Hi Merchies,

Issue #20 coming ‘atcha today, very nice.

A friendly PSA that Christmas is on the way. In a few days, it’s September. Then October. November usually follows… and then you’ve left it too late to set up those curated gift bundles to send to your valued customers, or to your team, or even to yourself for doing a good job. Do a different kind of good job, and get those gift packs designed, signed off, and shipped out with heaps of time to spare!

Gaz & Kayla

It’s only been a matter of time until I feature a Moomin merch line, my favourite character, of which I have travelled to many countries and locations just to collect his goods. This year, he is Breadtop’s annual character collab for the seasonal mooncakes, celebrating mid-autumn festival.

This year’s collab mooncakes come in a tin with a bonus jute tote bag. I of course, pre-ordered it as soon as it was announced. The mooncakes are a non-traditional lava custard flavour, so even if you don’t like or aren’t familiar with mooncakes you can still get into it.

Each year Breadtop, a self-serve Asian-Western fusion bakery chain, does a different IP collabe. Last year it was Snoopy/Peanuts and they released a box that turns into a lamp once you’ve eaten everything, and the year before that was Miffy. They also did a non-mooncake collab with Miffy, with blind-box style glass cups to collect.

Breadtop is a reasonably iconic brand for the Asian disapora in Australia, and character goods are also extremely popular in Asia. While this is an example of established brand collabs with another established brand for guaranteed, success, what we can take away from it is 1. People still love a mascot and 2. A tote with a purpose still goes hard.

I didn’t particularly love the Miffy tote because it was canvas, but a jute bag which focuses on the Moomin illustrations with an autumn vibe to it makes it very specific to a mood, a time, and a place which makes it way more appealing.

I’d casually glanced at this setup at The Commons coworking in Cremorne, Melbourne which is focused primarily on their in-house Health Club, and, being the merch maniac I have now become, took a bit of a closer look on the recent visit.

For those not aware of The Commons, it is a higher-end coworking operation that flits a nice line between high quality across the board without being too closed off to the wider public: lots of public engagement with events, meetups, cafe spots etc in their various locations across Melbourne and Sydney. A truly great space to work from that quite a few of the very best brands in Aus (and international) call home.

Because they have recently branched out into launching Health Clubs (pretty luxe gym and wellness operations) they have also done the lords work and curated some primo merch offerings alongside, including product from (I assume) their residents, and have done the whole public display thing to show off that A) they get it and B) were ready just in case DRIP DROp questioned “why not?“

As above. More brands could produce something with a little more utility than your standard fare. Shitty Gildan tee that gets destroyed in the wash, thin-in-quality-and-threadcount totes that end up storing muddy football boots etc etc - all a waste of time and whatever mental effort was applied.

Make some running caps. Some sweat-friendly tees. Gym towels, socks that work for lifting, stretching attire, a friggin’ glute roller, whatever! Good for your health 🫰

Check out the DRIP DROP Sublime for more merch inspo