The Backpack: Issue #6
Hey, friends! Welcome to our newsletter, “The Backpack” bringing 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 twice a month!
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Friday, February 3
Welcome to the Promo Multiverse
You’ve seen A24’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, right? If not: The protagonist, Evelyn Wang, must save the world from destruction and does so by (uni)verse-jumping, connecting, with her multiple selves, from one universe to another, in which every choice of hers creates an alternate reality. Does that sound a little bit like your day-to-day? Jumping from one universe of problems in promo to another? If so, you might dig this: Why Promo Makes You Feel Everything Everywhere All At Once and How to Fix It.
Renegades You Should Know
At skucon, we celebrated the boundary-breakers and dreamers who lead this insanely creative industry. Check out our 2023 honorees featuring community champs, Shops innovators, tech-savviest connectors, and entrepreneurs of the year?here!
The Real Pros at the SuperBowl? Mitchell & Ness
You know who's playing in this year’s SuperBowl, right? That’s right: Rihanna. Before she plays, and shortly after, there’ll be a football game between the Chiefs and the Eagles. For those of us who only show up for halftime, keep an eye out for Rhianna’s message that ties in beautifully with her (Jay-Z-owned)?Mitchell & Ness / Fenty merch collection?she just dropped for LVII, “If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that we can fix this world together. We can’t do it divided, I can’t emphasize that enough.” BTW: Why should promo care about SuperBowl merch? Inspo: Design inspo, style inspo, and mostly, sports merch represents the apex of brand-love: fanatical fans.?Check out Mitchell & Ness?and their cool wayback machine for today’s sophisticate-sports fan.
Marketing’s Glow-Up
Marketing, back in the day, was mostly considered a cost department, an expense. But the digital boom made marketing a primary driver of revenue, hence, the crucial role they now play in top orgs worldwide. But marketing has a marketing problem. Forbes published an article,?How To Increase The Visibility Of Your Marketing Team, a great reminder that the new marketing –and its impact on revenue– might need an image reboot. Best glow-up tip for marketing? “Create a limited-edition piece of swag.” ?? That Forbes article might be worth kicking over to your marketing buyer to encourage them to amp up their visibility. Not a bad play to keep marketing top-of-mind while ?? your merch skill.
领英推荐
Don’t Knock It Til You’ve Fried It!
SPAM – the eatin’ kind, not the email kind– has long been a spork-aficionado fave, and the mystery meal has its own legions of fans, so much so that?they dropped a new merch collection and collab with “Nom Life” creators Jeromy and Ewa Ko. All proceeds from the collection will go to?Convoy of Hope, a non-profit on a mission to feed the world. Pairing an old-school brand with a modern cause is a great trend lesson, besides, nothin’ says nom like?canned ham + classic t’s.
Does #returntooffice Mean #returntobusinesscasual?
You remember business casual, right? A pair of chinos, a snappy sport shirt with a rolled collar, big ole’ logo slap on the left chest? Pre-covid Corporate America was surely golf inspired. Well, now that some of us are having to shed our sweats and put on our big boy Dockers for #returntooffice, it begs the question: What’s the new office normcore for 2023? We’ve got some guesses, but we think #returntooffice will skew comfy. In fact, if golf apparel was the pre-covid influencer for corp fashion,?here’s what golf fashion experts think?will dominate golf courses (and likely in-office attire) in 2023. TLDR: mock-necks, hoodies, joggers.
When Brand Collabs Get Off on the Wrong Foot
Tiffany’s + Nike??The Internet said: nope. Brand collabs are hot right now, particularly streetwear collabs paired with heritage brands, but sometimes social media spots an odd contrast, like the Tiffany & Co + Nike collab. It had soooo much promise. This week, the legendary jewelery-you-can’t-afford (but the box sure looks nice), released a collab with Nike and the internet called it “hideous,” “contradictory,”?disingenuous, and a complete miss. Lessons for us merch pros? Collabs are still hot, but colorways are crucial and brands coming together gotta harmonize, otherwise, expect your client’s merch to be skewered and roasted, or worse:?compared to Balenciaga.
Camp with us!
Did you miss skucon? Or, miss skucon already? ?? Mark your calendars friends cause dates are set for skucamp Sept 10-13th. What’s skucamp and why the hell are we telling you about it in February? skucamp is a deep dive into critical topics for biz leaders with ample time for peer-led learning. It’s somewhat like a leadership conference... but very much unlike a leadership conference cause we cut out all the boring parts. ?? We’re telling you now because it sells out – fast. It’s intimate, fun, and kept to a small crowd on purpose. We’ll launch in Feb but you can register?here?to be one of the first to know!
??You know who are among the sales-savviest in the industry? Suppliers. Suppliers know how to sell. Hear the experts:?CRO Secrets to Driving Sales Success
?? Want a real-time growth story with one of the coolest brands in the biz? Check out our?in-car and in-warehouse interview with Spector & Co.?
?? In case you missed it, check out our skucon wrap-up:?Grit, Glory, and Gratitude!