Everyone's making merch now
How micro-merch taps into something deeply human and what brands should do about it
quick summary ⚡️
Breaking down the emerging "Micro-Merch" consumer behavior
Why Gen Z isn’t waiting for brands or tours to drop merch anymore — and what they’re doing instead
The 3 ways micro-merch is showing up: community fandom, personalized event merch, and earned-not-bought exclusivity
What brands need to know about building the framework and getting out of the way
the rise of micro-merch
by Megan Collins, Cool Shiny Insights Founder
In case you’ve missed it, we’re podcasters now! Each week (usually on Tuesdays) we— Melissa Blum, Emma Marshall, and I—gather on Substack Live to react to and discuss three stories that are top of mind. In these discussions, we get to unpack trending topics through each of our own unique lenses to find deeper insights and takeaways. Recently, we’ve come to identify an emerging consumer behavior that we’re tracking closely and calling “Micro-Merch.”
What is Micro-Merch?
By now, you’re aware that today’s consumer—especially the Gen Z consumer—loves merch. So much so that they’re no longer waiting for a brand to launch a cool capsule collection or for their favorite musician to go on tour. In fact, the merch doesn’t even need to belong to a huge spectacle at all. It’s long been common practice for bachelor and bachelorette parties, and they’re a standard fixture at family reunions, but now we’re seeing it for less life-altering moments. Weekend trips, tennis groups, Substack blogs, and friendship inside jokes have quietly morphed into social branding moments.
A knee-jerk reaction might be to dismiss this behavior as a symptom of a pure hypercommercialization, and brand obsession. But I actually think that it taps into something uniquely human and serves a similar social purpose to the storied family crest. Perhaps this is the modern–albeit a bit startup-pilled–need to express one’s belonging with emblems. But instead of prioritizing signaling lineage and familial loyalty micro-merch is about signaling aesthetic loyalty and fandom. In our culture where everyone is an influencer and content creator, we’re fluent in visual communication and storytelling. The Instagrammification of our social lives has upped the possibility of a casual weekend trip. It can be fully eventized and treated with the production value not unlike an influencer brand trip. But here the brand is friendship, community, and belonging.
We are seeing this manifest in three ways…
Below the paywall:
3 ways we’re seeing people lean into micro-merch
Our top 3 takeaways for brands who want to get in on this growing trend
