Local Guy’s Viral ‘One Tiny Hand’ Is Branching Out

Images provided via Zach Vitale/Original Handsome

It was pretty unforeseen when Zach Vitale’s quirky blog One Tiny Hand went viral. What was once just founder Zach Vitale’s subversive hobby of distorting photos of celebs (Tom, Mitt, Jay, Bey, etc.) is now on its way to building a name beyond the internet.

Vitale is a photo retoucher out of Boston and the guy behind the tiny hand; he’s worked on a number of projects for print magazines around the country (including our shiny portrait of Charlie Baker). Vitale told us that a Chinese designer reached out to him last fall about utilizing his image of Kim Jon-un for a canvas bag. It’s a perfect gag gift for just about anyone who thrives on internet memes—and it’ll even come with a plastic tiny hand (as pictured with the designer’s grandmother above).

The brand, called Original Handsome, is just starting out, and was interested in using the tiny hand “as a form of cheeky, humorous protest that they thought would be well received in China,” Vitale told us. Seems weird and kind of arbitrary, but Vitale said that was the appeal for him.

“I’m not actively looking to build a brand or anything with the tiny hands at the moment. This is kind of a fun, quirky extension of a fun, quirky website,” he said. “I like helping out people who are just starting out. These guys had a cool vision, and the idea of using subversive humor as a subtle form of protest is really attractive to me, so it was cool to partner with them on this.”

When we originally caught up with Vitale in January, he said the brand didn’t have any plans for bringing the canvas bags over to the U.S. He explained that brand’s image rights were restricted to China, and wanted to see how the bag played out in the Chinese market anyway. But since then, Vitale informed us that Original Handsome is in the process of securing image rights in the States, and working out the copyrights here.

It looks like the bags are going to be released on a rolling basis, however. Original Handsome’s website is still underway, and is expected to be active in March. The bags will be available in China around the same time, and then in the U.S. in the following months.

So stay tuned. You know your own grandmother may want one.