Hi merch mavens,

Sometimes Good merch (with a capital G) just means connecting with your audience. Whether it’s a hobby, a value, or street cred, your merch can touch on different parts of identity.

For example, you don’t need to be a sports org to make sports themed merch:

Want to set up product marketing at your org (SaaS or not)? Kayla literally wrote the book on it, and if you get a physical copy you’ll get a sticker and a bookmark to go with it. She even worked with a childrens’ book illustrator for the cover and inside illustrations 🐛 Available as an ebook in the Kindle and Kobo stores or…

Lifeblood’s merch is exclusively available as rewards for donating blood, with one item redeemable every three donations. The items are all functional, but signal that you’re a blood donor, an honourable and selfless act. And then you get to show off your selflessness with merch!

The socks are a great callout because part of the culture of donating blood is taking a #shoefie, aka, a photo of your feet from in the donation chair. So now, if you participate in a shoefie, you can do it with Lifeblood socks and shoelaces.

Lifeblood uses icons and symbols (visible on the hats in particular) instead of logos, making it a subtler IYKYK type of merch. If your brand doesn’t have custom icons, they’re a great asset to invest in.

As opposed to highlighting some global brand and their merch, I dug into the archives for this one to profile Climate Reporting crew Netnada and a merch drop they announced around a year ago or so.

Founder Afonso Firma asked the question: “what does merch for a climate software company looks like?" So they set about embodying the ethos of the brand, for something sustainable, meaningful, and thoughtful.

And the result was a chefs kiss example turning pre-loved finds into one-of-a-kind merch (that actually means something.)

Printed in Sydney at Halo Print Co, each piece carries the spirit of exploration, sustainability, and community - just like NetNada.

You can see that post HERE highlighting an exercise in ensuring no two pieces were the same. V cool.

This is some out-of-the-box thinking that embodies the brand via thoughtful and intentional merch creation. Pre-loved is always an option, and these bespoke jackets are something I would rep with pride happily. Food for thought the next time the thought that crosses your mind is “a tote, maybe?”

Love the back patch treatment on the jackets. Hell yeah.

Hungry for more merch content?

Check out the DRIP DROP Sublime for more merch inspo