The Backpack: Issue #16

Hey, friends! Welcome to our newly revised (monthly) newsletter, “The Backpack” bringing monthly news that features trends in merch, top articles, podcast episodes, and global news impacting merch life. Miss an article or an episode? We’ll highlight the best of, right here, each month!

How Team Work & Play Drive Innovation 

For two days, the commonsku team of around 50 gathered at a retreat in Toronto to brainstorm our way through multiple client challenges: What’s the best onboarding solution? How can we simplify the process? What new features can we build that will ignite growth? To create something unique, we asked, “What can we accomplish in person that we can’t do over Zoom?” And suddenly, a new kinda retreat was born, which included a killer hackathon, (real) fireside chats, a values and storytelling workshop, team hiking, and a terrible basketball game for funsies, in other words, a lot of work-disguised-as-play. Check out all the misadventures here, oh, and if you’re wanting a few tips on how to create an off-site meeting with your team, here’s a chat with Bobby and Mark about the experience.

Driving Smarter Sales with Brand EQ (Touchstone’s Andrea Stoll)

Touchstone is one of the top distributors in this multi-billion dollar industry, led by founder and CEO Derek Block (who, BTW, will be speaking at our skucamp event in Austin in September). If you are not following what Touchstone is up to, you are missing out on some of the most innovative thinking happening in the biz. Check out our awesome chat with Andrea Stoll, director of brand engagement for Touchstone and a veteran of brand experience through her work with some of the greatest brands in the world, including Nike, Vans, Reebok, and Converse.

Your Missing Ingredient to Growth?

Alright, alright, alright: you got everything alright. Decent sales (check). Awesome team (check). Cool clients (check). Rocket growth? Meh. If you’ve covered all the basics, maybe it’s time you considered one of the most seemingly-boring-but-secretly-vital ingredients: the process. Mike Paton has conducted more than 1,500 sessions for the leadership teams of more than 150 companies, co-authored two books, and is a champion of “Process is NOT the enemy of creativity: it’s your catalyst.” The down low on the secret ingredient here.

You know what this country needs? (Any country, really). Coooool ambassadors. Not those egalitarian, boring nouveau-rich kind parading as politicos, but the rad, salt-of-earth type who geek out on merch, love the biz, annnnd kinda have a soft spot for commonsku. If that’s you, we’re signing up Ambassadors, and the bennies are loaded: wads of cash ($50 MediaTree bucks), exclusive commonsku merch (only the greatest merch on the planet), and maybe even a ticket to our always sold-out events! Wanna sign up? Done. (Ps. Peek behind the curtain at our slick Ambassador branding campaign). 

Bear Wanders into DC, Gets T-Shirt

Awwwww … Bear wanders into a Washington, DC suburb. (It was Capital Pride week, so headlines were a lil’ confusing for a moment), but no, it’s a real live, four-pawed bear, dubbed Franklin. Franklin roams DC like a new lobbyist on an Espresso Martini bender but is finally captured (humanely) by The Humane Rescue Alliance and released back into the wild. In a smart merch move, the Alliance created a t-shirt in Franklin’s honor bearing (sorry/not sorry) his likeness to raise funds for the non-profit. They were hoping to sell 50 shirts and at last count have sold 400. Thanks for lumbering in, Franklin. You’re our beary favorite merch hero.

Why the Hell Aren’t We at Cannes?

Why the flamin’ hell isn’t merch at Cannes Lions? You’re familiar with the Cannes Film Festival, where stars gather in the South of France to dish on films and bask in the glow of the coastal sunset paparazzi bulbs, but do you know about Cannes Lions? Cannes Lions, held the last week of June, is the largest gathering of pros in the advertising and creative communications industry. The Drum has the best wrap-up, (nick your one free article now and then pay dearly for future intel). Anyhow, get this: categories for award winners include the usual suspects (film, PR, mobile, brand activation, video), but did you know there’s a category for Print & Publishing? Why the hell not merch? Grab your pitchforks, backpackers. We’re protesting Cannes!

And, the Emmy for Best Misprinted Merch is...

The most-watched Hulu Premier in history, “The Bear,” launched S2 to rave reviews. Okay, fine, congrats. But will some savvy merch pro —puh-lease— for the love of Original Beef, help Hulu with their damn merch?! The Bear deserves better. But hey, we have an honorary backpacker award we want to give to this Etsy creator who took a misprinted t-shirt from S2, E1 and made it IRL, mad merch respect for immortalizing a misprint. (Still peeved about Hulu’s lackluster merch, whodoyouthinkyouare Lu, Max?)

Sick of Pink Yet? Me, Neither.

There’s no end in sight to the Barbie-pink merch-a-palooza held apparently everywhere all at once, but we’re keeping our merch-scout-eagle-eye-out for the coolest, and here’s a rad collab: Alamo Draft House, the Austin-based stylish movie theater concept, just announced a Barbie Party Screening with some sweet merch including a limited edition lunchbox and thermos set. Plus, Alamo is creating a merch collection only available at a pop-up shop onsite at the theater (smaaaarrrtt move). Two cool trends: pink + pop-up shops. BTW: If you’re doing the doubleheader and watching Oppenheimer + Barbie open on the same day, there’s a merch solve for that. (And speaking of shops: You know we do software, right? Like, cool and easy e-com that makes a pop-up shop … um, pop? K. Juuuussst checkin’).

Are Moonshoes and Birth Certificates the Future of Merch?

Arches, a Portugeuse-based apparel line, is serious about circularity (rethink, reuse, recycle). Each garment they produce has its own birth certificate (clever), and not only that, they have an end-of-life plan for any Arches shirt. Through their “we want our sh*t back” program, they will “issue a free return shipping label for any garment in any condition no matter the condition or design as long as you're done with it.” And in other sustainable news, some of you might recall our skucast with former Adidas CMO Eric Leidtke. Leidtke is leading a revolution in net carbon apparel and so (it seems) is Allbirds. Even if you’re not an Allbirds fan, it helps to note the movement happening in net carbon apparel. Is net carbon merch on the horizon?

We’ve Got Merch in High Places

How hot is the merch trend? Welp, there’s now a shop dedicated to the coolest merch from the hottest brands. The Gift Shop is a site dedicated to “the finest merch from the finest places.” Want a Katz’s Delicatessen cap? Got you. St. John’s magic bread bag? Again. And I know some of you are secretly hoping that old-school Burger King ashtray is still around, but it’s (sadly?) sold out. Copy lesson for merch pros: Featured on each item is a lovingly crafted short story about the establishment the merch is from, like this Russ & Daughters cap. Use the copy on your product pages to give the background story more color and texture.

My Kinda Town, Chicago Is

Blue eyes or not, if you are heading to ASI Chicago, you won’t want to miss all the commonsku energy: On Tuesday, July 25th, 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM, we’re hosting commonsku University, where you can spend a few hours learning about the power features on commonsku, plus how to drive sales through shops and more. We’re also hosting a skummunity happy hour happening on Tuesday, July 25th, and, for cruising around the show floor, we even have a handy list of all the connected suppliers who are exhibiting at the ASI Show with their booth numbers. The RSVP, school deets, and booth list can all be found here. Got your back, backpackers!

❓ Does merch really work? Ask Reddit’s CEO, who tells employees NOT to wear Reddit gear in public for fear of backlash. They always say you can’t prove a negative, but …

🌶️ Best cult favorite chili crisp? Momofuku. Best cult favorite chili crisp merch? Fly by Jing (heads-up merch pro: sweet copy too).

👫 New-to-us merch term: Affirmation-Forward Merch

🌴 Summer Vibin’ with KFC: “A new merch shop for all your finger lickin’ fashion needs.”

🤖 **Brand-powered QR Codes** our future?****

👾 AI to Watch: Inflection AI raises $1.3 b-b-billion while ChatGPT’s growth slows. We’ve been experimenting with Inflection’s Pi (“your personal AI”) and here at the 2:40 mark is where Inflection CEO explains why Inflection AI is better than ChatGPT.

⛓️ Shadow on the Supply Chain: Possible UPS Strike could potentially cripple our industry. Stay tuned to news, but here’s the official UPS negotiations notification page; and here’s the Teamster’s Union Twitter profile which they keep updated with news. And (not kidding), here’s where to set up a FedEx account, now.

📆 Peep our fancy-schmancy calendar! Where you can spy all our upcoming webinars and events!