Merchandise

I think I've always over looked merch in all of my last bands.  It's either been too expensive or too hard to coordinate.  Thankfully, I've never perused making a billion Jupiter Sound Clash T Shirts.  That band lasted a whole five months and while it would have been fun to try and sling pink tank tops to the drunk girls who would take up the whole space in front of the stage, it really would have been a waste.  And, there were really no drunk girls that I remember.  There was a drunk guy once, he was funny.  He wouldn't have bought a shirt though.

I always wanted stickers, but again I'm happy I never bought into the various sticker promotions online.  $100 for 100 stickers?  No way would I pay for that!  And my inner Banksy would probably disappear as soon as I went to put them on the dumpsters and street posts in my neighborhood.  I could see myself posting two and then getting caught and jailed for vandalism. 

But that was the old me!  The new me is embarrassing merchandise like I never have before, and I'm finding out that I won't need to remortgage my apartment to afford any of these things.  Well, sort of.

I recently bought a T Shirt Screen printing press.  The idea in theory was great.  I could get a new hobby, print my own shirts for friends and at least start selling merch without too much of an investment.  I thought it would either be a wild success or a miserable failure, and I would be happy with either.  If it failed, I could tell myself, "at least I tried."

That was 3 months and probably about $500.00 ago.  I have to say, I like this hobby.  This expensive, expensive hobby.  I'm not sure if it will pan out completely as a way to make money, but it's fun.  I personally have about 10 Get Down Automatic shirts, some better than others, one or two I can actually feel good about wearing in public.  These things take time.

I've also learned how to make stickers on the cheap using laser printable waterproof vinyl.  We have a homeless lady that listens to us practice at our studio.  She's always wanted to help us, so I gave her a handful and asked her to put them up where ever she could.  And I put one up too.  Take that Banksy.  A whole sticker.  On a lamp post.