@VVillle As you instructed, I didn't translate. Instead, I learned Hindi and understood your message. Thanks for the support about my reduced sodium intake. I had a bag of fries a couple of days ago, but it didn't affect me overall. Once in a while, it's okay. You're a very kind person interesting yourself in a stranger's dietary figures. We aren't really strangers, are we? Are we connected somehow in the ether? We both dream, don't we? How the wind flows through your hair and your fingers bend towards your palm gently after saying goodbye to someone you know you won't see for a long time. I'm in those moments with you. I'm your moment.™
I also could debate even calling less-marked-up versions of it "dupes." The phrase isn't copyrighted, the font and layout aren't original to the luxury brand. What's being duplicated? Why should we attribute the creative idea to Loewe, instead of JFK Jr?
Dystopian isn't really the word, I would describe it as dumb but not dystopian. Dystopian: "Of, relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives."
Influencers do it all the time. They will do haul videos on "what I got for coachella!" and actually say in the video that what they don't wear they'll return and get back their money or sell it on poshmark or something. So, think about it for a sec- they make money by making a video on what they bought, they are most likely getting some kind of sponsored experience at the event, then they get back the money on the items they didn't wear, and also have the option to resell the items they did wear and get a tax write off somewhere along the way.
@@jllove86 many do! i bought something secondhand and culturally significant, so i rewear it for events. other girls rent their outfits or similarly wear their prom dresses for other formal occasions !
@@jllove86 true that many don't wear them again, but prom happens only once in your lifetime. while the influencers buy new outfits for festivals/concerts they go to multiple times a year every year
That part about second hand clothing ending up in places like east Africa is so real. I am a fashion designer from Kenya and i grew increasingly frustrated by the slow and inevitable death of our textile industry as i watched cargo ship loads of second hand garments from America arrive literally ever month. The sheer amount of second hand clothing is insane. I've seen entire little league team t-shirts sold on the streets. When vendors can't sell them they just discard them on pavements and streets. Walking around Nairobi you just see heaps of garments trashing the streets especially around 2nd hand markets. It's quite awful. So please if you are from the west and you see this comment please encourage each other to make less, spend less and ask for better quality clothing that you can keep for much longer.
God alafu vitenge siku hizi hazifiki miaka mbili na leso ni plastic. Maasaau fabrics, kikoi na limuru sweaters are gone too. I miss _Mali ya Abdala_ 😥.
It's really unfortunate you have to deal with this, but just out of interest may I ask if you have instagram so I could take a look at your designs? Wishing you all the best!
The elephant in the room is consumerism and capitalism. Most merch is not ethically made, environmentally unfriendly, and overpriced/poorly made for what you get anyway. Why does Taylor, a billionaire, really need more money? Couldn't she, for charging so much, at least use better materials or labor?
additionally, the designs are soooo lackluster! you‘re telling me they can‘t come up with a better idea than slapping a few words on a boring solid color crew neck and charging 65 bucks for it??? i want them to design unique pieces that are actually fun and creative, especially because they have the means to do so..
Exactly that! If it's a small band that's just up and coming I get that you want to support them, but big bands or stars? They don't need anything anymore and you easily get that Merxh Second hand, and also where is the Die spirit? I do Scrapjournalling and it's in the word, you are "supposed" to use scraps. I get that you might by something here or there but why buy Stickers of Statues when you can use Museum Flyers for free? Or old botching paper from school or nice pictures out of a magazine you've read through? A lot of the things I see online don't use scraps at all
I can attest that every single time I go to my local goth club, people start conversations with me by talking about the band on my tshirt, no matter which one I'm wearing. So definitely can confirm that merch is a good conversation starter.
I was going to say something similar. This is a good video, but a lot of the points pertain to mainstream artists (overconsumption, devalued merch that is thrown away once the artist passes through the trend cycle). In goth and metal communities, tour T-shirts are not only worn out to concerts, nightlife, etc, but cherished, to the extent where you will find carefully cared-for vintage tour shirts on the secondhand market (sometimes for high prices). Wave-Gothik-Treffen, the largest Goth festival in the world, sells extra shirts from the previous year to attendees (I bought last year’s shirt this year for a friend who wanted one). As at M’era Luna and other large scale festivals, I saw people wearing older WGT shirts with pride, and a wide variety of outfits that prioritized handmade/DIY/refashioned vintage as well as priority placed on small designers / indie brands. I’m not going to say that subculture communities are free of consumption waste, but I just don’t see the same worrisome attitudes about excessive consumption (merch and otherwise) in people locally active in goth, punk and metal communities.
There's a Belgian popstar (edit: her name is Pommelien Thijs!) who, instead of selling merch, created 4 designs that they printed on shirts that fans already had and could bring to the show. I thought that was quite cool!
Kanye West wasn't the first person to bring merch to malls by any stretch of the imagination. Bringing band t-shirts to every corner of America was Hot Topic's entire brand identity. They had their start just going around to concerts and buying up as many extras as possible to bring to people who couldn't go see the bands in person. Eventually, they expanded to nerd culture & pop culture properties and that associated merch, but their whole ethos has always been to feel like the t-shirt stand at a concert venue
I was thinking the same. Not even just specific brands like Hot Topic. I remember buying a Motorhead tshirt from Topshop back in 1999. 5 years before Kanye even put out his first album, people love to give him credit for things nothing to do with him.
I came here to say the same thing, people were already complaining about (since I had a bunch of punk and metal friends in high school) about how all the bands they liked sold out, because you could buy there merch at the mall, this was in 2009. Maybe Kanye brought this phenomenon to a new demographic, but he certainly didn’t start the merch thing lol. I’m and artist and I LOVE a good graphic tee and always have, I usually try and buy them from smaller creators, businesses, or sometimes I’ll do a little DIY. It doesn’t happen much anymore, but I used to (especially as a young lady) get quizzed to high heaven if I wore a band shirt or movie shirt by men. Even strangers. The old, “name three songs!” Gag. It’s annoying lol doesn’t happen as often and I’m okay with that. As a neurodivergent human I sometimes struggle to be quick in conversation and can have a hard time remembering certain things on the spot, so even if a shirt that I’m wearing is of a band I’ve listened to on repeat for months or movie that’s my special interest, something I could sit down and write a few pages of facts about, when someone confronts me on the spot I freeze up and can’t think, I’ve been called a poser more times than I can count lol which I laugh at now because I know what I like, and I don’t care what people think for the most part (at least in that regard) but I’m glad people aren’t making such a big deal about it. I have had an instance recently when I complimented someone’s shirt, mentioned that I liked the band too, and started talking about my favorite song and they said, “oh, I just like the way this shirt looks, I have no idea what this band is” and we just laughed lol like, I know it might be weird but at the end of the day it’s not the biggest deal, but the overconsumption is a little tacky, regardless of the item.
I think there was an expose a couple years back about how clothes sold on shein and designer clothes like burberry or whatever were made by the same sweat shops. Not to mention how essentially you don't need to make a tailored Armani suit entirely in Italy, and can just install the buttons to get the "made in Italy" slapped on
Dude, I remember one time I bought a hoodie for $70 (don’t ask me what sort of substance I was on) but the quality was SO bad. I now just buy my hoodies from Kmart and the cheap ones have ALWAYS lasted me the longest.
@@nint357 So it happens that it actually is "made in italy" but they bring chinese workers to Italy and they don't pay them european wages. Technically it was made in italy but the conditions of working environment are similar to the sweatshops in China
A few weeks ago a delivery guy commented on my t-shirt when I answered my door (merch for the band health) and he was intrigued and said he'd listen to them. Next time he delivered to me he told me he had actually given them a listen and liked them. It really was a nice human to human moment I got to share because I have that merch.
As a musician in an underground music scene, Merch is DEFINITELY not dead. PLEASE KEEP BUYING INDIE ARTISTS MERCH! In fact it’s our bread and butter on tour. It’s how we break even on the road, how we connect other fans to each other etc. I sought out the music of bands that had cool tshirts and ended up loving so many new groups as a result. We even trade merch with other bands when we are fans of each others. Yeah, the aesthetic has been co-opted by the masses, but there are still plenty of folks out there, silk screening shirts in their basements, and utilizing local printers for the rest. Seriously. Erewhon does not need you to rep them to keep running. A local band playing your city really really does.
Yeah, at my school wearing a Hard Rock Cafe shirt from somewhere you went on vacation was a low key way to show off if you (or someone you knew) went somewhere cool this summer. I had the idea that they must have been nice restaurants, I was wrong.
@@floraidh4097a girl at my school then raved about the Hard Rock Cafe. Got the chance to get to one at a vacation and it was underwhelming 😂 but the store assistant and I had a short little flirt, very innocent but better than the burgers 😅
I'm honestly kind of surprised at how "recent" this video was presenting the entire thing, like merch has only really been a thing in the last decade or so.
I’m an American living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and people here have been OBSESSED with Yankees baseball caps since around April. Every time I go to the grocery store - a five minute walk from my apartment- I see AT LEAST 5. 😭 it’s been wild. I ask Dutch people and they’re just like ‘it looks cool, and New York is cool’. Lol. Apparently in the 90s there was a similar trend here, my colleague told me that he had a baseball hat from some random team in Wisconsin. He picked it because he liked the colors. You’re the first person I’ve seen acknowledge the madness of Yankees caps in Western Europe!
There was also this serie “Digimon” and the teenager that was bad at first but turned goos had this exact NY cap. The very first time I ever saw it. They were all Japanese boys in this serie. Never knew it was a baseball cap and liked the design and also because of this 2000s serie.
Tbh most of us don't know what the Yankees are, we just wear it bc it looks cool. I'm pretty sure most of my life I thought it was just the logo of a brand (I'm sorry)
American in Berlin, I always see Oakland A’s and Raider apparel being worn. When I first moved here I thought look at my fellow California’s out here living just like me, but no. Just a cool logo for them 🙃
I buy two types of merch: -Bands t-shirts I buy at their concerts. I listen mostly indie bands and buying merch from them is a great wat to support them, specially since I listen to their music for free online. - Tote bags from bookshops around the world. Whenever I travel I like to visit independent bookshops and I buy a tote bag from them, is my way to support their business (I don't always find a book I like) and it's my souvenir from the country. It's also a great conversation starter with strangers, I met one of my best friends when she approached me at a concert because I was carrying a tote bag from an independent bookshop she had worked at in Santorini.
whenever a restaurant or a store hands my dad a branded bag for the stuff he bought, he always asks them as a joke if he gets a discount for the free advertisement😭
It's a "classy if you're rich, trashy if you're poor" kind of trend. Growing up, my parents didn't have a lot of money but I have a picture of myself in a Hard Rock cafe sweatshirt (even though we have never been to one and my parents didn't speak English so they didn't know what it meant). I guess it fit me at the time and my parents liked it, so they bought it for me second-hand.
I got to know this girl who also went solo to the latest Rico Nasty concert and she was super stylish and chill. Long story short, she needed a ride home and I offered to drop her off at her place. We got to know more about each other on the way and we got matching shirts after the concert so seeing that shirt in my closet always brings back good memories.
Maybe it’s because I’m an older gen z, but the idea of wearing merch of band you’ve never listened to or a movie you’ve never seen is so weird to me. Even some of the faux location merch that stores sell now that say “Los Angeles” or “Cape Cod” or whatever, why would you wear merch of a place you’ve never actually been to? I do like to buy merch from my favorite artists, especially because merch is often a main source of income for smaller artists, since streaming doesn’t really bring in a lot of income. Even if I don’t really wear the merch a ton, I’m still happy to support my favorite artists
Same, for me it’s especially awkward if someone approaches you asking if you’re a fan wanting to start up a convo, but you don’t know the band or been to the place.
to play devil’s advocate - I can understand if you like the art or design on it! I personally found a Grouplove tour shirt at a thrift store. never got into them, but I liked the art on it! I ended up repurposing it as a patch to go on a jacket, but I would just wear it before then.. but buying something that has only “Nirvana” on it or something does feel weird to me. bc of you don’t like the music, and there’s no like art or anything on there.. why?
yeah the location one is weird, the same way with university and college merch. why would i wear a harvard or yale hoodie when i've never step foot on either campus??? i don't even have merch from the 2 unis i went to.
Yeah, I saw shirts for a few different cities at Nordstrom Rack and they weren't even pretty or artsy. Obviously, people can do what they want but I personally want to be able to talk about a trip to the location if I'm wearing its name on my chest.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention college/university merch! I can understand wearing a tee for a band you don’t listen to, the graphics are usually pretty sweet. But wearing a plain sweatshirt that states a university you didn’t go to is a bit strange idk
i have a rly cozy one that i cut some of the letters off to make it say somethin else but yep, ppl have def asked me about the uni when i haven’t went :/
@@marianne5055idk if people do this anymore but people used to buy souvenirs from places they went and give them to loved ones back home and a lot of those souvenirs have the name of the place stamped on them. So you might have some random merch from somewhere just because someone you knew visited there 😂
I'll never forget the day I wore my brand new Rolling Stones iron on tee to school and was immediately questioned about knowing songs from the band, and feeling very proud that I did. This was around 1983, and I grew up listening to them in the house. Band tees and logos, and album covers were everything to us growing up, and it was important to us then that you had the knowledge of the band that you were wearing. Also, the quality of the tees was so much better, I had shirts last for years, the newer ones are so expensive and they fall apart so quickly. But they are absolutely a conversation starter!
My friends and I created a fake concert tee for a band in our d&d campaign and I love wearing it and seeing people try to figure out what the reference is
One thing I think is funny is according to an official Challengers prop auction, the I TOLD YA shirt Zendaya wears in the movie is a J.Crew shirt with I TOLD YA screen printed on, not the Loewe one. That made an Etsy knock off feel more authentic to me lol, but I still haven’t hit checkout
As someone who sucks at conversation, I look at ur clothes to see if there’s anything I can comment on and it would be sooo embarrassing to ask abt the band on ur shirt, thinking we can connect or at least start a conversation and u don’t even listen to to them 😂😂 I wouldn’t know what to say!
Happened to me in school! I told this girl “I love the Velvet Underground!” because she was wearing their shirt. She just stared at me confused, then I was confused. She had no idea who they were, just liked the banana haha
I mean there’s always to turn it ! Like if the person in front of you is nice and receptive ask them why they get it or where ? If they ever heard of the band, music that they made that they could check out if it’s a music shirt, others recommendations that you could give them etc..🤗
I have to scoff at the statement calling 3rd world countries poor, specifically Africans as it reinforces the image that renders poverty ubiquitous with the African state of existence. As you briefly touched on, a consistent, structured and concerted effort from western nations to maintain that leverage over us has always been the case. To be: 1) forced into being the primary raw material supplier for most agricultural and fashion goods that they get to determine a lower cost for via stiff arm trade deals and Americas 2nd largest export, war, then, 2) simultaneously, economically and politically implement and interfere with structural commerce blocks in our markets to undermine the development of processing power to produce finished goods (often, again, through assassinations, military presence, international policy and wars funded by corporate America) , THEN, 3) using the same war, economic and political machine to force Africans into being western waste bins, much like the pacific islands with the food industry….😂. it’s passive packaging. I hope we call on the bluff on the poverty of Sub-Saharan Africans one day. Sure we’re poor. But I hope for the day when Nigeria’s tanneries stop exporting genuine leather for the “Italian leather” premiums used on designer bags when they aren’t playing everyone for fools selling cheap polymers at ridiculous price tags. I’m E.African, I walked into an Armani store where the fabrics are largely produced in TFZs that repatriate no funds back. We get the Salvation Army rejects sold in our markets. I also feel cultural imperialism, not export, inculcates the idea that the “westerner is cool, chic, best dressed” so out of a need to appeal to this ideal, we become okay with accepting refuse if it means that refuse MIGHT render us more human to often desensitised and vapid western audiences. But it leads us down further into dehumanisation as we are seen as crate diggers in the attempt. I have to laugh 😂 I often wonder how it feels to be able to so casually condescend to us. I suppose for one Congolese child a day, the often morally bankrupt and ignorant western societies get to pontificate to us about how we are poor through their iPhones and laptops. I hope we call the bluff.
I’m from Finland and the Yankees caps were very popular during my childhood in the 2010s. No one knew it was merch, we just thought it looked cool. I only learnt its meaning a year or two ago at school during an English lesson.
Same here in Poland. I had a black winter hat with a brim and Yankees logo on it, for sure a bootleg. Except I even remember someone explaining to me as a kid what that logo meant and I just shrugged it off
Yeah but a lot of people wear it even though they don't listen to metal. Target, Hot Topic, and even Walmart sell them, especially the mainstream ones 🙄
@@_ezrah very true, but at least it's kinda easy to spot the kinds of shirts sold in those stores vs ones bought at shows or from band's merch stores. hot topic seems like an outlier of the stores you listed since it's been a big part of the scene to get merch where target, walmart, forever 21, h&m, etc aren't
Whenever I see someone out and about in a Muse or Sleep Token t-shirt I always feel an instant sense of connection to them. it's like oh cool, you like the same things I do! For that reason I love merch and most of my wardrobe is made up of music, tv and game merch t-shirts
I found my best friend in uni through a BTS Suga hoodie 5 years ago😅 I was in a new city, new school environment, 600km far from home, and obviously didn't know a single soul. When I saw her wearing the hoodie I took all of my little introvert courage, went up to her and said: "Hi, your bias is Suga? Mine is Jimin. My name is-" and we've been inseparable ever since. So, YES talk to people wearing merch from your fandom, you will never know what friendship might come from it❤ BUT on the other side, I sometimes don't like wearing merch out in public, because I don't want to be affiliated with the 'cringe' and, yeah sometimes pretty shitty, parts of the respective fandom.
Had almost the same thing! I'm pretty introverted and not great in new situations so I wore a BTS album cover shirt to my college classes when I was starting & this girl in class was giving me a look....but didn't say anything. The next week she showed up in GOT7 gear and I gave her a look. We both just went "aaaaaaaaaaaaaye" and instantly became friends. I think that's honestly one of the only times I've worn the shirt outside, however. But I still have it and love it & it's survived a few Marie Kondo /sparks joy/ purges. BTS - bringing people together, lol.
This is such a wild conversation because in the hardcore subculture I typically buy tshirts from $10-30 and unless someone is touring I have a couple chances to buy one. It’s usually how we signal that we are part of the scene. Most of us can’t afford this rat race for merch online. I love a lot of the hardcore merch I’ve gotten.
yes I was just thinking this! tbh buying merch in the hardcore scene is more about supporting touring bands than really representing yourself as a fan. I have a bunch of shirts (some of them handmade) where I can't name a single song by the band but I saw them or opened for them and I wanted them to be able to afford the gas to get to their next gig
I go to as many local hardcore shows as I can and I always grab a shirt if I saw a dope band, especially if they came from far away. Unless you get a hoodie from them it’s usually pretty inexpensive, and either way I love being able to support the music I like. I saw End Game and Collective Action in my city last night, got a shirt from each for 30 bucks a pop because they were awesome bands
All my friends give me shit because my closet is literally 97% merchandise. I’m a huge wrestling fan, a huge drag fan, I’m a horror fan, I’m a doll collector, and I could continue. For me I think there’s something kind of classic about a merch shirt and like a pair of denim shorts or biker shorts. It’s not classic in the same way a little black dress is, but it definitely holds some classic value to it in my opinion. A lot of my merchandise is old now too, and thank god still fits. 😅 so for me it’s like pulling from my archives when I wear a shirt that’s 10+ years old. I think merchandise definitely have a defined space in culture.
@@novembercrust I have a mix of dolls, primarily Barbie ranging from the 60s to now, I’m really into Bratz rn tho so the Bratz in my collection are growing, I have a few Skullector Monster High dolls, and vintage porcelain dolls my grandma handmade in the 80s. What about you?
if your interests and fav artist are niche then it feels all the better when people recognize them on a shirt because then you have a little moment connecting with someone abt something that not many ppl know about. i own 3 little simz shirts
At the same time, if you don't live in the west it's hard to find niche merch. Lana and Olivia Rodrigo aren't even niche and I can't find ANY merch in my country, let alone a subtle one cause I don't really like merch that's very "in-your-face"
@@oniichan2167very true. My only merch I have is from my sister and I’s favorite CZcams channel (Simgm check them out genuinely love them) and I didn’t get it until she went off to college in the US. Obviously that’s an example of a niche thing because they only recently got 1 million subscribers but it makes you think
@@oniichan2167you can make your own!!!!!! Get a black tee and paint with blach (or write a specific lyric ecc) ora a White one and use fabric markers!!! Or you can find places and make your own designs and get them printed :) when I was younger and unable to find any MCR/ Fall out boy merch I would make sarcastic little shirts and I would print it in Decathlon:)
One time I wore a band tee of a pretty small band from my state (less then 5000 monthly listeners on spotify) to therapy and thats how i found out the members of a band i love are friends with my therapist.
It's so funny because I'm my student town in the Netherlands, it's very common to wear Oxford, Harvard, Yale, whatever sweaters/hoodies. However a Dutch person wouldn't be caught dead in a hoodie from the university they're currently studying at. Only international students wear them. A few Dutchies said they would wear them outside of the Netherlands. It's like you don't need to showcase you study there because most of us are students
the prevalence of merch goes hand in hand with my hatred for logos. merch in and of itself isn’t bad but i think if you’re getting merch it should be cute and not just a logo. for example: olivia rodrigo’s guts merch has a few pieces that are less merch-y and more like an inside thing with the livies, like it’s a red shirt with a line from a song in it. or taylor swift’s cardigans. it’s def still merch but its unique and a reference to something in the songs. it makes it special and thought out instead of just a cash grab.
I am British and yep, I had a yankees visor as a kid (late 90s-early 2000s) that I wore everywhere. It was genuinely just cheap, nicely designed, and would keep the sun out of my eyes when I was playing outside. Didn't know it was for a sports team until I was at least 16 or 17.
i LOVE the connection aspect of merch like you mentioned around 16:20. It doesn't matter how obscure you might think your team/school/band/etc is, in the most random corner of the earth you WILL find someone who comments on it and it just makes the world feel a bit more smaller and friendlier :) I worked in retail and some really nice conversations and connections were made with customers when I noticed their merch from a place I used to live or a sports team I liked. IMO we need more moments of connection like this in our ever-divisive society!
here in Brazil the biggest merch is definitely soccer tees from our local teams. you see people wearing it absolutely everywhere and it’s kind of strange and unsettling to me to see the trend on tiktok of people wearing those for fashion, not knowing anything about the teams at all
real asf😭 im not a soccer fan at all so i dont wear those. they wouldnt make me feel home in any way. istfg the soccer ppl here treat it so aggressively like its politics and thats why i stay away as much as i can from those mofos😭
Feeling so weighted down by stuff and over consumerism, i try to be really picky with what merch i buy. especially as an anime fan, there is SO MUCH merch out there that’s meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust. I’m always looking for things that are practical, a set of sailor moon mugs, Kiki’s delivery service chopsticks, beautiful fanart that i can hang on the wall etc
I buy band t shirts as a memento of the shows I've gone to for bands that I really like or just had a particularly good time at. One I bought recently was for a Metric concert, and the shirt says "Help I'm Alive" at the top - a lot of people get a kick out of it, even though they don't have any idea who Metric is. It's always a good conversation starter, and it tickles people.
My local vintage shop sells a lot of fruit of the loom type t-shirts from random events/businesses/youth camps in other countries. I got one that says: LASER HOCKEY "seeing is believing". It's hilarious and I would very much recommend this as an alternative to the joke merch or merch of something you know nothing about.
I feel like the K-Pop industry is next level in terms of how much merch is created. There's vinyls, CDs, photocards, lightsticks, trinkets of every type. I heard stories of fans buying multiple copies of albums to collect all photocards and throwing away the rest of the CD's in the trash
When I was a teenager my sister told me you cannot wear a band’s merch to that band’s concert. Motion City Soundtrack merch is only to be worn to other band’s shows. Even better if they’re friends with that band. No idea who came up with this.
That’s the ‘rule’ for non pop shows, ie, punk, metal, rock. Never wear the merch for the band you’re going to see. Me and my brother make it a game, like you said wear a shirt with connections to the band we’re seeing. Wore my stiff little fingers shirt, and my brother wore his bad religion shirt to green day, since they’re both influences. But it was a pop show, so everyone was wearing green day. They played a stiff little fingers song before they came on, so I won, btw. 😂
I am so happy to be alive during a time we have cute merch (original or not) for everything, that was my childhood dream. I love showcasing what I love: band t-shirts, custom themed decor and tattoos.
I feel this so much, I live in a latin-american country, and merch (for specific things I like) has never been truly available or affordable here, and with social media, and the growth of small businesses around here it has made my younger-self's heart so happy to be able to find, even if not original, something from my fave things that I've seen online all my life but was never truly able to indulge in.
@@kasthehuman girl same 😭 I live in Cuba and the reselling prices are WILD. Thank God my uncle lives in USA and can bring me the more affordable things I ask him. And if you're alternative you're so screwed, like I was a big fan of Emilie Autumn and it was just impossible to get anything from her 😭
@@kasthehuman Another latin-american person here! There are small business stands made by art students at my university and when I tell you I almost yelled out loud when I found a singular merch sticker for a game I adore...! I couldn't believe it. The sellers told me it was a fairly popular choice, even. So there WERE other people who liked the game around me so much that they bought the merch as well! That would've never happened when I was a kid; not just the lower prices, but the sheer availability. I suck at online shopping, so having somewhere tangible and close by where I can take a look and indulge in my interests has been so nice.
I was raised in a home where we didn't have money for those things, so yeah, now that I am an adult with money, I have been able to get all the stuff I always wanted to have but never could.
I LOVE wearing t shirts from local restaurants I enjoy supporting. Particularly when they’re places I go often enough to know & enjoy the staff. It makes me so happy and proud to say, hey, these guys and all of their efforts add so much to my life! For me it’s an expression of joy and gratitude. It also stems from a love of my parent’s old tshirts. Growing up with memories of them wearing the shirts, the stories, and the memories that not only live on but get added to- it’s a beautiful ledger of affection. So when I buy merch from a place I love- I’m establishing my own traditions of affections.
I feel like that’s what merch is really about, at least for me. It’s an incentive to support something that you like (massive superstar pop artists might not be applicable to that or whatever), and also usually get a cool thing out of it. I don’t have any shirts for local businesses because I have a million shirts for local bands, but I find it completely understandable to get a shirt for a local restaurant that you love personally
your yankees jacket story is so cute. i live in ohio and i thrifted a shirt that had a cute phrase on the front and the back had a pub listed that I had never heard of and never bothered to look up. while I was out in Cincinnati an older man came up to me and said he liked my shirt and the pub on the back was in Salt Lake City of all places, and he had his first date with his wife there! I always loved merch of all kinds for the conversations they can start :)
I remember once buying a tshirt with "go to hell for heaven's sake" written on it, for cheap online (something like temu) while i was in highschool. I didn't know that it references a song/band. In school, a friend of mine then told me that her boyfriend noticed the shirt and is confused since when i listen to music like that. I asked her "music? I didn't know". Later that day i checked out Bring Me The Horizon and fell in love. Some of my favourite songs are from their group
There's an important point being missed in that Caramanica quote: some of us don't want to live in a culture of "winners" and "losers" in the first place, we want a world rich with weirdo local art. All of the H&M t-shirt musicians (Metallica, Nirvana, Tupac, Joy Division, Bob Marley, etc.) first found fame by being local and subcultural in focus, not by being licensing cash cows. It's not about wishing that teenagers were more familiar with those artists (or even lesser-known bands from that time), but hoping that young people are finding art, music, and fashion that feels important & relevant TO THEM. This is also why yr story about the misunderstood "I Told Ya" is so funny and rewarding… it's literally art and fashion bridging a cultural gap.
I'm sure there's lot of artists who would absolutely not see getting a bigger cheque from t-shirts they didn't personally design than their actual music as any kind of win.
As a child, I wanted a princess Jasmine pajama set, not a princess Jasmine pajama set with her face on it! It was very important to me that it was something directly from the show, even at age 5. As an adult, yes, something not obvious from the fandom. I think something like an Always Sunny Paddy's Pub tee is about perfect, non-band merch-wise.
I was once bullied in high school by a group of Pink Floyd fans who felt the need to make sure I wasn’t only wearing my Dark Side of the Moon shirt because it looked cool, which greatly shaped my perspective on the issue (I like Pink Floyd but the album cover genuinely is better than the album itself)
I tend to buy merch for people or things I want to support, or for just any design that looks cool. It’s totally okay to understand that despite whatever a piece of merch stands for, it’s also a design or graphic at its core, so can’t really fault ppl for recognizing that and being drawn to it.
I'm a Canadian and halfway through the video I started cackling because I realized even my local grocery store has merch! No Frills, a chain grocer has a whole line of branded products for their "No Name," series that takes advantage of sarcasm and their brand. For example, they sell a cup that says "Cup for drinking" and "Chair for sitting,". Also important to note that this company does not need the marketing or income from these products, as they were recently boycotted for price gouging.
As a touring merch manager for many many a-list artists over the better part of two decades, I’ve never clicked on a video so fast. Can’t wait to hear your take on my industry.
it's interesting that you make a point about a straight guy using merch to look feminist and nonthreatening to women; i don't know how common it is but as a single queer woman i definitely wear queer-culture-specific merch to flag that i'm queer and yeah to potentially have a conversation starter. but it's nice to have something that might tell a knowledgeable person that i'm queer, but won't set off a rant from some trumper on the street
as a man i think it’s proper for men to always be making a constant effort to appear non threatening to women if they plan to associate with women. being non threatening includes behavior, the things you say, your posture, your appearance(clothing). men posing as feminist with bad intentions is definitely a problem but i feel like those people expose themselves quickly more often than not. as a cis man who likes “girly” things i have been told several times that showcasing my interests visually does signal to some people that i might create a safe verbal space at the least and i think that’s okay
@@crunchysalmons yeah I don't think there's a problem unless it's deceptive. But my point here was to talk about queer people using merch for flagging, which works a bit differently than the straight-guy signaling
@@ArtichokeHunteron a Sunday I went to meet my brother and his friends in a small Parisian gay bar, somehow a postcard of the bar ended up in my bag. Monday morning I put it up above my desk because I liked it and it sparked good memories. My cold as ice boss walked in, glanced at it and… melted. So yes, it is useful.
I always love the little "embarrassing" additions, like owning the thrasher shirt but not knowing it. It feels much more genuine for someone who can admit they've been a part of what they're talking about to do so, than someone who claims to be perfect about it. Maybe it's just me wanting the people I watch to feel real and genuine too much, but I think it does really help
I’d really love to add my feelings about wearing shirts of bands you don’t listen to. I don’t take the misogynistic angle at all with it, I grew up with strong female role models and I’ve made so many friends in niche communities that are girls and two of my bestest friends are girls! They’re in my subculture with me (classic rock) and we all have the same sort of take about wearing merch. I’m not going to be like “name three songs” that’s so stupid, anyone can be a fan of anything regardless of gender and regardless of what they look like. BUT! Me and my friends all feel deflated when people wear shirts of bands they don’t listen to because you wear the shirt to support the band or show to other people that you’re a fan. It helps fans find each other. It’s more than just a shirt if that makes sense.
As an independent musician in a band, we’ve had conversations about making merch. Granted we are still new on the scene, but I really don’t see us trying to make t-shirts. I feel feeding into the clothing scene when there is already so much waste is not helpful. I also feel people own way too many clothes as it is. So, we are navigating that. For now, we’re just sticking to selling our music. Also if our band’s logo got crazy popular and people were wearing clothes with it and didn’t know our music, I feel like I would be sad. My partner and I poured hours of heart and soul into this, and you don’t even take the time to listen. No hate, just my views on that if I were in that situation. I’d rather be a band that goes nowhere than a fashionable logo.
As an American living in Japan, it was interesting to see “American” clothing items (real second-hand letterman and FFA jackets, college hoodies/t-shirts, 90s band t-shirts, and American flag apparel) as a fashion trend for people in their 20-30s; especially in contrast to the ever prevalent sea of beige/black/brown GU/Uniqlo wear.
lol - Shimokitazawa and Koenji are full of Goodwill clothes for crazy high prices. It’s shipped over on giant pallets and the shops buy it from huge warehouses.
@@tokidokiteacher659I see a lot of it for sale at second hand stores like 2nd Street and even 390 Mart. The price point is always higher than it should be lol
I like the idea of wearable art but that’s uncommon so I use band tees. Metal band merch is unmatched in variety, theme, fabric, designs. Pop artist merch is overall so so so so lazy and looks like they have NO design sense. It’s often just a photo of the artist’s face. The Etsy merch for pop is better because it’s actually made with an understanding of the pop culture and has design sense.
if you’re into kpop then you already know how many idols will wear specifically sports merch for random teams. I will never forget someone asking moonbyul from mamamoo where her yankees hat was from and she said it was “a brand called mlb” which was the moment I realized some people not from the US think things like mlb, nba, and nfl are clothing brands instead of sports leagues and that was simply wild to me
I'd love for artist to release embroidery data so people could make their own Merch preferably with existing clothing and sewing machines (I know some of the modern ones have data input). I would be much more sustainable and creative
Its scary to see how people lose all morals/thinking processes when it's about Taylor Swift for example. Seeing some friends buying like 6-8 pieces for an outfit of their favorite era of temu or aliexpress (all items came seperate of course) as cheap as possible all to be most likely only be worn once was mindblowing to me. Like, I get the hype when going to an concert and everything, but it is so laughable or even sad to me how overconsumption comes so natural to them when its in the context of Taylor
I've never understood why people will buy a bunch of cheap stuff to wear to a concert, especially if it's one like the Eras Tour where even going to the concert was so up in the air for most people. My friends that managed to go all made their outfits because it's possible that they wouldn't be able to see another concert of hers due to the popularity, so they wanted to have these special outfits to have for a long time. My friends who went to Beyonce all wore outfits from things they already had or made stuff, so they would again have something special that wasn't just a cheap Tshirt.
@@shannonspeakmanmaxwell2155I love when fans go to a concert essentially cosplaying as the artist, wearing one of their looks put together from clothes they had in their wardrobe
Yeah maybe because I prefer mostly indie bands but I very rarely see anyone do this and it's a very strange concept to me. Like have fun at a show but a lot of venues are too sweaty for me to want to do this.
@@marrymejohn my friend group is a bunch of crafty late 20's/early 30's adults with only a couple kids between the group. Most of us sew or do other fiber related arts, so it's become a fun way to incorporate all of the interests and helps to build anticipation for the shows. If any of us were still in our crowded bar show phase, we probably wouldn't do it haha.
Loved this one! I wear almost exclusively band shirts collected over the years from artists I’ve seen live and loved but I’ve never understood the gatekeeping around merch - if you appreciate the design aesthetically and you’re supporting the artist, why not really?
on the topic of people buying clothes to only wear once, I feel like that’s very much what’s happening with the trend of people making bracelets to trade at concerts. I worry about the environmental impact of all that plastic especially given that I think it’s likely a good majority of those bracelets will end up in landfills within 5 years max. I do genuinely hope my worry is misplaced because the sheer volume of bracelets I see people making and collecting is quite astonishing.
i went to the eras tour, and i’m keeping all my bracelets. i think a minority will throw them away. most people take the confetti from the show, the light up wristband, and the bracelets, (even the plastic merch bags!) and make little keepsakes out of them. this is certainly my plan. it’s popular to buy a thick boxy frame and put everything inside of it.
Im all in for merch, especially of some smaller artists, but only if the design is actually worth it and it's not just a plain logo slapped on a white tee for $50
We are currently living in a poser era, from tattoos to colored hair and everything in between like band t-shirts; these things have gone from underground culture to pop culture. People that look like rockstars covered in tattoos, colored hair, and face piercings are utterly illiterate of the scenes that spawned those styles, but most significantly, it's all on the shallow surface; they are not artists, they are not non-conformists, they are not raging against the machine. Most of them are as vanilla and as square as it gets.
i'm from sweden and people here wear yankees caps as well and have been for as long as i can remember and i just realised the other day that it was for an actual team, i've just been thinking it was a funky cap lol
I work at a vintage store and my partner owns a sustainable screen printing shop that I also work at! providing garments for local businesses in a town that receives a lot of tourism is extremely important to the local economy and community. We uplift local graphic designers and have printed on vintage and second hand garments to reduce the fast fashion aspect of “merch”. There are tremendous strides the apparel industry is making but I would like to advise that everyone looks into who is making the products and their business practices. When you buy local merch provided by a in house screen printing shop you are promoting so much more than just your favorite coffee shop! There is so much more about screen printing I would love to get in as an art form that I so strongly believe in but buy local! Support local! If you buy - buy sustainable!
the public library I volunteer at sells tote bags and people love them. I think it shows, like you explained in a past video, that they probably read if they're wearing that bag and that says something about them. also, with the support of third spaces being a hot topic lately, people want to show they support theirs. and it does financially help the library. they're super cheap but it's still something. I bought one in each colour (there are only two colours) because I realized that despite having many cheap tote bags, I didn't have a good canvas one, then remembered I volunteer where we sell them for only a few dollars. I customized mine with patches I bought from a friend who's an artist. I see people wearing them literally everywhere I go and it's nice to see (also glad I customized mine so I don't get it mixed up with anyone else's).
The merch of bands does really change the smaller the band is, buying a vinyl and a t-shirt puts much more money in the pockets of small bands than it does grammy award winning artists and is still a conversation starter. Multiple local bands t-shirts normally leads to people actually knowing members of the band personally and is always so fun being out and about. Taylor Swift and Charlie XCX don’t need my money, but the band playing for $15 tickets in a tiny venue does.
Exactly buying from the merch table after the show of indie bands guarantees you that your money goes directly to the band instead of some reseller that may or may not know them. Most of the time on the merch table is some girlfriend or cousin or other relatives to the band members.
@@alekfelis if it’s before or after i’ve also seen band members running it as well and it’s always nice to talk with them there. A few also have tip jars which is nice if you can’t afford merch.
yes, especially since small bands/artists have been struggling so much throughout the pandemic. And even since: I see bands still having to cancel gigs or whole tours bc they can't get as many tickets sold as before all that
Correct me if I'm wrong but MLB is first and foremost a fashion brand abroad over merch where you can find styles you would not find here in the US. The Yankee's branding is particularly popular.
i think that an important part of wearing/owning/displaying merch is that it simply brings me joy. when i go to work to do some nameless tasks, i do take joy in having my branded mug, my keychains, my jewelry, all the little things that remind me of me. wearing a band tshirt reminds of the concert i went to and the memories i made. i don't wear merch to start conversations with strangers, i do it for me.
To me, concert tshirts are souvenirs. It’s an item that holds a memory. I’m not interested in band tees I didn’t “earn.” I love a gift shop after a tour or on vacation. Rarely do I ever thing a brand or corporation has designed a good or clever piece of merch. And for reference merch, boxlunch exists for a reason, and I love to wear a subtle inside joke (or even a loud and proud reference) for a piece of media I love (not just what boxlunch sells mind you, but they’re a proof of concept.)
Sitting watching this in the Nirvana T-shirt I bought at H&M. On the one hand, if I think too hard about that, the shallow consumerism and “poserness“ of it all disgusts me, but on the other hand, I love Nirvana, and I love the fact that I could buy that representation of my taste and character so easily. I would never have been able to attend a concert, but here I am, still able to make connections with like-minded characters. Anyways, loved the video!
The whole situation with the new Brat album is driving me nuts like I’m not part of the Charlie XCX fandom and i legit taught brat was the latest influencer hot girl brands who’s job is to churn out micro trends
When Nirvana shirts were sold at Urban Outfitters & crap, it begged the question, do these people know 3 Nirvana albums or 5 songs? Or is this yet again about generations of kids who prioritize image & “aesthetics”/“vibes” etc. over art or meaning. Cobain et al. would’ve hated this cultural universe more than he hated the Eighties/Nineties.
I own 3 t shirts form them but I kinda listen to them but I can only name 2 songs qnd it makes me feel bad but they look cool and I kinda like their music
@@ash_g8st944 my personal opinion is as long as you like them to some degree it's fine because some people will say they hate grunge and then proceed to wear a nirvana shirt which is what bothers me haha, but I would definitely recommend checking out more of their music as well!
I watched this video a few days ago and was thinking about people connecting over merch… it hadn’t happened to me really, then I went to starbucks randomly for a sweet treat today and someone around my age complimented my special edition new order hoodie I got at their show a year ago in texas, they explained the joy division new order lore to their coworkers and we all had a meaningful conversation. I left that experience feeling connected to people, the sweet treat was good but that interaction about merch made it a memorable experience.
my fave type of shirt is shirts that look like band shirts but it's actually just a design (fake band logos and album covers) . a lot of brands do this and it's my main form of tops/sweaters to wear.
I'm Gen X. I find it Fascinating that my 11-13 Year Old Granddaughters are Living my life Vicariously through all the Retro Iconic Merch that I used to Wear/Buy. Hehe
When I was working in England (I’m American), a young person walked by me in a University of Wisconsin sweatshirt: I said “go badgers” and she looked at me like I was out of my mind.
as much as i love nuance… people just buy things bc they can make a good outfit out of it. when it comes to this topic, all of the nuance can just be refuted with one sentence: “i just like the way it looks”
I've met so many wonderful people by conversations due to my "skinny puppy" shirts. I can't imagine wearing band or corporate merch for something you don't care about, it's like you're walking around wearing a costume instead of showing any personality.
Yeah personally I would feel like a liar/poser if I was walking around wearing a shirt for a band I don't like. I've seen Green Day 17 times and I have shirts from every tour I've been to so if someone comments on them we can have a pretty cool convo. Wouldn't it be awkward af if someone mentioned it and I was like "nah idk them I just like the ~aesthetic". I just don't get why you'd want to endorse an artist/IP/brand you know nothing about?
Same, and there are shirts for EVERYTHING so I feel like everyone can have a shirt for something they actually care about, which would probably be something they wear for longer too. People always talk about this in relation to rock bands, but I feel like I'd be a huge jerk if I wore a T Swift tee but I'm not really a big fan
There are three kinds of merch in our home 1 - local sports team (we have season tickets and wear merch on game days) 2 - gifts from companies we have worked for - most of it lands in the workshop and is eventually covered in paint 3 - support of charitable organizations Concert stuff is always way too pricey, and I refuse to pay to be a billboard for large multinationals (if possible).
35:32 for like five years after I got married I wore my wedding gown for Halloween, lol. I added some wings and a wand and called myself the wedding fairy. It was awesome! I loved being able to wear the dress again
graphic shirts are made for showing off a specific idea that you’re into, that’s why we look at dudes funny when they just wear a shirt with the nike logo and nothing else. never owned a thrasher shirt cuz i don’t like skaters, i have a subaru shirt because i like my subaru.
The idea for Nike is that you love basketball. People also wear Nike because it's a popular brand. I personally don't like to wear logo clothes (with some exceptions).
I feel like Nike is less of a merch item and more of a fashion brand’s logo. Like wearing a Polo shirt or having the C on a coach bag. To me people who wear this are saying nothing more than “this is a shirt from Nike.” Whereas wearing a band shirt says “I like this band”
The merch boom is honestly crazy because everything has merch now! Its so strange just because we’re surrounded by ads all the time so with all this new merch and everyone wearing it, its almost like everyone could be a walking ad lol
A majority of my wardrobe is considered “merch” as it involves characters, series, bands etc. that I love dearly. I don’t think the market is dying- it’s just unfortunately now consumed by fast fashion.
One of my bestest friends I became friends with after having a conversation about some merch she had from a CZcamsr we both watch. We’ve been friends for 3 years now
Definitely okay to wear band shirts you don’t listen too as long as you don’t pretend to be a fan. Giving a shit if someone ‘listens to a band enough’ reminds me of those males who go ‘oh you like them then name every album’
idk wearing a band shirt that you don’t actually like it is pretty hollow to me, it’s giving “this is my first punk show and i’m wearing my sisters band shirt”
idk but wearing band merch is how we recognise each other in public? at least metalhead community. i ve got do many friends who approached me first cos of band merch! so it is disappointing and embarassing when you are approaching someone and wish to share your joy over this band you both like (or so you think) and they turn out to be completely uninterested in it? it leaves a very hollow feeling - to see someone who wears something that s significant for you/your community just for fashion and for them it means nothing
in reality "wear what you want, who's stopping you" is what everything boils down to but regardless it is a reflection of character when you full send aestheticize music cultures. Like any way of dressing, be ready to be perceived that way and disappoint people if you're stripping it of its inherent value. if someone's giving you the "name all their albums" schpeal, that's them being annoying on their own merit, but if one person knows nothing and is aesthetic wearing a nirvana shirt and the other is being That Guy, there's two annoying people in the room LOL
me personally, half my wardrobe are tshirts from uniqlo's anime collabs with unique designs, and when i tell people ive never watched the anime on my shirt, the reactions are so mixed that it has become a bit of a personality test for me lmao. some people become uptight and gatekeep (boo), but others accept it and recommend me the show itself (yay)
I would have loved for you to include the importance of merch for small bands/artists. between booking fees they have to pay the venue, money they have to pay to promoters, travel and personal costs, it's hard to make a living. Especially since most people only stream and that makes small artists/bands very little to no money. Also, there is a very different perspective on merch when it comes to subcultures like hardcore, which I am a part of. We are walking billboards for our favorite artists and we take pride in supporting the bands that keep our scene alive. Merch sales are what make music possible for them, even in such a small scale for these bands performing in abandoned warehouses, laundromats, or good ol' small venues.
when you said nobody should buy a tote bag because they just like come to you for free that blew my mind like ur so right. im never going to buy a tote bag again
Yes spending 300+ dollars on a grey tee that says “I told ya” is very dystopian.
@VVillle ok i wont
@VVillle As you instructed, I didn't translate. Instead, I learned Hindi and understood your message. Thanks for the support about my reduced sodium intake. I had a bag of fries a couple of days ago, but it didn't affect me overall. Once in a while, it's okay. You're a very kind person interesting yourself in a stranger's dietary figures. We aren't really strangers, are we? Are we connected somehow in the ether? We both dream, don't we? How the wind flows through your hair and your fingers bend towards your palm gently after saying goodbye to someone you know you won't see for a long time. I'm in those moments with you. I'm your moment.™
I also could debate even calling less-marked-up versions of it "dupes." The phrase isn't copyrighted, the font and layout aren't original to the luxury brand. What's being duplicated? Why should we attribute the creative idea to Loewe, instead of JFK Jr?
Calling it “dystopian” doesn’t make it cool or right 🙄
Dystopian isn't really the word, I would describe it as dumb but not dystopian.
Dystopian: "Of, relating to, or being an imagined world or society in which people lead dehumanized, fearful lives."
Buying a whole outfit for a single event and then discarding it afterwards is unthinkable to me.
Influencers do it all the time. They will do haul videos on "what I got for coachella!" and actually say in the video that what they don't wear they'll return and get back their money or sell it on poshmark or something. So, think about it for a sec- they make money by making a video on what they bought, they are most likely getting some kind of sponsored experience at the event, then they get back the money on the items they didn't wear, and also have the option to resell the items they did wear and get a tax write off somewhere along the way.
I think of prom. I don't think most people discard their dresses but how many wear that dress again?
@@jllove86 many do! i bought something secondhand and culturally significant, so i rewear it for events. other girls rent their outfits or similarly wear their prom dresses for other formal occasions !
@@jllove86 true that many don't wear them again, but prom happens only once in your lifetime. while the influencers buy new outfits for festivals/concerts they go to multiple times a year every year
@@jllove86my mom made mine ❤so I had it for years after and would try it on. But it got stolen so yeah it was my first design too
That part about second hand clothing ending up in places like east Africa is so real. I am a fashion designer from Kenya and i grew increasingly frustrated by the slow and inevitable death of our textile industry as i watched cargo ship loads of second hand garments from America arrive literally ever month. The sheer amount of second hand clothing is insane. I've seen entire little league team t-shirts sold on the streets. When vendors can't sell them they just discard them on pavements and streets. Walking around Nairobi you just see heaps of garments trashing the streets especially around 2nd hand markets. It's quite awful. So please if you are from the west and you see this comment please encourage each other to make less, spend less and ask for better quality clothing that you can keep for much longer.
Each poor continent has its own rich world clothes cemetery. For south America is located in the Atacama desert.
God alafu vitenge siku hizi hazifiki miaka mbili na leso ni plastic. Maasaau fabrics, kikoi na limuru sweaters are gone too.
I miss _Mali ya Abdala_ 😥.
It's really unfortunate you have to deal with this, but just out of interest may I ask if you have instagram so I could take a look at your designs? Wishing you all the best!
The elephant in the room is consumerism and capitalism. Most merch is not ethically made, environmentally unfriendly, and overpriced/poorly made for what you get anyway. Why does Taylor, a billionaire, really need more money? Couldn't she, for charging so much, at least use better materials or labor?
additionally, the designs are soooo lackluster! you‘re telling me they can‘t come up with a better idea than slapping a few words on a boring solid color crew neck and charging 65 bucks for it??? i want them to design unique pieces that are actually fun and creative, especially because they have the means to do so..
Exactly that! If it's a small band that's just up and coming I get that you want to support them, but big bands or stars? They don't need anything anymore and you easily get that Merxh Second hand, and also where is the Die spirit? I do Scrapjournalling and it's in the word, you are "supposed" to use scraps. I get that you might by something here or there but why buy Stickers of Statues when you can use Museum Flyers for free? Or old botching paper from school or nice pictures out of a magazine you've read through? A lot of the things I see online don't use scraps at all
I can attest that every single time I go to my local goth club, people start conversations with me by talking about the band on my tshirt, no matter which one I'm wearing. So definitely can confirm that merch is a good conversation starter.
I love getting and giving "cool shirt" compliments at metal shows!
@VVillleReported, you're pathetic
I get the same for the shirts I have for my favorite shows. It’s a great way to break the ice with people
I was going to say something similar. This is a good video, but a lot of the points pertain to mainstream artists (overconsumption, devalued merch that is thrown away once the artist passes through the trend cycle). In goth and metal communities, tour T-shirts are not only worn out to concerts, nightlife, etc, but cherished, to the extent where you will find carefully cared-for vintage tour shirts on the secondhand market (sometimes for high prices). Wave-Gothik-Treffen, the largest Goth festival in the world, sells extra shirts from the previous year to attendees (I bought last year’s shirt this year for a friend who wanted one). As at M’era Luna and other large scale festivals, I saw people wearing older WGT shirts with pride, and a wide variety of outfits that prioritized handmade/DIY/refashioned vintage as well as priority placed on small designers / indie brands. I’m not going to say that subculture communities are free of consumption waste, but I just don’t see the same worrisome attitudes about excessive consumption (merch and otherwise) in people locally active in goth, punk and metal communities.
YES me too. people ask did you go to the show, etc etc. it's how we find our tribe.
There's a Belgian popstar (edit: her name is Pommelien Thijs!) who, instead of selling merch, created 4 designs that they printed on shirts that fans already had and could bring to the show. I thought that was quite cool!
That's very cool! Was it silkscreening?
That's a great idea! What was the name of the popstar?
@@lordfreerealestate8302 it is pommelien thijs :)
Wie?
Was that Stromae? I'm from Belgium and I didn't know that, it's really cool
I was wearing an “I heart Cillian Murphy” shirt and this sweet old lady came up to me and said she was also a fan and it made my day
How old was she ?
@@tneowapl1-bv6gr idk I wanna say mid 60’s
Kanye West wasn't the first person to bring merch to malls by any stretch of the imagination. Bringing band t-shirts to every corner of America was Hot Topic's entire brand identity. They had their start just going around to concerts and buying up as many extras as possible to bring to people who couldn't go see the bands in person. Eventually, they expanded to nerd culture & pop culture properties and that associated merch, but their whole ethos has always been to feel like the t-shirt stand at a concert venue
For reference btw, Kanye West was 12 years old when Hot Topic was founded
@@msjkramey😂 also i was thinking the same thing about hot topic. Definitely wore tshirts from there with bands i never listened to
THANK YOU! I saw Paramore in 2010 & every punk rock/alt band was selling merch & you had to wear it with an I heart Boobies bracelet.
I was thinking the same. Not even just specific brands like Hot Topic. I remember buying a Motorhead tshirt from Topshop back in 1999. 5 years before Kanye even put out his first album, people love to give him credit for things nothing to do with him.
I came here to say the same thing, people were already complaining about (since I had a bunch of punk and metal friends in high school) about how all the bands they liked sold out, because you could buy there merch at the mall, this was in 2009. Maybe Kanye brought this phenomenon to a new demographic, but he certainly didn’t start the merch thing lol. I’m and artist and I LOVE a good graphic tee and always have, I usually try and buy them from smaller creators, businesses, or sometimes I’ll do a little DIY. It doesn’t happen much anymore, but I used to (especially as a young lady) get quizzed to high heaven if I wore a band shirt or movie shirt by men. Even strangers. The old, “name three songs!” Gag. It’s annoying lol doesn’t happen as often and I’m okay with that. As a neurodivergent human I sometimes struggle to be quick in conversation and can have a hard time remembering certain things on the spot, so even if a shirt that I’m wearing is of a band I’ve listened to on repeat for months or movie that’s my special interest, something I could sit down and write a few pages of facts about, when someone confronts me on the spot I freeze up and can’t think, I’ve been called a poser more times than I can count lol which I laugh at now because I know what I like, and I don’t care what people think for the most part (at least in that regard) but I’m glad people aren’t making such a big deal about it. I have had an instance recently when I complimented someone’s shirt, mentioned that I liked the band too, and started talking about my favorite song and they said, “oh, I just like the way this shirt looks, I have no idea what this band is” and we just laughed lol like, I know it might be weird but at the end of the day it’s not the biggest deal, but the overconsumption is a little tacky, regardless of the item.
yeah im not paying $300 for a t shirt, and in my opinion, those 'designer' shirts are probably made in the same sweat shop as the $5 one.
I think there was an expose a couple years back about how clothes sold on shein and designer clothes like burberry or whatever were made by the same sweat shops. Not to mention how essentially you don't need to make a tailored Armani suit entirely in Italy, and can just install the buttons to get the "made in Italy" slapped on
It’s not just your opinion it’s literally a fact that they use the same sweatshops.
$300 for an ugly grey tee with I TOLD YA on it?? 💀 luxury is truly a scam.
Dude, I remember one time I bought a hoodie for $70 (don’t ask me what sort of substance I was on) but the quality was SO bad. I now just buy my hoodies from Kmart and the cheap ones have ALWAYS lasted me the longest.
@@nint357 So it happens that it actually is "made in italy" but they bring chinese workers to Italy and they don't pay them european wages. Technically it was made in italy but the conditions of working environment are similar to the sweatshops in China
A few weeks ago a delivery guy commented on my t-shirt when I answered my door (merch for the band health) and he was intrigued and said he'd listen to them. Next time he delivered to me he told me he had actually given them a listen and liked them. It really was a nice human to human moment I got to share because I have that merch.
Cool!!! I like Health 😎, because my husband started hearing the band. We went to 2 concerts in L.A and 1 in San Diego 🤩
as someone who owns like five or six pieces of HEALTH merch i’m dying to know what shirt you had on lol
@@sillygoose420 It was the Ashamed shirt lmfao... yeah... that one. I showed him the back too lol
@@judithvictoria3109 I saw them in LA too!
Band shirts are always great conversation starters.
As a musician in an underground music scene, Merch is DEFINITELY not dead. PLEASE KEEP BUYING INDIE ARTISTS MERCH! In fact it’s our bread and butter on tour. It’s how we break even on the road, how we connect other fans to each other etc. I sought out the music of bands that had cool tshirts and ended up loving so many new groups as a result. We even trade merch with other bands when we are fans of each others. Yeah, the aesthetic has been co-opted by the masses, but there are still plenty of folks out there, silk screening shirts in their basements, and utilizing local printers for the rest. Seriously. Erewhon does not need you to rep them to keep running. A local band playing your city really really does.
lol Underground
'' Yeah, the aesthetic has been co-opted by the masses ''
erm. the Styles are My Generation and Culture
You are literally ALL co-opting it ?
Is this a Joke ?
What’s your band? So I can check them out always need a new music 😻
As a fellow non-famous musician, I wholeheartedly second the original post!!
Restaurant merch had been around forever. Every dad I see on vacation has a Hard Rock Cafe t shirt from somewhere.
Yeah, at my school wearing a Hard Rock Cafe shirt from somewhere you went on vacation was a low key way to show off if you (or someone you knew) went somewhere cool this summer. I had the idea that they must have been nice restaurants, I was wrong.
@@floraidh4097a girl at my school then raved about the Hard Rock Cafe. Got the chance to get to one at a vacation and it was underwhelming 😂 but the store assistant and I had a short little flirt, very innocent but better than the burgers 😅
I'm honestly kind of surprised at how "recent" this video was presenting the entire thing, like merch has only really been a thing in the last decade or so.
@@YaleStewartArt I thought I was just shaking my cane. The breakdown was interesting, but it’s more of a history of merch in the 21st century
@@YaleStewartArt Exactly.
this is what im having for lunch
me for breakfast
ME TOO
No ur so real she posted just in time
Yummmm with my iced americanooo
nothing tastes better than what Mina says 💅
I’m an American living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and people here have been OBSESSED with Yankees baseball caps since around April. Every time I go to the grocery store - a five minute walk from my apartment- I see AT LEAST 5. 😭 it’s been wild. I ask Dutch people and they’re just like ‘it looks cool, and New York is cool’. Lol. Apparently in the 90s there was a similar trend here, my colleague told me that he had a baseball hat from some random team in Wisconsin. He picked it because he liked the colors. You’re the first person I’ve seen acknowledge the madness of Yankees caps in Western Europe!
I mean, NY was New Amsterdam once. Sooo, if any team, why not Yankees, which are literally named after "Jan" en "Kees"?
There was also this serie “Digimon” and the teenager that was bad at first but turned goos had this exact NY cap. The very first time I ever saw it. They were all Japanese boys in this serie. Never knew it was a baseball cap and liked the design and also because of this 2000s serie.
Croatian bandana❤on your head,Mina
Or I am wrong?😅
Tbh most of us don't know what the Yankees are, we just wear it bc it looks cool. I'm pretty sure most of my life I thought it was just the logo of a brand (I'm sorry)
American in Berlin, I always see Oakland A’s and Raider apparel being worn. When I first moved here I thought look at my fellow California’s out here living just like me, but no. Just a cool logo for them 🙃
I buy two types of merch:
-Bands t-shirts I buy at their concerts. I listen mostly indie bands and buying merch from them is a great wat to support them, specially since I listen to their music for free online.
- Tote bags from bookshops around the world. Whenever I travel I like to visit independent bookshops and I buy a tote bag from them, is my way to support their business (I don't always find a book I like) and it's my souvenir from the country. It's also a great conversation starter with strangers, I met one of my best friends when she approached me at a concert because I was carrying a tote bag from an independent bookshop she had worked at in Santorini.
The bookstore one is actually genius. I might have to steal that if I ever get to travel.
whenever a restaurant or a store hands my dad a branded bag for the stuff he bought, he always asks them as a joke if he gets a discount for the free advertisement😭
Someone stole your comment and got more like I fear lol!
Haha dads are so dad
@@TofuDinoNugs they all got the same jokes 😭
It’s like she knew I just sat down to draw
REAL
It's a "classy if you're rich, trashy if you're poor" kind of trend. Growing up, my parents didn't have a lot of money but I have a picture of myself in a Hard Rock cafe sweatshirt (even though we have never been to one and my parents didn't speak English so they didn't know what it meant). I guess it fit me at the time and my parents liked it, so they bought it for me second-hand.
I got to know this girl who also went solo to the latest Rico Nasty concert and she was super stylish and chill. Long story short, she needed a ride home and I offered to drop her off at her place. We got to know more about each other on the way and we got matching shirts after the concert so seeing that shirt in my closet always brings back good memories.
She imitates my generation ?
Maybe it’s because I’m an older gen z, but the idea of wearing merch of band you’ve never listened to or a movie you’ve never seen is so weird to me. Even some of the faux location merch that stores sell now that say “Los Angeles” or “Cape Cod” or whatever, why would you wear merch of a place you’ve never actually been to?
I do like to buy merch from my favorite artists, especially because merch is often a main source of income for smaller artists, since streaming doesn’t really bring in a lot of income. Even if I don’t really wear the merch a ton, I’m still happy to support my favorite artists
Same, for me it’s especially awkward if someone approaches you asking if you’re a fan wanting to start up a convo, but you don’t know the band or been to the place.
to play devil’s advocate - I can understand if you like the art or design on it! I personally found a Grouplove tour shirt at a thrift store. never got into them, but I liked the art on it! I ended up repurposing it as a patch to go on a jacket, but I would just wear it before then.. but buying something that has only “Nirvana” on it or something does feel weird to me. bc of you don’t like the music, and there’s no like art or anything on there.. why?
yeah the location one is weird, the same way with university and college merch. why would i wear a harvard or yale hoodie when i've never step foot on either campus??? i don't even have merch from the 2 unis i went to.
@@lylukkHarvard is for if you like Legally Blonde and Yale is for Gilmore Girls fans 🤭
Yeah, I saw shirts for a few different cities at Nordstrom Rack and they weren't even pretty or artsy. Obviously, people can do what they want but I personally want to be able to talk about a trip to the location if I'm wearing its name on my chest.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention college/university merch! I can understand wearing a tee for a band you don’t listen to, the graphics are usually pretty sweet. But wearing a plain sweatshirt that states a university you didn’t go to is a bit strange idk
i have a rly cozy one that i cut some of the letters off to make it say somethin else but yep, ppl have def asked me about the uni when i haven’t went :/
or shirts of places you havent visited.
That's a big one for US universities in the UK.
@@marianne5055idk if people do this anymore but people used to buy souvenirs from places they went and give them to loved ones back home and a lot of those souvenirs have the name of the place stamped on them. So you might have some random merch from somewhere just because someone you knew visited there 😂
You know I agree with what you’re saying 😂 but some of the Harvard merch is so cosy
I'll never forget the day I wore my brand new Rolling Stones iron on tee to school and was immediately questioned about knowing songs from the band, and feeling very proud that I did. This was around 1983, and I grew up listening to them in the house. Band tees and logos, and album covers were everything to us growing up, and it was important to us then that you had the knowledge of the band that you were wearing. Also, the quality of the tees was so much better, I had shirts last for years, the newer ones are so expensive and they fall apart so quickly. But they are absolutely a conversation starter!
My friends and I created a fake concert tee for a band in our d&d campaign and I love wearing it and seeing people try to figure out what the reference is
i love wearing merch for fictional things a lot more than merch for real things lol
One thing I think is funny is according to an official Challengers prop auction, the I TOLD YA shirt Zendaya wears in the movie is a J.Crew shirt with I TOLD YA screen printed on, not the Loewe one. That made an Etsy knock off feel more authentic to me lol, but I still haven’t hit checkout
hilarious and insane
Not at all surprising
Lmao I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would buy that tee
As someone who sucks at conversation, I look at ur clothes to see if there’s anything I can comment on and it would be sooo embarrassing to ask abt the band on ur shirt, thinking we can connect or at least start a conversation and u don’t even listen to to them 😂😂 I wouldn’t know what to say!
Imagine you being a huge fan and getting excited about meeting a fellow fan just to be disappointed in a second.
THANK YOU I HAVE LITERALLY HAD THIS EXPERIENCE
Happened to me in school! I told this girl “I love the Velvet Underground!” because she was wearing their shirt. She just stared at me confused, then I was confused. She had no idea who they were, just liked the banana haha
This.
I mean there’s always to turn it ! Like if the person in front of you is nice and receptive ask them why they get it or where ? If they ever heard of the band, music that they made that they could check out if it’s a music shirt, others recommendations that you could give them etc..🤗
I have to scoff at the statement calling 3rd world countries poor, specifically Africans as it reinforces the image that renders poverty ubiquitous with the African state of existence. As you briefly touched on, a consistent, structured and concerted effort from western nations to maintain that leverage over us has always been the case.
To be:
1) forced into being the primary raw material supplier for most agricultural and fashion goods that they get to determine a lower cost for via stiff arm trade deals and Americas 2nd largest export, war, then,
2) simultaneously, economically and politically implement and interfere with structural commerce blocks in our markets to undermine the development of processing power to produce finished goods (often, again, through assassinations, military presence, international policy and wars funded by corporate America) , THEN,
3) using the same war, economic and political machine to force Africans into being western waste bins, much like the pacific islands with the food industry….😂.
it’s passive packaging.
I hope we call on the bluff on the poverty of Sub-Saharan Africans one day. Sure we’re poor. But I hope for the day when Nigeria’s tanneries stop exporting genuine leather for the “Italian leather” premiums used on designer bags when they aren’t playing everyone for fools selling cheap polymers at ridiculous price tags.
I’m E.African, I walked into an Armani store where the fabrics are largely produced in TFZs that repatriate no funds back.
We get the Salvation Army rejects sold in our markets.
I also feel cultural imperialism, not export, inculcates the idea that the “westerner is cool, chic, best dressed” so out of a need to appeal to this ideal, we become okay with accepting refuse if it means that refuse MIGHT render us more human to often desensitised and vapid western audiences. But it leads us down further into dehumanisation as we are seen as crate diggers in the attempt. I have to laugh 😂
I often wonder how it feels to be able to so casually condescend to us. I suppose for one Congolese child a day, the often morally bankrupt and ignorant western societies get to pontificate to us about how we are poor through their iPhones and laptops. I hope we call the bluff.
Powerful.
That's great buddy, now go touch some grass and go to bed 😂
I’m from Finland and the Yankees caps were very popular during my childhood in the 2010s. No one knew it was merch, we just thought it looked cool. I only learnt its meaning a year or two ago at school during an English lesson.
Same here in Poland. I had a black winter hat with a brim and Yankees logo on it, for sure a bootleg. Except I even remember someone explaining to me as a kid what that logo meant and I just shrugged it off
As a metalhead the band t-shirt is so relevant to us, as you can identify each other and support the genre you like in particular.
Came here to say this! Band shirts and patches are such a huge part of the scene
Yeah but a lot of people wear it even though they don't listen to metal. Target, Hot Topic, and even Walmart sell them, especially the mainstream ones 🙄
@@_ezrah very true, but at least it's kinda easy to spot the kinds of shirts sold in those stores vs ones bought at shows or from band's merch stores. hot topic seems like an outlier of the stores you listed since it's been a big part of the scene to get merch where target, walmart, forever 21, h&m, etc aren't
Whenever I see someone out and about in a Muse or Sleep Token t-shirt I always feel an instant sense of connection to them. it's like oh cool, you like the same things I do! For that reason I love merch and most of my wardrobe is made up of music, tv and game merch t-shirts
I found my best friend in uni through a BTS Suga hoodie 5 years ago😅 I was in a new city, new school environment, 600km far from home, and obviously didn't know a single soul. When I saw her wearing the hoodie I took all of my little introvert courage, went up to her and said: "Hi, your bias is Suga? Mine is Jimin. My name is-" and we've been inseparable ever since. So, YES talk to people wearing merch from your fandom, you will never know what friendship might come from it❤ BUT on the other side, I sometimes don't like wearing merch out in public, because I don't want to be affiliated with the 'cringe' and, yeah sometimes pretty shitty, parts of the respective fandom.
Hey ARMY 👋
@@Pizzelle Hellooo🤗
@tappytart @ Pizzelle Hi Armies 😊
💜💜💜💜🫶
Had almost the same thing! I'm pretty introverted and not great in new situations so I wore a BTS album cover shirt to my college classes when I was starting & this girl in class was giving me a look....but didn't say anything. The next week she showed up in GOT7 gear and I gave her a look. We both just went "aaaaaaaaaaaaaye" and instantly became friends. I think that's honestly one of the only times I've worn the shirt outside, however. But I still have it and love it & it's survived a few Marie Kondo /sparks joy/ purges. BTS - bringing people together, lol.
This is such a wild conversation because in the hardcore subculture I typically buy tshirts from $10-30 and unless someone is touring I have a couple chances to buy one. It’s usually how we signal that we are part of the scene. Most of us can’t afford this rat race for merch online. I love a lot of the hardcore merch I’ve gotten.
yes I was just thinking this! tbh buying merch in the hardcore scene is more about supporting touring bands than really representing yourself as a fan. I have a bunch of shirts (some of them handmade) where I can't name a single song by the band but I saw them or opened for them and I wanted them to be able to afford the gas to get to their next gig
@@carolyns.9377 lol Harcore
The Imitators you mean
I go to as many local hardcore shows as I can and I always grab a shirt if I saw a dope band, especially if they came from far away. Unless you get a hoodie from them it’s usually pretty inexpensive, and either way I love being able to support the music I like. I saw End Game and Collective Action in my city last night, got a shirt from each for 30 bucks a pop because they were awesome bands
All my friends give me shit because my closet is literally 97% merchandise. I’m a huge wrestling fan, a huge drag fan, I’m a horror fan, I’m a doll collector, and I could continue. For me I think there’s something kind of classic about a merch shirt and like a pair of denim shorts or biker shorts. It’s not classic in the same way a little black dress is, but it definitely holds some classic value to it in my opinion.
A lot of my merchandise is old now too, and thank god still fits. 😅 so for me it’s like pulling from my archives when I wear a shirt that’s 10+ years old. I think merchandise definitely have a defined space in culture.
Um hello I also love horror, wrestling, and collecting dolls and have too many t-shirts I've kept for over a decade
@@novembercrust iconic duo in the making right here
@jaycijadee
@@novembercrust I have a mix of dolls, primarily Barbie ranging from the 60s to now, I’m really into Bratz rn tho so the Bratz in my collection are growing, I have a few Skullector Monster High dolls, and vintage porcelain dolls my grandma handmade in the 80s. What about you?
if your interests and fav artist are niche then it feels all the better when people recognize them on a shirt because then you have a little moment connecting with someone abt something that not many ppl know about. i own 3 little simz shirts
LITTLE SIMZ SUPREMACY i love that woman sm. her new song with Sampha is 🔥
At the same time, if you don't live in the west it's hard to find niche merch. Lana and Olivia Rodrigo aren't even niche and I can't find ANY merch in my country, let alone a subtle one cause I don't really like merch that's very "in-your-face"
@@oniichan2167very true. My only merch I have is from my sister and I’s favorite CZcams channel (Simgm check them out genuinely love them) and I didn’t get it until she went off to college in the US. Obviously that’s an example of a niche thing because they only recently got 1 million subscribers but it makes you think
@@oniichan2167you can make your own!!!!!! Get a black tee and paint with blach (or write a specific lyric ecc) ora a White one and use fabric markers!!! Or you can find places and make your own designs and get them printed :) when I was younger and unable to find any MCR/ Fall out boy merch I would make sarcastic little shirts and I would print it in Decathlon:)
One time I wore a band tee of a pretty small band from my state (less then 5000 monthly listeners on spotify) to therapy and thats how i found out the members of a band i love are friends with my therapist.
broke my ankles getting here
It's so funny because I'm my student town in the Netherlands, it's very common to wear Oxford, Harvard, Yale, whatever sweaters/hoodies. However a Dutch person wouldn't be caught dead in a hoodie from the university they're currently studying at. Only international students wear them. A few Dutchies said they would wear them outside of the Netherlands. It's like you don't need to showcase you study there because most of us are students
I think in general merch that refers to American or UK things are considered just fashion, not merch, like the yankees cap
the prevalence of merch goes hand in hand with my hatred for logos. merch in and of itself isn’t bad but i think if you’re getting merch it should be cute and not just a logo. for example: olivia rodrigo’s guts merch has a few pieces that are less merch-y and more like an inside thing with the livies, like it’s a red shirt with a line from a song in it. or taylor swift’s cardigans. it’s def still merch but its unique and a reference to something in the songs. it makes it special and thought out instead of just a cash grab.
I looked up her merch she rips off My Generation's and Cultures and HOW WE GREW UP Styles ?
I am British and yep, I had a yankees visor as a kid (late 90s-early 2000s) that I wore everywhere. It was genuinely just cheap, nicely designed, and would keep the sun out of my eyes when I was playing outside. Didn't know it was for a sports team until I was at least 16 or 17.
If only you'd learned of the candle company first lol
i think i had the same, i had a lilac hat and a pink visor. i'm pretty sure they came from bhs
i LOVE the connection aspect of merch like you mentioned around 16:20. It doesn't matter how obscure you might think your team/school/band/etc is, in the most random corner of the earth you WILL find someone who comments on it and it just makes the world feel a bit more smaller and friendlier :) I worked in retail and some really nice conversations and connections were made with customers when I noticed their merch from a place I used to live or a sports team I liked. IMO we need more moments of connection like this in our ever-divisive society!
here in Brazil the biggest merch is definitely soccer tees from our local teams. you see people wearing it absolutely everywhere and it’s kind of strange and unsettling to me to see the trend on tiktok of people wearing those for fashion, not knowing anything about the teams at all
real asf😭 im not a soccer fan at all so i dont wear those. they wouldnt make me feel home in any way. istfg the soccer ppl here treat it so aggressively like its politics and thats why i stay away as much as i can from those mofos😭
Feeling so weighted down by stuff and over consumerism, i try to be really picky with what merch i buy. especially as an anime fan, there is SO MUCH merch out there that’s meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust. I’m always looking for things that are practical, a set of sailor moon mugs, Kiki’s delivery service chopsticks, beautiful fanart that i can hang on the wall etc
I buy band t shirts as a memento of the shows I've gone to for bands that I really like or just had a particularly good time at. One I bought recently was for a Metric concert, and the shirt says "Help I'm Alive" at the top - a lot of people get a kick out of it, even though they don't have any idea who Metric is. It's always a good conversation starter, and it tickles people.
My heart keeps beating like a hammer 🎶❤
Oooh metric is sick!
I love that song!! That's sick
metric is a great love of mine too
My local vintage shop sells a lot of fruit of the loom type t-shirts from random events/businesses/youth camps in other countries. I got one that says: LASER HOCKEY "seeing is believing". It's hilarious and I would very much recommend this as an alternative to the joke merch or merch of something you know nothing about.
I feel like the K-Pop industry is next level in terms of how much merch is created. There's vinyls, CDs, photocards, lightsticks, trinkets of every type. I heard stories of fans buying multiple copies of albums to collect all photocards and throwing away the rest of the CD's in the trash
When I was a teenager my sister told me you cannot wear a band’s merch to that band’s concert. Motion City Soundtrack merch is only to be worn to other band’s shows. Even better if they’re friends with that band. No idea who came up with this.
That’s the ‘rule’ for non pop shows, ie, punk, metal, rock. Never wear the merch for the band you’re going to see.
Me and my brother make it a game, like you said wear a shirt with connections to the band we’re seeing. Wore my stiff little fingers shirt, and my brother wore his bad religion shirt to green day, since they’re both influences. But it was a pop show, so everyone was wearing green day.
They played a stiff little fingers song before they came on, so I won, btw. 😂
I am so happy to be alive during a time we have cute merch (original or not) for everything, that was my childhood dream. I love showcasing what I love: band t-shirts, custom themed decor and tattoos.
I feel this so much, I live in a latin-american country, and merch (for specific things I like) has never been truly available or affordable here, and with social media, and the growth of small businesses around here it has made my younger-self's heart so happy to be able to find, even if not original, something from my fave things that I've seen online all my life but was never truly able to indulge in.
@@kasthehuman girl same 😭 I live in Cuba and the reselling prices are WILD. Thank God my uncle lives in USA and can bring me the more affordable things I ask him. And if you're alternative you're so screwed, like I was a big fan of Emilie Autumn and it was just impossible to get anything from her 😭
@@kasthehuman Another latin-american person here! There are small business stands made by art students at my university and when I tell you I almost yelled out loud when I found a singular merch sticker for a game I adore...! I couldn't believe it. The sellers told me it was a fairly popular choice, even. So there WERE other people who liked the game around me so much that they bought the merch as well! That would've never happened when I was a kid; not just the lower prices, but the sheer availability. I suck at online shopping, so having somewhere tangible and close by where I can take a look and indulge in my interests has been so nice.
I was raised in a home where we didn't have money for those things, so yeah, now that I am an adult with money, I have been able to get all the stuff I always wanted to have but never could.
I LOVE wearing t shirts from local restaurants I enjoy supporting. Particularly when they’re places I go often enough to know & enjoy the staff. It makes me so happy and proud to say, hey, these guys and all of their efforts add so much to my life! For me it’s an expression of joy and gratitude. It also stems from a love of my parent’s old tshirts. Growing up with memories of them wearing the shirts, the stories, and the memories that not only live on but get added to- it’s a beautiful ledger of affection. So when I buy merch from a place I love- I’m establishing my own traditions of affections.
I feel like that’s what merch is really about, at least for me. It’s an incentive to support something that you like (massive superstar pop artists might not be applicable to that or whatever), and also usually get a cool thing out of it. I don’t have any shirts for local businesses because I have a million shirts for local bands, but I find it completely understandable to get a shirt for a local restaurant that you love personally
your yankees jacket story is so cute. i live in ohio and i thrifted a shirt that had a cute phrase on the front and the back had a pub listed that I had never heard of and never bothered to look up. while I was out in Cincinnati an older man came up to me and said he liked my shirt and the pub on the back was in Salt Lake City of all places, and he had his first date with his wife there! I always loved merch of all kinds for the conversations they can start :)
I remember once buying a tshirt with "go to hell for heaven's sake" written on it, for cheap online (something like temu) while i was in highschool. I didn't know that it references a song/band. In school, a friend of mine then told me that her boyfriend noticed the shirt and is confused since when i listen to music like that. I asked her "music? I didn't know". Later that day i checked out Bring Me The Horizon and fell in love. Some of my favourite songs are from their group
As someone with a unique name, thank you for the angel suggestion 😭
agreed yesensei
There's an important point being missed in that Caramanica quote: some of us don't want to live in a culture of "winners" and "losers" in the first place, we want a world rich with weirdo local art. All of the H&M t-shirt musicians (Metallica, Nirvana, Tupac, Joy Division, Bob Marley, etc.) first found fame by being local and subcultural in focus, not by being licensing cash cows. It's not about wishing that teenagers were more familiar with those artists (or even lesser-known bands from that time), but hoping that young people are finding art, music, and fashion that feels important & relevant TO THEM. This is also why yr story about the misunderstood "I Told Ya" is so funny and rewarding… it's literally art and fashion bridging a cultural gap.
I'm sure there's lot of artists who would absolutely not see getting a bigger cheque from t-shirts they didn't personally design than their actual music as any kind of win.
The ‘Angel’ nameplate idea is so cute except my gf’s name is Angel so then it’d just be hers 😂
As a child, I wanted a princess Jasmine pajama set, not a princess Jasmine pajama set with her face on it! It was very important to me that it was something directly from the show, even at age 5. As an adult, yes, something not obvious from the fandom. I think something like an Always Sunny Paddy's Pub tee is about perfect, non-band merch-wise.
I was once bullied in high school by a group of Pink Floyd fans who felt the need to make sure I wasn’t only wearing my Dark Side of the Moon shirt because it looked cool, which greatly shaped my perspective on the issue (I like Pink Floyd but the album cover genuinely is better than the album itself)
I tend to buy merch for people or things I want to support, or for just any design that looks cool. It’s totally okay to understand that despite whatever a piece of merch stands for, it’s also a design or graphic at its core, so can’t really fault ppl for recognizing that and being drawn to it.
I'm a Canadian and halfway through the video I started cackling because I realized even my local grocery store has merch! No Frills, a chain grocer has a whole line of branded products for their "No Name," series that takes advantage of sarcasm and their brand. For example, they sell a cup that says "Cup for drinking" and "Chair for sitting,". Also important to note that this company does not need the marketing or income from these products, as they were recently boycotted for price gouging.
As a touring merch manager for many many a-list artists over the better part of two decades, I’ve never clicked on a video so fast.
Can’t wait to hear your take on my industry.
So, what did you think of the video? Really fascinated to get your take!
I love the Commercialisation of Our Styles / How We Grew Up
it's interesting that you make a point about a straight guy using merch to look feminist and nonthreatening to women; i don't know how common it is but as a single queer woman i definitely wear queer-culture-specific merch to flag that i'm queer and yeah to potentially have a conversation starter. but it's nice to have something that might tell a knowledgeable person that i'm queer, but won't set off a rant from some trumper on the street
Its sadly common
as a man i think it’s proper for men to always be making a constant effort to appear non threatening to women if they plan to associate with women. being non threatening includes behavior, the things you say, your posture, your appearance(clothing). men posing as feminist with bad intentions is definitely a problem but i feel like those people expose themselves quickly more often than not. as a cis man who likes “girly” things i have been told several times that showcasing my interests visually does signal to some people that i might create a safe verbal space at the least and i think that’s okay
@@crunchysalmons yeah I don't think there's a problem unless it's deceptive. But my point here was to talk about queer people using merch for flagging, which works a bit differently than the straight-guy signaling
@@ArtichokeHunteron a Sunday I went to meet my brother and his friends in a small Parisian gay bar, somehow a postcard of the bar ended up in my bag. Monday morning I put it up above my desk because I liked it and it sparked good memories. My cold as ice boss walked in, glanced at it and… melted. So yes, it is useful.
Why is a lot a rip off of My Generation's and Culture's Styles tho ?
And us being erased ?
I always love the little "embarrassing" additions, like owning the thrasher shirt but not knowing it. It feels much more genuine for someone who can admit they've been a part of what they're talking about to do so, than someone who claims to be perfect about it. Maybe it's just me wanting the people I watch to feel real and genuine too much, but I think it does really help
It is funny being the OG generation
And everyone styled like Us
Criingy beyond belief
I’d really love to add my feelings about wearing shirts of bands you don’t listen to. I don’t take the misogynistic angle at all with it, I grew up with strong female role models and I’ve made so many friends in niche communities that are girls and two of my bestest friends are girls! They’re in my subculture with me (classic rock) and we all have the same sort of take about wearing merch. I’m not going to be like “name three songs” that’s so stupid, anyone can be a fan of anything regardless of gender and regardless of what they look like. BUT! Me and my friends all feel deflated when people wear shirts of bands they don’t listen to because you wear the shirt to support the band or show to other people that you’re a fan. It helps fans find each other. It’s more than just a shirt if that makes sense.
As an independent musician in a band, we’ve had conversations about making merch. Granted we are still new on the scene, but I really don’t see us trying to make t-shirts. I feel feeding into the clothing scene when there is already so much waste is not helpful. I also feel people own way too many clothes as it is. So, we are navigating that. For now, we’re just sticking to selling our music.
Also if our band’s logo got crazy popular and people were wearing clothes with it and didn’t know our music, I feel like I would be sad. My partner and I poured hours of heart and soul into this, and you don’t even take the time to listen. No hate, just my views on that if I were in that situation. I’d rather be a band that goes nowhere than a fashionable logo.
As an American living in Japan, it was interesting to see “American” clothing items (real second-hand letterman and FFA jackets, college hoodies/t-shirts, 90s band t-shirts, and American flag apparel) as a fashion trend for people in their 20-30s; especially in contrast to the ever prevalent sea of beige/black/brown GU/Uniqlo wear.
lol - Shimokitazawa and Koenji are full of Goodwill clothes for crazy high prices. It’s shipped over on giant pallets and the shops buy it from huge warehouses.
@@tokidokiteacher659I see a lot of it for sale at second hand stores like 2nd Street and even 390 Mart. The price point is always higher than it should be lol
As the 90's Generation it is interesting to see everyone pretending to be us
I like the idea of wearable art but that’s uncommon so I use band tees. Metal band merch is unmatched in variety, theme, fabric, designs. Pop artist merch is overall so so so so lazy and looks like they have NO design sense. It’s often just a photo of the artist’s face. The Etsy merch for pop is better because it’s actually made with an understanding of the pop culture and has design sense.
if you’re into kpop then you already know how many idols will wear specifically sports merch for random teams. I will never forget someone asking moonbyul from mamamoo where her yankees hat was from and she said it was “a brand called mlb” which was the moment I realized some people not from the US think things like mlb, nba, and nfl are clothing brands instead of sports leagues and that was simply wild to me
I'd love for artist to release embroidery data so people could make their own Merch preferably with existing clothing and sewing machines (I know some of the modern ones have data input). I would be much more sustainable and creative
Its scary to see how people lose all morals/thinking processes when it's about Taylor Swift for example. Seeing some friends buying like 6-8 pieces for an outfit of their favorite era of temu or aliexpress (all items came seperate of course) as cheap as possible all to be most likely only be worn once was mindblowing to me. Like, I get the hype when going to an concert and everything, but it is so laughable or even sad to me how overconsumption comes so natural to them when its in the context of Taylor
I've never understood why people will buy a bunch of cheap stuff to wear to a concert, especially if it's one like the Eras Tour where even going to the concert was so up in the air for most people. My friends that managed to go all made their outfits because it's possible that they wouldn't be able to see another concert of hers due to the popularity, so they wanted to have these special outfits to have for a long time. My friends who went to Beyonce all wore outfits from things they already had or made stuff, so they would again have something special that wasn't just a cheap Tshirt.
@@shannonspeakmanmaxwell2155I love when fans go to a concert essentially cosplaying as the artist, wearing one of their looks put together from clothes they had in their wardrobe
Yeah maybe because I prefer mostly indie bands but I very rarely see anyone do this and it's a very strange concept to me. Like have fun at a show but a lot of venues are too sweaty for me to want to do this.
@@marrymejohn my friend group is a bunch of crafty late 20's/early 30's adults with only a couple kids between the group. Most of us sew or do other fiber related arts, so it's become a fun way to incorporate all of the interests and helps to build anticipation for the shows.
If any of us were still in our crowded bar show phase, we probably wouldn't do it haha.
@shannonspeakmanmaxwell2155 for sure! Though I'm not sure I've seem it even in the 2000 person concert hall spaces. I bet it can be fun though!
how do you magically always know when i sit down to eat lunch and need a video essay to watch
Or maybe you're the one that trained yourself into knowing when Mina Le is posting so you can have lunch with it playing....
Loved this one! I wear almost exclusively band shirts collected over the years from artists I’ve seen live and loved but I’ve never understood the gatekeeping around merch - if you appreciate the design aesthetically and you’re supporting the artist, why not really?
i am a culprit of diy merch… I made a 1800 hot line bling hat, and a t-shirt that said “will commit sins for chipotle” in 2016 ☠️
on the topic of people buying clothes to only wear once, I feel like that’s very much what’s happening with the trend of people making bracelets to trade at concerts. I worry about the environmental impact of all that plastic especially given that I think it’s likely a good majority of those bracelets will end up in landfills within 5 years max. I do genuinely hope my worry is misplaced because the sheer volume of bracelets I see people making and collecting is quite astonishing.
i went to the eras tour, and i’m keeping all my bracelets. i think a minority will throw them away. most people take the confetti from the show, the light up wristband, and the bracelets, (even the plastic merch bags!) and make little keepsakes out of them. this is certainly my plan. it’s popular to buy a thick boxy frame and put everything inside of it.
Im all in for merch, especially of some smaller artists, but only if the design is actually worth it and it's not just a plain logo slapped on a white tee for $50
We are currently living in a poser era, from tattoos to colored hair and everything in between like band t-shirts; these things have gone from underground culture to pop culture. People that look like rockstars covered in tattoos, colored hair, and face piercings are utterly illiterate of the scenes that spawned those styles, but most significantly, it's all on the shallow surface; they are not artists, they are not non-conformists, they are not raging against the machine. Most of them are as vanilla and as square as it gets.
You win CZcams today for doing a 40 minute video on merch and not mentioning Star Wars once.
I personally love merch shirts, they’re like, half my tshirt collection
i'm from sweden and people here wear yankees caps as well and have been for as long as i can remember and i just realised the other day that it was for an actual team, i've just been thinking it was a funky cap lol
Wow, same in Russia for almost 20 years or more
I work at a vintage store and my partner owns a sustainable screen printing shop that I also work at! providing garments for local businesses in a town that receives a lot of tourism is extremely important to the local economy and community. We uplift local graphic designers and have printed on vintage and second hand garments to reduce the fast fashion aspect of “merch”. There are tremendous strides the apparel industry is making but I would like to advise that everyone looks into who is making the products and their business practices. When you buy local merch provided by a in house screen printing shop you are promoting so much more than just your favorite coffee shop! There is so much more about screen printing I would love to get in as an art form that I so strongly believe in but buy local! Support local! If you buy - buy sustainable!
the public library I volunteer at sells tote bags and people love them. I think it shows, like you explained in a past video, that they probably read if they're wearing that bag and that says something about them. also, with the support of third spaces being a hot topic lately, people want to show they support theirs. and it does financially help the library. they're super cheap but it's still something. I bought one in each colour (there are only two colours) because I realized that despite having many cheap tote bags, I didn't have a good canvas one, then remembered I volunteer where we sell them for only a few dollars. I customized mine with patches I bought from a friend who's an artist. I see people wearing them literally everywhere I go and it's nice to see (also glad I customized mine so I don't get it mixed up with anyone else's).
The merch of bands does really change the smaller the band is, buying a vinyl and a t-shirt puts much more money in the pockets of small bands than it does grammy award winning artists and is still a conversation starter. Multiple local bands t-shirts normally leads to people actually knowing members of the band personally and is always so fun being out and about. Taylor Swift and Charlie XCX don’t need my money, but the band playing for $15 tickets in a tiny venue does.
☝️this
yes!! love buying merch for indie bands
Exactly buying from the merch table after the show of indie bands guarantees you that your money goes directly to the band instead of some reseller that may or may not know them. Most of the time on the merch table is some girlfriend or cousin or other relatives to the band members.
@@alekfelis if it’s before or after i’ve also seen band members running it as well and it’s always nice to talk with them there. A few also have tip jars which is nice if you can’t afford merch.
yes, especially since small bands/artists have been struggling so much throughout the pandemic. And even since: I see bands still having to cancel gigs or whole tours bc they can't get as many tickets sold as before all that
Correct me if I'm wrong but MLB is first and foremost a fashion brand abroad over merch where you can find styles you would not find here in the US. The Yankee's branding is particularly popular.
Blanks are often more expensive than branded garments of comparable quality, so I’m willing to be a billboard sometimes
i think that an important part of wearing/owning/displaying merch is that it simply brings me joy. when i go to work to do some nameless tasks, i do take joy in having my branded mug, my keychains, my jewelry, all the little things that remind me of me. wearing a band tshirt reminds of the concert i went to and the memories i made. i don't wear merch to start conversations with strangers, i do it for me.
To me, concert tshirts are souvenirs. It’s an item that holds a memory. I’m not interested in band tees I didn’t “earn.” I love a gift shop after a tour or on vacation. Rarely do I ever thing a brand or corporation has designed a good or clever piece of merch. And for reference merch, boxlunch exists for a reason, and I love to wear a subtle inside joke (or even a loud and proud reference) for a piece of media I love (not just what boxlunch sells mind you, but they’re a proof of concept.)
Sitting watching this in the Nirvana T-shirt I bought at H&M. On the one hand, if I think too hard about that, the shallow consumerism and “poserness“ of it all disgusts me, but on the other hand, I love Nirvana, and I love the fact that I could buy that representation of my taste and character so easily. I would never have been able to attend a concert, but here I am, still able to make connections with like-minded characters. Anyways, loved the video!
laughs in Grunge Generation
The whole situation with the new Brat album is driving me nuts like I’m not part of the Charlie XCX fandom and i legit taught brat was the latest influencer hot girl brands who’s job is to churn out micro trends
WoW The merch is a complete rip off of My Generation and Culture
WoW
I HATE her music
When Nirvana shirts were sold at Urban Outfitters & crap, it begged the question, do these people know 3 Nirvana albums or 5 songs? Or is this yet again about generations of kids who prioritize image & “aesthetics”/“vibes” etc. over art or meaning.
Cobain et al. would’ve hated this cultural universe more than he hated the Eighties/Nineties.
I own 3 t shirts form them but I kinda listen to them but I can only name 2 songs qnd it makes me feel bad but they look cool and I kinda like their music
@@ash_g8st944 my personal opinion is as long as you like them to some degree it's fine because some people will say they hate grunge and then proceed to wear a nirvana shirt which is what bothers me haha, but I would definitely recommend checking out more of their music as well!
@@mylifeismypoetry222 ok thanks and I will look more into them
I watched this video a few days ago and was thinking about people connecting over merch… it hadn’t happened to me really, then I went to starbucks randomly for a sweet treat today and someone around my age complimented my special edition new order hoodie I got at their show a year ago in texas, they explained the joy division new order lore to their coworkers and we all had a meaningful conversation. I left that experience feeling connected to people, the sweet treat was good but that interaction about merch made it a memorable experience.
my fave type of shirt is shirts that look like band shirts but it's actually just a design (fake band logos and album covers) .
a lot of brands do this and it's my main form of tops/sweaters to wear.
I'm Gen X. I find it Fascinating that my 11-13 Year Old Granddaughters are Living my life Vicariously through all the Retro Iconic Merch that I used to Wear/Buy. Hehe
When I was working in England (I’m American), a young person walked by me in a University of Wisconsin sweatshirt: I said “go badgers” and she looked at me like I was out of my mind.
as much as i love nuance… people just buy things bc they can make a good outfit out of it. when it comes to this topic, all of the nuance can just be refuted with one sentence: “i just like the way it looks”
And the people from the Cultures the companies rip off smirking
I've met so many wonderful people by conversations due to my "skinny puppy" shirts. I can't imagine wearing band or corporate merch for something you don't care about, it's like you're walking around wearing a costume instead of showing any personality.
Yeah personally I would feel like a liar/poser if I was walking around wearing a shirt for a band I don't like. I've seen Green Day 17 times and I have shirts from every tour I've been to so if someone comments on them we can have a pretty cool convo. Wouldn't it be awkward af if someone mentioned it and I was like "nah idk them I just like the ~aesthetic". I just don't get why you'd want to endorse an artist/IP/brand you know nothing about?
Same, and there are shirts for EVERYTHING so I feel like everyone can have a shirt for something they actually care about, which would probably be something they wear for longer too. People always talk about this in relation to rock bands, but I feel like I'd be a huge jerk if I wore a T Swift tee but I'm not really a big fan
There are three kinds of merch in our home
1 - local sports team (we have season tickets and wear merch on game days)
2 - gifts from companies we have worked for - most of it lands in the workshop and is eventually covered in paint
3 - support of charitable organizations
Concert stuff is always way too pricey, and I refuse to pay to be a billboard for large multinationals (if possible).
praising billie eilish for having sustainable practices when she has her merch in target is CRAZY
as a girl living in Idaho I felt HONORED by mina in this vid
35:32 for like five years after I got married I wore my wedding gown for Halloween, lol. I added some wings and a wand and called myself the wedding fairy. It was awesome! I loved being able to wear the dress again
graphic shirts are made for showing off a specific idea that you’re into, that’s why we look at dudes funny when they just wear a shirt with the nike logo and nothing else. never owned a thrasher shirt cuz i don’t like skaters, i have a subaru shirt because i like my subaru.
The idea for Nike is that you love basketball. People also wear Nike because it's a popular brand. I personally don't like to wear logo clothes (with some exceptions).
I feel like Nike is less of a merch item and more of a fashion brand’s logo. Like wearing a Polo shirt or having the C on a coach bag. To me people who wear this are saying nothing more than “this is a shirt from Nike.” Whereas wearing a band shirt says “I like this band”
I think I would avoid eye contact with a guy wearing a Nike t-shirt and nothing else, but I would indeed find it a bit weird.
The merch boom is honestly crazy because everything has merch now! Its so strange just because we’re surrounded by ads all the time so with all this new merch and everyone wearing it, its almost like everyone could be a walking ad lol
A majority of my wardrobe is considered “merch” as it involves characters, series, bands etc. that I love dearly. I don’t think the market is dying- it’s just unfortunately now consumed by fast fashion.
One of my bestest friends I became friends with after having a conversation about some merch she had from a CZcamsr we both watch. We’ve been friends for 3 years now
Definitely okay to wear band shirts you don’t listen too as long as you don’t pretend to be a fan. Giving a shit if someone ‘listens to a band enough’ reminds me of those males who go ‘oh you like them then name every album’
idk wearing a band shirt that you don’t actually like it is pretty hollow to me, it’s giving “this is my first punk show and i’m wearing my sisters band shirt”
YES! 100%! "You don't even know their original drummer?!" Dude. Relax.
idk but wearing band merch is how we recognise each other in public? at least metalhead community. i ve got do many friends who approached me first cos of band merch! so it is disappointing and embarassing when you are approaching someone and wish to share your joy over this band you both like (or so you think) and they turn out to be completely uninterested in it? it leaves a very hollow feeling - to see someone who wears something that s significant for you/your community just for fashion and for them it means nothing
in reality "wear what you want, who's stopping you" is what everything boils down to but regardless it is a reflection of character when you full send aestheticize music cultures. Like any way of dressing, be ready to be perceived that way and disappoint people if you're stripping it of its inherent value. if someone's giving you the "name all their albums" schpeal, that's them being annoying on their own merit, but if one person knows nothing and is aesthetic wearing a nirvana shirt and the other is being That Guy, there's two annoying people in the room LOL
me personally, half my wardrobe are tshirts from uniqlo's anime collabs with unique designs, and when i tell people ive never watched the anime on my shirt, the reactions are so mixed that it has become a bit of a personality test for me lmao. some people become uptight and gatekeep (boo), but others accept it and recommend me the show itself (yay)
I would have loved for you to include the importance of merch for small bands/artists. between booking fees they have to pay the venue, money they have to pay to promoters, travel and personal costs, it's hard to make a living. Especially since most people only stream and that makes small artists/bands very little to no money. Also, there is a very different perspective on merch when it comes to subcultures like hardcore, which I am a part of. We are walking billboards for our favorite artists and we take pride in supporting the bands that keep our scene alive. Merch sales are what make music possible for them, even in such a small scale for these bands performing in abandoned warehouses, laundromats, or good ol' small venues.
when you said nobody should buy a tote bag because they just like come to you for free that blew my mind like ur so right. im never going to buy a tote bag again