Hi swag specialist,

DRIP DROP’s in the news! Scroll to the bottom for that (we keep things short and sharp in this weekly newsletter.) First, let’s focus on the merch:

Want your next merch drop to be slick? It’s all about planning ahead. Three months from today (which is enough time to prep) is August which has great pop-culture tie-ins:

Don’t let your imagination be limited by budget. 3D printing has gotten quite cheap and gives you unlimited customisation. Qwilr 3D printed game cartridges and glued NFC chips into them to send customised campaigns out to select target accounts in 2025 for just a few dollars per unit.

FNDN, an employee compensation consultancy, sent their customers end of year gifts featuring a selection of locally sourced produce (bonus points for this over simply producing more merch) and merch that encompasses “do less, better” perfectly.

Their very fun logo doesn’t scream “company merch” so its front and centre positioning looks more like a design than a logo but is still recognisable to customers. The Yeti bottle is an expensive gift anyone would appreciate receiving, while the notebook has a few extra touches - a tactile print on a soft touch cover, pen loop, and 100% recycled paper. The gift packs also came with a letter explaining each item, a very nice personal touch!

Small batches of merch on higher priced, higher quality items is the way to go for gifting. Matt from FNDN was kind enough to give me a notebook but said the Yeti bottles are strictly for customers 🙊 (I can’t blame him!)

Let’s not waste time with words here: I. LOVE. MY. PUB.

More specifically, I love my fav local: The Almighty Mona Castle Pub in Seddon, in Melbourne’s West. Just around the corner from my home in Footscray and Whitten Oval - the home of the Western Bulldogs - this is where you’ll find me often, having a chinwag with locals, attempting to win the meat raffle, watching AFL, and even throwing a surprise 40th Birthday party for my wife and a heap of our mates (hell of a good night).

What I love most about the Mona is that the neighbourhood is baked into it, and it baked into the neighbourhood. Repping the West, repping the hood, and ensuring that is printed heavily on the very merch that all the team wears (and can be purchased, and is).

Anyone can wear a t-shirt with a logo. Where Mona go beyond this is extra touches. The suburb printed. The postcode. The ‘est.1874’ And collab merch with a crew like Heaps Normal, who think outside the box themselves when setting up their brand collabs by embedding themselves in local neighbourhood culture, to essentially ensure more “cans in hands.”

This is where I had my company Xmas party last year (GROUP GROUP, party of 1) and will be the location of DRIP DROP’s Vic Xmas party in 2026 (party of two).

It’s the repping of the location here for me. So few tech and startup companies I’ve ever interacted with shout out loud about their origins on their merch, with pride. Think heavily about reconsidering that, whether with a state/country colours alt version of your merch (used to design state-based versions of events I would run) and wear your HQ with pride. People come from all over Aus to visit the Mona, and they love the fact that the West is represented in this little way. High recommend.

DRIP DROP made the news! Startup Daily ran a piece on our launch, our many thanks to Simon Thomsen for the feature! 👕 💧

Check out the DRIP DROP Sublime for more merch inspo