The Backpack: Issue #19

All our best, monthly news in one branded pack.

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!

Friday, August 18

• Top Merch News: commonsku Brings on Investment Partner

• Vibe Check: Merch Boosts Music Sales to #1

• Trends alert: Meme Merch Drives Pres Campaign Traffic

• Happenings: Grow Your Team with Global Talent

• Can't miss content: Stop, Just Stop

How Large Distribs Navigate Change

If you’re near or above the $10 million category (or if your ambition leans upwards!) this one’s for you. Growing in this business, at this size, is difficult. The primary challenge most large distributors face when growing is learning how to grow with intimacy while scaling, a rare and signature feat for a successful enterprise company. We put together a resource list based on our conversations with leaders through the past few years, it covers everything from strategy to marketing to goal-setting. Hear it straight from the multi-million leaders themselves here.

commonsku Brings on Investment Partner

You’ve likely heard the news by now, but if you haven’t, commonsku partners with private equity growth firm Frontier! To hear all about how this new chapter in commonsku’s story benefits you, listen to our chat with Mark and Catherine, or if you’re the speed-reading type, here’s our letter to customers. ASI also wrote a smashing write-up about it here. To our shared future, friends!

A Visit to the Sustainable Idea Factory

Four months ago, Céline Juppeau and Cindy Couture, founders of Kotmo, appeared on Dragon’s Den, the Canadian equivalent (and predecessor) of the American show, Shark Tank. After making their pitch for the first pen designed, sourced, and manufactured in Canada using post-consumer recycled plastic, the two entrepreneurs won. And after three years of research, and a win of investment money, they’ve sold 185,000 units with plans to expand in the US. More than a B Corp, the Montreal-based company was honored on B Corp’s “Best for the World” list. Find out why in our chat with Céline here!

Merch Now Propels Music Sales to #1

Travis Scott. The rapper, songwriter, and producer lands his third #1 album (Utopia) on the hip-hop charts and merch was a key driver. How? Here's the math... About 500k albums were sold, ½ of which were streaming, ½ a combo of digital downloads, CDs, and vinyl. From Complex: “Of the 252,000 album sales, roughly 75,000 of them came by way of merch and zine bundles”. What is bundling? According to Billboard’s rules, merch (a t-shirt or a hoodie, for example) can be bundled with a vinyl record or CD to boost sales. “Merch must be bundled with a CD or vinyl in order to count as a unit sold.” And “For a limited time after Utopia dropped, Scott's team allowed shoppers to purchase an album for just $4.99 when they purchased a piece of merch.” Hence, the merchification of hit albums. Scott calls his merch combos “fan packs” which just might be our new fave word for merch kits!

How do you say D-u-o-l-i-n-g-o in Merch?

There are basically three contenders in the realm of language apps but Babbel and Rosetta Stone can’t even come close to pronouncing Duolingo. With over 500 million downloads, the app is a phenom. They’ve not only smoked their competition, they’ve made langage learning fun and their merch game is a bold reflection of their brand’s spirit. Babbel and Rosetta Stone don’t even have merch (yep, we're throwing shade), but maybe that’s one of the reasons they can’t compete with the community-driven folks behind everyone’s favorite green owl. Sticker patches, plushies, and this “Remind me to do my _____” t-shirt, represent a very small merch offering that packs a punch in creativity. While their social content falls into the category of “I can’t believe they did that” they’ve garnered millions of views and legions of fans. There’s a strong correlation between brands who do seemingly boring things (like teaching French class) and turn them into fun experiences that people feel, and merch is aways a part of that equation! 

Merch Drives 75% of Campaign Traffic?

President Biden’s Dark Brandon meme merch accounts for 54% of all Biden merch sales and —get this— 75% of all traffic to the campaign website. Read that last part again: Merch is driving 75% of all traffic to Biden’s campaign site. The products “have been ‘so successful’ that merchandise manager Emma Watson launched a campaign, where new products featuring the ‘Dark Brandon’ design are added to the storefront every Monday.” As you know, we don’t pick sides, so in the spirit of bipartisanship, it seems everyone wants in on the meme merch trend. Mike Pence was castigated for being “Too Honest,” and it was just too good a merch moment to pass up. Meme merch is the biggest trend in political merch since the Goldwater/LBJ smackdown. Here’s a breakdown of all the political players and their foray into meme merch. BTW: Consider The Backpack your political merch correspondent, our slogan: “keeping an eye on campaign merch …. so you don’t have to.” 😂

An Insane Study on the Power of Merch

20% of fans buy merch at concerts. That number has almost doubled from 2019 (11%). Percentage of fans buying merchandise, money spent on merch per fan, and gross merchandise sales for artists are all up over 40% from 2019, according to atVenu’s annual “Year in Review, Merch Edition”. And it’s not just Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. “Small and mid-cap attendance shows have the largest growth in percent of fans buying merch at 22% in 2022, up from 13% in 2019.” What’s the top genre for merch sales? K-Pop, here’s your K-Pop playlist to push you into the rest of your workday, got your back, backpackers!

7-Eleven Has Merch and It’s RAF

Wellllll, refill my 44 oz. Slurpee. 7-Eleven (for some of us, an all-night diner) adds some new merch to their lineup, and it’s shockingly retro-rad. And BTW, we pointed this out in our last issue of The Backpack, but when you hit that shop, hover over an apparel item and notice the trend in video for displaying merch. And now, grab me a Slim Jim, a Big Gulp and a Taquito, and maybe that trendy retro button-up so I can ring you up some incorrect change. $20 on 10, please!

DCX x commonsku: You just got $1,188 richer!

We're pumped to shout about our new partnership with Delegate CX to help you scale your team. Exclusively for commonsku customers, Delegate CX will be covering the cost of your new hire’s commonsku license for their first year on the platform (a $1,188 value!). But really, the value is much more than $1k, cause DCX talent comes to you highly trained about the business, and you can soar past all those HR hurdles cause DCX does it for you! Hiring has never been faster or cheaper – check the deets about it here or get the scoop during our upcoming webinar about it, here!

🙌 Amazon launches merch integration for bands.

🔝 Strong market signal: Digital ad revenue grows.

📓 Hubspot drops its 2023 Global Social Media Trends Report.

🤖 AI News: ChatGPT Flounders while Bard and Anthropic boom.

😍 For the love of all things merch, Crocs: just stop. STOP.