Written in July 2023
Photo via @dannygoffical1 on instagram
From two brothers growing up playing sports together, to revolutionizing social media to millions across multiple platforms, Danny and Zach Guarino have had an incredible ride to success. Both brothers, young and fresh out of college, have made waves with their unique and fun twist on online sports content. Whether it’s 20 questions to guess a random item, drafting things from a variety of themes, or guessing the combined ages of celebrities, they never fail to entertain. I had a chance to talk to them about the backstory of “TheBreadbasket”, and how they’ve been able to pull it off.
It all started with two young kids from Denver, both very similar but unique in their own ways. Zach and Danny played three sports in high school, and both continued with soccer into college. They headed their separate ways for schooling, as Zach attended Whittier College to pursue business, and Danny went to Belmont University while making music on the side. “That’s what I always wanted to do was music, I was in choirs and doing music theory and all that stuff. So that’s just something I love a lot, but what I’ve realized was I thought music was what I love, but it’s really just creating and making things out of nothing, which is what I love so that’s why I got into content,” Danny remarked.
As the boys continued through college, Danny started to diversify on his content creation and started picking up some views. His family “believed in what [he] was doing before there was any progress or evidence that it was going to work,” as Danny described. After a while, the brothers started their own short-form videos together for their new social media account, better known as “TheBreadbasket”. “We kind of just posted random stuff in the beginning because we didn’t really have direction with our content, didn’t have much of an idea of what we wanted it to look like, but then on October 1st [2022], we posted our first draft,” said Zach. The brothers encapsulated their love of sports perfectly while creating their style of videos, with Zach describing it as “we’re talking about a grape as a good team leader, like that’s like the joke is we’re relating normal everyday stuff to sports.”
Even though separated, the followers and views started piling up for the brothers, as they began to continue diversifying their content. “You just gotta be open to inspiration and letting whatever hits you, hit you. As long as you keep doing it and stay consistent, you’ll keep the ideas coming,” Danny noted. They’ve risen to millions of followers and substantial view counts across platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram, with their growth not declining in the slightest. Both Zach and Danny mentioned Dave Portnoy as an inspiration for them and their content. Zach described Portnoy as “every step of the way he just follows where the attention is.” Danny admires how Portnoy’s company, Barstool Sports, “didn’t know exactly where they would be in 10 years when Portnoy started it, but they were grinding and they believed they were going to be something big, so I think that’s kind of our motto, so we’re just going to keep cooking and see what happens.”
“I get to wake up and make videos for a living and live with my brother, and that’s what I’m doing so that’s obviously the pro it’s incredible. I would say what’s hard with the content is it’s not super stable and predictable like people that have a job,” said Danny. Because of their fame online, they’ve gotten to make videos with people like Nick Jonas, Richard Jefferson, and Barbara Corcoran, along with being able to play in the Denver Nuggets’ home arena during the NBA finals. “We love Denver, we obviously love the Nuggets, we just came from a really good community, went to really good school with really good teachers, and really good families around us. Denver really just shaped who we are and what we’re doing. So we definitely want to be intentional about representing Denver and the 303,” noted Danny. “My favorite moments have been the moments where we’re like, whatever happens, nobody can take this away from us,” Zach remarked.
Their internet virality and unique, personalized content has even furthered the strong bond between the Guarino brothers. “Me and Danny have just been buddies the whole time,” “we would play MLB 10 The Show and go on GarageBand and record ourselves calling it like the radio, just two little kids talking but you could see that’s it’s exactly the same as we are now. I think [TheBreadbasket] has only just made our bond stronger because we talk more and communicate every day,” said Zach. They’ve just recently moved in together, and plan to settle permanently in somewhere like Santa Monica soon.
The brothers have stayed true to their family, roots, hometown, and everything that makes them so strong together. TheBreadbasket has shown to be a major success, with no end in sight. They aim for a full length podcast, fleshed out merchandise line, and much more. But at the end of the day, Zach and Danny Guarino have perfectly shown how to entertain in such a unique way while staying true to themselves and their brotherhood.
THANK YOU to Danny and Zach for their time to interview, you can check out the full recordings on my website or Youtube.
Adam Cooke Journalism 