The Backpack: Issue #6

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, February 3

• Top Merch News: Welcome to the Promo Multiverse

• Vibe Check: The Real Pros at the Superbowl

• Trends: “Don’t Knock It Til You’ve Fried It!”

• Can't miss content: CRO Secrets and Real-Time Growth

• Happenings: Camp with us!

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!

We Have to Give It to Vice

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.

Rad Merchifier of the Month - Notion

We love brands who amplify merch (whom we affectionately dub our Rad Merchifiers), check out what NotionHQ did recently with the launch of the New Year. And note that engagement: 9,204 likes and over 600 comments. Not bad for a nerdy lil’ note-taking app that’s only been around a few years. And if you can’t read it in the fine print on the notecard, below the question “What will you get done this year?” is this simple line: ✅ Get Notion merch. Get. It. (Psst. Got a Rad Merchifier you want to recognize? Give us a shout!)

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.

Go Camping 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 January? 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 because 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!

🌟 Three, brief, 10 min interviews with three distributors who have each experienced a turning point in their business, we call it The Tipping Point. [audio | video]

🎓 Oh, hey! Snazzy new commonsku University Portal. You look so smart!

🕺 Fabulous Darling: 5 Distributors with Fab Brands

📢 Want sales secrets from the pros who know? Check out CRO Secrets, here!