{"id":23138,"date":"2015-04-22T09:35:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T17:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/?p=23138"},"modified":"2021-03-11T08:05:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T08:05:09","slug":"band-merch-tips-band-merch-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/band-merch-tips-band-merch-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Band Merch Tips From Band Merch Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

MERCH TIPS FROM BRIAN \u201cBT\u201d TARANTO<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Taranto has been rocking the merch industry since 1985.\u00a0He\u00a0launched Love Police, a company that has gone on to be a force of the merch industry.<\/p>\n

“With the onset of indie bands, trying to be a bit cooler and slacker with design or reference can work well\u2026 or bomb miserably. You know hipsters, they don\u2019t always want to look like everyone else, even though they do. Sure, hire a designer if you have a vision you think your fans will go for, but don\u2019t overthink it, and don\u2019t overproduce with too many options. “<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the styles of blank shirts and garments around these days, it is hard to not produce merch of a decent quality. The thing to be more aware of is how good the printing is. A quality shirt with a shit print job or bad print size is a shit shirt no matter how excellent the actual shirt is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNever charge too little. It\u2019s my belief that if things are too cheap in comparison to what a regular priced shirt is, people may be wary of quality. It\u2019s also something a band should be proud of, so you shouldn\u2019t feel bad charging market prices for your merch. Generally speaking, shirts at a club-level are $30-35, festival and theatres $40-45, arenas and stadiums $45-50. “<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have done board shorts and leggings which were killer, but didn\u2019t sell. It feels like if the punter doesn\u2019t know his\/her size instantly, like they do with a T-shirt or hoodie, they tend to shy away from those items.\u201d<\/p>\n

MERCH TIPS FROM\u00a0DUANE JACKSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duane Jackson\u00a0is the manager of 24HUNDRED, a leading name in online and physical merchandise.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t think you\u2019re bigger than you are. Just because you\u2019ve played a sold-out room of 250 people on a Friday night, it doesn\u2019t mean your fans want to buy custom basketball jerseys at $90 a pop or G-strings with your band name on them. Start with T-shirts and singlets because they work. From there, you can dabble in winter wear (hoodies and crews) and summer items like shorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how cool your band is, or how cool you think your band is, without appealing design, your audience will not want to wear your gear.\u00a0Understand your market, do your research. You\u2019re in the market, you probably wear cool shit \u2013 would you wear your own band\u2019s merch? You\u2019d want to hope so.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMerchandise is completely trend based. Things come and go. design styles come and go, unique items come and go. We went through a huge tie dye phase the last couple of years, for example. We tie-dyed tees, tanks, we tie-dyed crew neck jumpers, we bleach-dyed hoodies, it was crazy, but it worked, but you also have to know when to stop flogging a dead horse. If you\u2019re that band selling a trend after the trend died, you look old and dated.”<\/span><\/p>\n

MERCH TIPS FROM BOSTON MERCH GIRL<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Generally vinyl, CDs, zip-up hoodies, soft, well-fit t-shirts and cotton tote bags sell great. Hats, download cards, boxy unisex shirts, photos don\u2019t sell well. Posters are hit or miss, depends on the graphic. Also, don\u2019t charge for stickers or pins. These are fantastic for getting people to your booth, but no one\u2019s going to pay $1 for a sticker. While on the topic, your graphic on your merch is really important. If you\u2019re slapping just your band name across things in a glaring color, you\u2019re doing it wrong. I\u2019ve personally bought shirts that I thought were really cute\/awesome when I\u2019ve only heard the band once. Put some thought into the colors you use, the quality of the shirts\u2026 give your graphic design\/artist friends a case of beer to come up with an awesome image, then just include your band name somewhere in the mix. When someone is wearing it, and someone else says, \u201cHey, I love that shirt,\u201d they\u2019ll respond with \u201cIt\u2019s from this band I saw last weekend.\u201d Instant word-of-mouth! Also, people won\u2019t wear\/carry ugly things, even if you\u2019re giving them away. Just sayin\u2019.<\/p>\n

via: Tonedeaf, Ourstage Magazine<\/a>,
\n__________________________________________________________
\nUnified Manufacturing<\/strong>\u00a0is an L.A. -based one-stop-shop that offers very affordable CD\/DVD\/USB replication, custom printing, promotional products, warehousing and fulfillment and much more. If you need an Instant Quote on a project and you want FREE SHIPPING, simply\u00a0<\/span>CLICK HERE<\/a>.<\/span> \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MERCH TIPS FROM BRIAN \u201cBT\u201d TARANTO Brian Taranto has been rocking the merch industry since 1985.\u00a0He\u00a0launched Love Police, a company that has gone on to be a force of the merch industry. “With the onset of indie bands, trying to be a bit cooler and slacker with design or reference can work well\u2026 or bomb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-custom-band-merch","category-unified-manufacturing-news"],"contentshake_article_id":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31450,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23138\/revisions\/31450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unifiedmanufacturing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}