Hi Merchies,

It’s Global Champagne Day today. Allow us to raise a glass to you (if you have great merch.)

We’re working on curating our EOY list of favourite pieces we have curated for DRIP DROP, which means you have precisely 8 issues after this one to get your merch featured in our 2026 ‘TIP TOP’ list. Contact us about it HERE!

Speaking of 2026, if you haven’t turned your attention to gift-giving procurement yet, you’re missing out. We’ll regularly feature groups that do great merch - such as last week’s Studio Notes with Mercha - so shout out if this is on your mind, and we’ll send you in the right direction.

Yours in Great Merch 🙏

Gaz & Kayla

Sometimes, you have something that's functional but ugly, like in the case of the national parks membership card with Donald Trump's face on it. 

Other times, you rebrand and still want to keep your old merch/products for sentimental reasons but also want it to be updated to your new branding, like musician daisy* who rebranded from BABii.

The solution is create merch to cover up the old or unsavoury. 

The National Parks gift stores sell perfectly aligned card covers that still display the identifiable parts of the membership card but cover Trump's face, and daisy* released stickers specifically designed to place over their previous CDs' logo with the new one (and here’s the store listing.) 

Separately, I also came across this Reddit thread where someone received merch with a design element they didn't like (tote bag with a nude illustration) but they didn't want to create waste and throw it out. The thread then includes a bunch of suggestions on how to cover it up, from embroidering clothes to attaching snaps and making a whole, interchangeable wardrobe for it.

P.S. A merchie told me this week they wanted more photos in the newsletter, so if you have a request just let us know! We’ll act on it!

Got something everyone in your industry has but it's kinda ugly? Or even just bland standard issue items that could be personalised or decorated a little are brainstorm starting points. 

Create stickers with a very specific size and shape to cover something up, or re-create the item from scratch. Check out the pharmaceutical merch highlights we did in issue #14 for inspo!

I had this insane dream on the weekend, with all these crazy random thoughts invading my brain space after a huge week spent in Sydney, where I talked to a bunch of crazy random people about crazy random things, so you can see how the ouroboros draws itself.

I had had merch on my mind when there, as I both wore my own new merch when there and also chatted to Kayla about our plans for DRIP DROP in 2027 as we grow the newsletter, feature way more merch designs from around the world that inspire us/make us want to scream, and advocate for better design, care, consideration, taste and general badassery in someone’s confidence level to produce something baller for their company, or themselves.

So, I’ve had this dream, and since I can barely remember anything from them ordinarily, I had this image stuck in my mind with no discernible detail attached. Couldn’t place it, couldn’t recall it, almost as frustrating as trying to place that actor from that movie, but drawing a blank on both.

Thank god for showers then. As the recall literally washed over me and the true prophecy of shower thoughts was realised.

I’d seen this workwear jacket by Off Menu a couple of months ago in a linkedin post- they’re a New York based branded merchandise company, and it’s living rent free in my dreams now as one of the most solid pieces I’ve stumbled upon in my merch investigations, potentially due to the fact that it’s exactly my style of coach/workwear-jacket-meets-creative-design. We featured it in a brief text mention in Issue 22. I can’t get enough of it so today we’re going back to the well. COP THIS.

Now that, is some inspired design right there. My compliments to the chef. It’s hectic, has multiple elements printed so it’s taken a few passes to produce each one, and just generally gives off an impression of A) confidence and B) fuck yeah.

You can produce anything you want to, merch-wise. In any colour variant you want, with any logo treatment that makes sense to you, for any season, in any quantity, as hectic as you need or as demure as you require.

So, WHY, THE FUCK, is a tiny logo whipped up in canva, printed small and in low res on a soon to be mothball-eaten gildan t-shirt that barely fits right, acceptable to you as you rep your brand? Have some pride in your work. (And by the way, I have nightmares too on occasion, but I remember them just fine.)

Anyway, Kayla and I are going to feature our favourite merch of the year in our EOY list last issue, and this piece of deliciousness is highly likely to take out my top prize.

Unless of course, you can do better.

And we will only know you’ve done better, if you send us your merch to scope and judge, and that my friends, is enough DRIP DROPPED ranting for today. Good chat. Merch can be submitted HERE!

Take a leap and produce a bespoke piece - a 1:1 and find a local merch company that you believe has some great taste, and just get someone in your team to rep it with pride. Suffocated by option paralysis on what actual item of clothing to use? Literally go to Uniqlo or AS Colour website or even just a good old fashioned heuristic search for the exact style of jacket you actually like that is plain, then print on that and just wear it as an everyday piece. I did exactly that on my last merch printing exercise: Uniqlo shacket for $79, Jack & Jones Navy Coach Jacket on clearance for $59, AS Colour Army Green Chore jacket for $90, and then printed 3 bespoke designs on each of those which added up to about $150 in printing costs total? (some embroidery and a t-shirt print in there too for that). Yes it takes up brain space. No, of course you can do this.