The rise of merch: How today’s brands turned simple swag into sought-after collectibles

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The rise of merch: How today’s brands turned simple swag into sought-after collectibles

What do a lock, a reusable tote bag, and a tracksuit have in common? Well, if they’re the cherry-shaped lock from Glossier, a pastel-colored tote from Trader Joe’s, and a Dunkin’-branded tracksuit, they’re all viral merch items that are fetching a premium on resale sites.

While this kind of virality can be a flash in the pan, great merch offers brands a shot at extending the lifespan of their brand story. Consider this: A tin of fish lasts for a meal; a bottle of oil or a jar of condiments lasts a few weeks; a lipstick lasts a few months; a movie is contained within its runtime—but merch can keep the story going for decades.

“If you’re, say, a beer company or a sandwich shop in Brooklyn, you still want to create something that people can take and hold for a long time,” says Max Vogel, design director at the global creative company Buck. It goes beyond the shelf life of a product. “[Merch] can represent the brand or that feeling of belonging: Carrying something like a mug, a t-shirt, or a blanket is like your little badge of honor.”

Today’s branded merch leans into the promise of community and fandom that music merchandise first highlighted in the 1970s and ’80s, when artists like Queen, ABBA, and Elton John launched sold-out world stadium tours—and brought merch stores along with them. Since then, pop stars have shown consumers’ willingness to spend on merch, with Taylor Swift’s merch store reportedly making $200 million over the course of her Eras Tour.

This is what savvy contemporary brands aim to emulate. Becca Millstein, CEO of tinned-fish company Fishwife and a veteran of the music industry, carried that ethos to her brand. “I thought, if we cultivated a truly passionate community and a fanbase similar to that of a musician, we would be able to build a legitimate merch business, which turned out to be completely true,” she tells Shopify. “So it was the community-building aspect that I first borrowed from music, then merch.”

Fishwife sells hats, t-shirts, and totes, as well as limited-edition collaborations with artisans like Susan Alexandra and Lisa Says Gah. “While it’s a substantial business, merch is still less than 1% of our revenue,” Millstein says. “That being said, that is still a whole lot of merch that’s making its way out into the world, out onto the streets, and further getting out the message of Fishwife.” Like any out-of-home campaign, that marketing impact is much harder to quantify.

There are many avenues to explore beyond the usual trifecta of totes, hats, and mugs. In fact, just about any product that extends a brand’s universe can be merch. Clever, creative merch releases enhance a brand experience and connect with fans in new ways.

Sharing brand lore via books

Books create a physical touchpoint with consumers and serve as an extended chronicle of a brand’s history, mission, and lore. They can also drive additional revenue, especially with the help of a publisher’s distribution and marketing engine. The global consumer book publishing market reached $70 billion in 2024, and it’s projected to reach $76 billion by 2033, reports GlobeNewswire.

Entertainment company A24 is emblematic of this opportunity. One of its primary forms of merch is a line of books that, in addition to a movie’s screenplay, contain extras like interviews, production sketches, concept art, and guest-written essays inspired by the films’ themes and cultural relevance. In May 2024, A24 struck a deal with publishing house Mack to distribute its books in stores as well as online.

Consumer packaged goods brands often tap into this book publishing opportunity through cookbooks. In 2024, Fly By Jing founder Jing Gao released “The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp” with 85 recipes that feature the brand’s signature product. The book won a James Beard Foundation Book Award, and it also became a platform for Gao to share personal stories. Fishwife’s cookbook features “80 recipes perfect for meals for one,” highlighting less predictable ways home cooks can incorporate the brand’s offerings in their cooking.

Publishing a book can help you access new markets in a way that typical merch can’t, explains Amrit Richmond, founder of the Indie CPG newsletter community and the consultancy Supermercato. For example, if you sell your cookbook in a store like Williams Sonoma, you get your brand in front of thoughtful home chefs, and you might be able to convince the retailer to bring in some of your products as well. For direct sales, Richmond suggests offering your book as a giveaway to drive up your average order value. “You can use it as leverage to bundle it with your core products: Spend, say, more than $100, and we’ll give you the book for free.”

Building a world with lifestyle items

If books deepen the lore of the brand, items that are meant to be used inside someone’s home build its world. Consider A24’s vinyl catalogue, which brings the brand off the screen and onto the record player, or Fishwife’s cutting board, which brings its brand out of the pantry and onto a dining or coffee table.

“It’s an extension of the world brands are building,” says Richmond. “It gets said brand in other rooms at someone’s house.”

While these items may not give the brand the same marketing reach that a branded t-shirt worn on the New York City subway might, they’re contributing to an overall lifestyle and deepening the customer’s affinity for the brand. The key to success is tying these items tightly to the core use cases for your products.

“We always want to make sure our merch either reinforces a core brand pillar, or supports it in the use of our product. So, the cutlery, tongs, and serving board are the perfect tools for a lovely snack plate or tinned fish party—behavior we want to encourage,” says Millstein.

Creating community with collabs

Merch can either be created by the brand alone or in partnership with like-minded organizations. The latter path can help brands establish kinship within a particular community.

Fly By Jing regularly partners with artisans from Asian American and Pacific Islander communities for limited-edition releases, including its recent blanket release. “We designed the blanket in partnership with AAPI studio Knitwise and artist Betty Wang and were collectively inspired by ancient Chinese art, family heirloom blankets, and the famous 2,000-year-old Chinese proverb “民以食為天” (to the people, food is heaven) from the Han Dynasty,” she explains. “The result is an expression of our brand that gives us a chance to enhance people’s living spaces in a way that still feels true to our roots.”

Similarly, the brand recently collaborated with Sin, a Brooklyn-based ceramics brand, on a limited-edition yin-yang tray designed to hold their chili crisp jars. “We timed the launch to coincide with Mother’s Day and AAPI Heritage Month, which felt especially personal, since both Sin’s founder, Virginia Sin, and I are AAPI female founders and mothers,” she elaborates. “It was a thoughtful, timely collaboration that celebrated shared values and created something functional and beautiful for our community.”

Beyond collabs with artists, brand partnerships offer a way to break out of your category and tap into new spaces while staying true to your value propositions—and fans react positively to it: The North Face x Skims collaboration, for example, sold out in five minutes, and when millennial-favorite beauty brand Glossier collaborated with Gen Z skin care brand Starface in December 2023 for a limited run of pimple patches featuring Glossier’s signature symbols, it sold out within two days.

Making waves with elaborate illustration design

While prior decades’ merch design may have skewed toward minimalism (and “millennial beige”), the latest trending merch tends to be louder, more colorful, and more elaborate—often featuring eye-catching illustrations. “I generally feel like there is more of an embrace of illustration over the clean, muted aesthetic that may have been more popular in the aughts,” says Millstein.

Fishwife famously partnered with illustrator Danny “Danbo” Miller, who created the visual identity that graces each package of fish, as well as the brand’s cookbook, caps, t-shirts, and cutlery, creating a visual universe that is halfway between “Silly Symphonies” and Richard Scarry.

The style is instantly recognizable: It has well-defined linework of varying thicknesses, flat colors, and elaborate details. “It walks a line between being whimsical and refined, which makes it feel both friendly and elevated,” says Vogel. “For merch in particular—like apparel—illustration is most impactful when it feels distinctive and rooted in the brand’s personality.” Using the same creative style that fans already know and love from a brand’s packaging on merch helps ensure this continuity.

Glossier accomplishes this with its stickers, which riff on the company’s name and logo in countless styles—spurring fans to collect each new release. London-based Beavertown Brewery’s merch features the eccentric illustration style that decorates its beer cans. Graza’s merch includes the same whimsical little characters shopping or picking olives that adorn its bottles of olive oil. Each of these brands uses a design style that, years ago, might have been considered too busy, but today is perfectly aligned with consumer tastes.

Revisiting staples with a fresh perspective

At a recent expo, breakfast food brand Belgian Boys had an unexpected viral moment. Its hot-pink puffer tote bag giveaway became the event’s most sought-after merch. “It was not just another tote bag,” says Richmond. “It created so much conversation that their booth was constantly flooded—they even had to bring in security guards.” What began as simple swag has now become a sought-after item, with an official waitlist forming for its release as branded merch.

A tote is perhaps the most standardized merch item, yet the Belgian Boys’ design innovation—making the bag from the plush material typically reserved for puffer jackets—shows that staples allow for experimentation and innovation.

Basic designs can be elevated through materials and colorways without sacrificing practicality. Glossier offers merch staples with distinctive flourishes that make each piece feel unique: Its limited-edition holiday hoodie, for instance, has wide, flat satin drawstrings. Beauty brand Ami Colé, created by Glossier alumna Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye, offers a bucket hat made in caramel-colored vegan leather instead of the usual cotton, and a shiny jet-black toiletry bag that doubles as a clutch.

Brands can also use classic merch items like t-shirts to tap into a specific moment in the zeitgeist. “Our first piece of merchandise was a classic t-shirt that said ‘Hot Girls Eat Tinned Fish’ which, in 2021, was a key slogan for us,” recalls Millstein. “It allowed us to really capitalize on the ‘Hot Girl’ trend at its peak and consolidate it into a true moment for the brand.”

The classics are classic for a reason. “There’s a practical, utilitarian side to it,” Vogel says. “A tote or a hoodie isn’t just merch—it’s something you use, wear, carry. Over time, these items become tokens or mementos. In the end, it all comes back to emotional connection. The product is just the vessel.”

This story was produced by Shopify and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.