From ‘Throwing Fits’ to ‘Crime Junkie’, Podcast Merch’s Big Business

The podcast merch business in particular is on the rise, as more listeners want to show their loyalty to their chosen podcast through a T-shirt, mug or hoodie. Marisa Morales, head of merchandising at Stitcher, a podcast conglomerate, said that sales of goods related to Stitcher programs such as ‘WTF with Marc Maron’, ‘Sklarbro Country’ and ‘Freakonomics Radio’ doubled. She compares the excitement surrounding a newly loaded trophy of ‘The Office Ladies’, a podcast about the past sitcom, to the frenetic hype surrounding the release of Air Jordan sneakers. Hundreds of coffee cups can be sold within hours.

This fiery trading market has no equal in traditional media. Newspapers and magazines still reconcile subscribers with gifts – many of us have New Yorker bags languishing in our closets, or we own the “ESPN the Magazine” fleece that was advertised on TV during the thoughts. But podcast merchandise works as a standalone phenomenon that sees listeners drop $ 30 just for a T-shirt or $ 60 for a hoodie. Like me. Morales said merch is appealing because it makes a listener’s link to a podcast tangible.

In this sense, band T-shirts are the closest cousin to podcast brands. Dita Cordelia, 24, a freelance video producer and dedicated podcast listener in Los Angeles, wore her Scriptnotes shirt – indicating her dedication to a weekly podcast writing podcast – with the Morrissey T-shirt she wore in high school has, compare. In both cases, she said, the shirts send a message from the inside (some will be hipster): “Oh, you do not know about this … you have to listen to this.”

And like concert T-shirts, podcast equipment leaves listeners with their favorite sources of entertainment. “It supports something I’m doing,” says Corey Long, 40, a contract coordinator at a University of Atlanta who recently purchased a shirt from the exciting podcast “How Long Gone,” presented by two older millennial brothers. . (In the case of larger shows with huge audiences, the sales of ads, not trademarks, are what the photos usually hold.) Long admits that, unlike buying concert shirts while being surrounded by a swarm of fellow fans, buying podcast merchandise is not. a “shared experience.” You are alone at home and listening separately.

However, the bubble of privacy is central to a podcast appeal. Me. Cordelia of Los Angeles said she started listening to podcasts instead of the radio last year to stay calm while commuting. She said that podcasts “felt like listening to friends having an easy conversation compared to Ryan Seacrest who told me at eight o’clock in the morning to listen to this rap song.” That intimacy provides an escape that some listeners have especially enjoyed over the past hectic year. Telling that Ms Cordelia and her friends bought each other podcast shirts over the past holiday season rather than band shirts as in the past – reflecting their changing listening habits.

As for the design printed on a podcast shirt, ‘the more in the joke, the better’, said Ms. Morales of Stitcher said. With Podswag.com’s trading website you can buy a t-shirt that says ‘Cheese Side Down’ or ‘Do not be ironic’. ‘Only listeners who download “The Sporkful” or “The Murder Squad” respectively will really laugh at these shirts.

The tea that Mr. Long bought from ‘How Long Gone’ riffs on a cover design of an obscure punk album. The shirt’s painful niche reference helped him identify with the show’s hosts: ‘The podcast is done by two obsolete hardcore punk dudes. And I’m an older hardcore punk guy too. ‘So far, none of his friends have picked up the reference of the shirt.

Promoting a community through merchandise is definitely one of the goals of the program. “We want to build the ‘How Long Gone’ universe,” said co-presenter Chris Black. After releasing some reference T-shirts and bags, he and co-host Jason Stewart are working with , a coffee maker in Indianapolis, to release a canned cold-brewed coffee called “Mudd,” the term Mr. Black uses when discussing coffee in the program.

This caffeine plan shows how podcasts thrive in full-fledged lifestyle brands. “The Office Ladies” sells blankets, backpacks, frisbees and, appropriately, a staple (get it, “The Office”). ‘The Last Podcast on the Left’, a comedy-crime program, has released a now-sold-out cruiser with the Priority Bikes in New York. And ‘This Podcast Will Kill You’, which focuses mainly on disease and epidemiological problems, sold its own soap.

Not all podcast customers pick up the link first. Unaware that it was linked to a show, Dan Christansen, 38, who markets in Philadelphia, was recently hit with a suitcase he saw on Instagram from the New York-based basketball podcast “Cookies Hoops.” (A true parody of the classic New Yorker suit, the $ 35 suitcase shows Eustace Tilley playing basketball.) After Christansen bought a shirt, NBA players Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid as Beavis & Butthead and the phrase “Practice Sucks” on the front. Although the tea returns to topics covered in the program, Mr. Christansen described it as a ‘stand-alone piece’ instead of as a ‘badge’ indicating that he was listening to the podcast.

Some podcasts even push their merchandise into the luxury realm. In recent months, ‘Throwing Fits’, a cult fashion podcast, has partnered with Italian shoe brand Diemme on $ 300 co-branded olive suede Chelsea boots and American shoe brand Blackstock & Weber on $ 295 bank- loafers. Each of the shoe designs sold “hundreds of pairs,” said co-host James Harris.

Alex Green, a 21-year-old college student in Amherst, Massachusetts, was among those who bought the Chelsea boots. Given his budget, the shoes were an investment, but he relied on the two hosts. “They are good tasters … These are guys I attend for fashion advice,” he said. “And there are not many people I attend for fashion advice.”

Choosing a tangible, exclusive product to sell definitely cost the hosts more effort than just barking out a few hot drinks. The co-presenters wanted the listeners to ‘be satisfied with what they spent their hard-earned money on’, said Lawrence Schlossman, Mr. Harris’ partner in crime, said. They considered different monsters and wore the boots and loafers for months before being released. This process shifted ‘Throwing Fits’ from a mere trading industry to something that was a private label. Mr Schlossman said: ‘When we’re in loafer mode or we’m in boot mode, it’s like I do not feel like a pod anymore. I feel like we’re a brand. ‘

Write to Jacob Gallagher by [email protected]