Hi Merchies,

Did you catch our Studio Session with Mercha this week? We’ve launched a new series highlighting the brands, people, and makers of the great merch we profile.

Quite funny too, as Sam said the merch he most wants to make is a custom mahjong set… and then 7eleven came out with a set literally the next day!

Yours in Great Merch 🙏

Gaz & Kayla

I attened MOVE 2026 yesterday, which is a transport and logistics conference (my day job is surprisingly not merch) and of course was eagle eyed for who had the coolest stuff.

Not a lot of merch, period, but there were two that stood out for totally opposite reasons.

The first was a water bottle which looked like an insulated, metal bottle, and then as soon as it was handed to you, you realised it was a cheap plastic bottle. The person I was with mentioned “as soon as they handed it to me, I wanted to hand it back.”

Of course, we took it out of politeness, and then back at the office immediately handed them off to whoever wanted them. This is not the goal of merch.

The merch I loved, and which when I showed to people they said “I want one, can we go back so I can get one too” was from Transport for NSW! They had kits to make paper buses and keychains with the ferry “F”. The conversation around this was very much “I wish they had the metro M because I get the metro” or “I wish they had the T for trains”.

A lesson in investing in iconography! (And another sample to add to my list of “evidence that paper merch is the best merch”)

From a brand perspective, invest in simple, memorable icons that people can grow attached to. Personally, I never realised how much I would love receiving a ferry keychain, and even though I already have too many keychains, I instantly thought of a friend who loves the Sydney ferry and would be ecstatic to receive one.

Even if your product is not the transport your customer commutes on every single day, what is something you can attach yourself to? Something local, something symbolic, anything not generic that other brands are doing (i.e. if you work in software, not a cloud)

Anything is better than nothing!

Occasionally, I’ll head out into the wild (leave my neighbourhood) and do a bit of interviewing. I do this in a few different ways for a few different publications (my own, others) but I had a particular photo/quick story to capture this week in Sydney, and that’s where I kick off this edition’s contribution for DRIP DROP.

I signalled out to Sydney that I was in it this week HERE, and I was keen to discuss merch (of which I have been making some of my own lately)

I had however contacted Rayn Ong - angel investor and Partner at Archangel Ventures - in advance to let him know that I was in town, and “hey not trying to be weird or anything, but can I come past your house and take a photo of your merch?”

Rayn said yes. Not to the invite into the bedroom, but yes to the catchup, so it was off to Kirribilli Hotel in Sydney for the very important meeting.

Rayn, for those who don’t know, has actively been talking up his merch collection for a number of years, such is his involvement in numerous companies he has invested in, funded himself, helped fund, mentor, or work with in some way. TL;DR, he has tons of hats, tons of t-shirts, tons of people asking to send him tees, and yet only one request from a merch newsletter to visit his bedroom that I am aware of yet.

Rayn headed over with a literal duffle bag full of caps and the prized collection: the tees of the companies who have become the ‘unicorns ‘ - those being the ones hitting their billion dollar valuations and taking on the world. Won’t lie, pretty cool when you see it all laid out on a table - The Cap Table, IYKYK - signifying the many thousands and thousands of startups Rayn has involved himself with over the years.

Anyway, wrote a post about that catchup HERE and in the startup context, Rayn’s actually made quite a significant dent in terms of people appreciating good merch, adn wanting to get their merch seen. Plenty of companies will send him the tee or the cap, and he’s happy to show it off. I must remember this next time I book a meeting with Rayn in his bedroom or close enough, lest I rock up without any actual DRIP DROP merch to pass on.

No great lesson here today I’m afraid. Help tons of startup founders grow their companies and fund them over many many years? But, without being too facetious about it, most definitely ask who you want to be wearing your merch whether they would indeed, wear your merch.