The Backpack: Issue #29

Luna Luna Art Park Merch: Unearthed from 1987

First: What’s an Art Park? Nope, not like Banksy’s Dismaland. This is a legit art park —an amusement park built by artists— restored from the original 1987 art park in Germany and replanted in LA. It’s making serious news in nostalgia-land. It not only has a very cool backstory (not just because the park’s treasures were lost for decades, sealed and forgotten in a bunch of containers in Texas) but because it includes a Keith Haring carousel and a Jean-Michel Basquiat Ferris Wheel! And the old-now-new art park has some of the coolest merch we’ve seen because they unearthed actual merch (37 years old!) in those Texas containers, restored the merch, and are selling it, or rather, selling it out! Like this $550 Keith Haring t-shirt. Or this Roy Lichtenstein crewneck. Or this vintage kaleidoscope. Go grab some retro design inspo and merch lessons from Luna, here!

Bryan Cranston’s Mezcal Merch Gives Back

Y’all know Heisenberg has a mezcal, right? This ain’t your normal celebrity liquor story, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul (yep, Walter and Jesse) own Dos Hombres and it’s made by three generations of mezcaleros. It’s oh-so-smokey with a bit of bite (er, so we’re told) and made from some of the finest plants in Oaxaca. And now, the celebrated mezcal makers are using merch to give back to the community that makes their famous mez: “The profits from all Dos Hombres apparel proudly go back to the village of San Luis del Rio, where the best agaves in the world are cultivated and harvested to produce Dos Hombres. Together we are improving infrastructure and providing support for the community.” Cool story. Merch here.

Battle of the Smarty-Pants Merch Space

Brilliant merch write-up here regarding the battle over merch by smarty-pants brands: “The New Yorker tote owned the 2010s. Thanks in part to inclusion in subscription promotion offers, everyone’s mom’s favorite literary magazine was NPR-level underarm ubiquitous. Then the hats got popular and it looked like the top-hatted visage of Eustace Tilley would dominate the smartypants merch space forever. But no. The Paris Review saw an opportunity.“ And then there’s this gem: “The New Yorker tote went mainstream as a mass giveaway, an object of convenience. The Paris Review has pulled off something much more difficult: creating objects of desire.” TBH: We’re fans of both but lean Paris. Pretty cool that the high-brow lit space makes merch a priority, huh? Some really cool lessons here to share with your clients!

The Brand That Gets Remembered Gets Bought

In this biz, all things being equal, customer experience is the biggest differentiator. You can have great products, phenomenal marketing, and a stellar team, but if your customer experience is not exceptional along every touchpoint of your client’s journey, you won’t be remembered. And the brand that gets remembered gets bought. Which is why our chat with Gemline’s Frank Carpenito on “Crafting an Exceptional Customer Experience” is crucial for suppliers and distributors. Tune in here!

Join our “Road Ahead” Webinar

Join Charlie Moscoe, commonsku’s VP of Product Management, as he walks through “The Road Ahead,” unveiling all the exciting new developments up-and-coming for the commonsku platform. The webinar is Thursday, Feb 1st, at 2 PM ET, register here!

Custom Questions on Shops + a few Pro Tips!

You can now create custom questions on shops at checkout; why's this important? You can use this feature to create personalization options (many of you have uniform programs that require personalization, this is an easy-peasy way to include it!). You could also collect special addresses or (perhaps our favorite tip) add a sales question that will create future merch opportunities like: "What additional items would you like to see on the shop?" It’s a small detail that can unlock new sales opportunities. Get creative and try it on your next shop!

All the Ballers: From Brooklyn Nets to Angel Reese

Just in time for NBA Rivals week, where classic NBA teams battle it out for viewer rates and technical fouls, the Brooklyn Nets drops a killer merch collection called Berō (pronounced “borough”), and it’s RAF. Though it’s only their first drop, the merch line includes a chore coat, a classic cardigan with a modern twist, and a soccer jersey. Why a soccer jersey? Cause sports jerseys are still hot (thanks, Taylor Swift). ELLE Magazine calls the continuing trend a lean toward the “fashion-ification of pastimes.” But the Nets aren’t the only merch ballers. Since the NCAA ruling that college athletes can now earn profit through NIL endorsements (NIL means “name, image, likeness”), Angel Reese is the NCAA star whose merch sold far above any other player in the league. She recently signed a major deal with Reebok and launched a cool shop. The “Bayou Barbie” has 2.6 million followers on IG and the whole college athlete merch space is one to watch for future trends!

The Biggest Fashion Flex? Merch.

The Guardian breaks it down: “How film distributor and studio A24 became the hottest name in merch.” They traipse through some “zeitgeisty” film merch, from the “Priscilla” heart locket to a pair of your very own “Beau is Afraid” satin PJs, but what’s glorious is their summary: “In a world in which the lines are becoming ever more blurred between online and offline, it’s not what you wear but who. For many, the biggest flex is a baseball cap from a specialist film studio rather than a four-figure luxury bag.” Flex that merch, backpackers!

Is This the New Merch Anthem? “Swag Surfin”

Now that Taylor did it, expect more and more merch-drenched fans to take up swag surfin’. What’s swag surfin’? First, you gotta dial it back to 15 years when FLY (Fast Like Yungstaz) released their hit Swag Surfin’. Next, during the Chiefs vs. Bengals game, KC linebacker Willie Gay said, “Play swag surfin’,” to the controllers over the stadium's loudspeakers (to inspire his team), then Kelce started dancing, and that’s when Taylor got a hold of it and next-thing-ya-know, the whole stadium shook with swag. Trend prediction: Now, swag surfin’ isn’t a new thing, but keep an eye on this one backpackers, cause now that Taylor did it, it’s likely a trend you’ll see move beyond football stadiums!

⏰ Our friends at Screenbroidery make the news with their shift in working hours.

☕ Starbucks has some pretty cool stories about their merch. Like this one by (indigenous) Tlingit designer Alison Bremner.

👀 Alamo Drafthouse dropped special merch for Saltburn and some fans are calling it sick. (No, not the good kind of sick). But maybe that’s nothing compared to the drain mug? Don’t judge us. We report. You decide.

🛍️ Leave it up to Jimmy John’s —the munchie-HQ that some of you have on speed dial (no judgment)— to get in on the dopamine dressing trend with their brightly-colored merch drop .... bright enough to bring you outta that haze.

🎀 “Mean Girls” the musical earned over $28 million at the box office over the weekend, and the merch —while not Barbie-esque in its demand— is still pretty fetch.

🚜 And y’all -- don’t even get us started on how much we love this trucker hat TikTok: “Buy a $60,000 hat, get a free tractor!”