Hi Merchies,

Spring has truly sprung here in Sydney & Melbourne, which means our favourite type of merch (i.e. seasonal merch) is ready to bloom just like the flowers.

For our northern hemisphere merchies, pumpkin spice goods, Halloween themes, and general cosiness is the vibe to lean into, while us southerners are ready to soak up the sun, picnic, drink cocktails, and get outdoors.

Let that inspire your merch, and remember to give your suppliers good lead times!

Gaz & Kayla

I went to a concert a few weeks ago (South Arcade if you’re up for some contemporary emo/pop punk) and noticed all the AV guys were decked out in Rode long sleeves, which got me thinking about audio companies.

So I checked out the merch stores of both Rode and Audio Technica and…. underwhelmed is an understatement!

Audio Technica literally only have three T-shirts, all $50 with a logo on the chest. Rode wins by default for having more items, but honestly the selection is not much better. T-shirts, long sleeves, caps, beanies, a tote bag, and a coffee table book of the company’s history is all they offer. While the book is kinda cool, the merch is all just a BIG logo.

So, do better! Your customers love your products and your brand, but don’t treat them like billboards. If they’re buying your merch they’re probably also very “in the know” so make some subtle IYKYK type merch and play into things like status signalling (spotting someone in a crowd wearing IYKYK merch and being like “a ha, a fellow connoisseur” is way more fun for both parties.)

If you have a stock standard range, which isn’t a crime but is unimaginative for such creative companies, get creative with your design. Can you take an element of the logo that’s not the whole logo itself?

Invest in other design elements (patterns, shapes, textures) that you can use on your merch in place of, or complementary to your logo.

Stop being lazy!!!!

Absolutely GOLDEN age for cinema this year in 2026, with plenty of doozies released/to be released, thanks to people with a great vision producing or bidding for distribution for such bangers as Obsession, It Ends, The Backrooms and even upcoming releases like DC’s Clayface (which by all accounts leans heavily into body horror)

We’ve talked previously about the infamous popcorn buckets being produced (Drip Drop #5) - many of which lean into the risqué so the internet can get to work sharing it, but they know what works, what people now expect in merch creativity, and by all accounts, people are flocking to the cinema again in droves, in a sort of rejection of the recent flick-happy malaise we have found ourselves in after years of streaming.

Resident Evil - a re-do courtesy of Zach Cregger of Weapons fame - has followed suit, putting together an on-brand organ transplant popcorn bag for Regal Cinemas screening, and I’m so here for it. Looks, as the kids say: “Mint.”

Less on the massive marketing budgets that studios would pour into promoting movies like this for audiences that will lap the viewing experience - and the merch - up, and instead, just centering on the EVENT aspect of it all. Go whimsical, go weird, go stunt, go memorable…do anything that your brand could be known for based on a core campaign, and go own it. And who knows? People might even share it around heavily. I handed out Lego Tractors for 3 years there and people went nuts for that, so whether its self-designed, or simply memorable gifting: a-thing-that-isnt-a-tote-bag has a 666% chance of being remembered every time.

Check out the DRIP DROP Sublime for more merch inspo