blows up, you’re not sure why this particular thing hit so hard. But after an initial text, it was maybe a day or so, and I got more text messages personally about this.

“We got more emails and messages as a company about this than any other thing that has ever happened — and we get a LOT of emails and messages.

“We even started getting some emails meant for Rachael herself.”

Sporting sales have always been a nice earner for the Raygun company but the whole experience has caused the successful business owner to pivot toward breakdancing and “Raygun” from Down Under.

“I watched a lot of the Olympics, and I knew Breaking was in the Games just because it was one of the new sports, but I didn’t plan on watching at that stage,” Draper says.

“I used to teach sailing and race Lasers, so the only Australian on my radar at the Olympics was Matt Wearn.

“Next thing the texts started flowing with people telling me ‘There’s an Australian breakdancer named Raygun at the Olympics’ and I thought, neat, but I never thought it would end up with this much attention.”

Draper has had other Raygun “experiences” recently but nothing like the attention this spotlight has stirred.

“Earlier this year, we heard there was a 10-year-old who did rodeo in Wyoming whose legal middle name was Raygun and there was also a guy in Georgia named Ray Gunn who used to order shirts from us, which we thought was funny ... but this is next level,” Draper said.

“We went back through and watched her performances, watched other performances, read about the back-story, heard the ‘conspiracy theory’ about how she cheated her way in and read the debunking of that.

“Honestly, like a lot of things like this, we still aren’t quite sure why it became so big.”

Earlier this week Rachael Gunn signed with a top management agency that represents some of Australia’s biggest influencers.

Born Bred Talent has a roster of stars including boxer Harry Garside, viral sensation MyNonnaFina and the juggernaut team The Inspired Unemployed.

The agency works with big brands including Swisse, Chemist Warehouse and Uber Eats and has secured deals for their talent to release fragrances, and vitamins and feature in ads and they can expect a call from Mark Draper as he tries to connect the two.

“We have reached out to Rachael and we’d love to connect. It would be awesome to bring her to Des Moines - or Chicago, or Omaha, or any of our stores,” Draper said.

“We have sponsored youth breaking groups in some of our cities and in Des Moines, this weekend, the local school breaking group is going to be performing under our giant ‘Raygun’ sign downtown.

“We know what she is going through on a smaller scale as we’ve been an internet-connected company and high-ish profile for over a decade. Just about anything can be turned into an opportunity and if she wants to spread awareness of Breaking, this is as good a gateway as anything.”

Mark Draper grew up in Des Moines, went to UPenn College and then spent a year abroad in Scotland before being rejected for a Masters fellowship.

Draper then started selling t-shirts soon after and moved back to Iowa to open a store.

Raygun has steadily grown into a $US10 million company with 10 stores, 120 employees, and a national brand footprint.