More Than A Gift Shop
NGL writes on the fine line between merchandising and creating original IP. Plus: more info on our collab with D&D's, Tik Tokers vault into VC with a familiar face, and more
Illustration by Nathan Graber-Lipperman
Every week features new newsletters from Nathan Graber-Lipperman examining media, business, and pop culture through a Gen Z lens, as well as telling stories from his personal entrepreneurial journey. To read his last letter, click here.
Before we dive into it, I’m excited to reveal something I’ve been sitting on for a while now.
Since March — when students fled Evanston in droves due to the pandemic — lots of local businesses have really struggled. Many of them depend on college students to stay afloat, and while some fought tooth-and-nail through the summer and survived to the fall, some have had to shut their doors for the final time.
The design for our collab, playing off of a retro D&D’s logo
I’ve been reaching out to different stores and talking to owners in an effort to figure out how I could use our platform to help support them. One of these owners who followed up was Kosta Douvikas, the manager of a mom-and-pop, family-owned grocery store called D&D Finer Foods.
D&D’s has a cult following among Northwestern students. Just two blocks from campus and featuring some of the best food in town, the shop is a go-to for their delectable homemade sandwiches and craft beer selection.
I interviewed Kosta for a podcast and wrote a story about their store over the last six months. It’s been a wild ride: Kosta described those first two weeks in March after students skipped town “like a dream, a joke” and told me about the “black market” for groceries that emerged as unions formed strikes.
The ceiling in our basement is way too low lol
As part of our collaboration with D&D’s, we’re dropping these stories, as well as three unique products and a signature sandwich, “The Unplugg’d” (featuring ham, swiss, mayo, honey mustard, lettuce, tomato, and onions, all on toasted ciabatta bread). We’ll be selling the apparel on our website as well as in-person at the store on Friday, with 50% of all revenue going towards supporting the store.
By virtue of being on our mailing list, you’ll receive an update when it all releases tomorrow at 8 p.m. CT; for now, check out our teaser page and enjoy this photo of me screen-printing some hoodies!
It’s important to bring up our collaboration with D&D’s, because, well, you’ve probably seen the recent introduction to our new brand mascot and what they stand for.
Therein lies the natural follow-up question — why? Why create a “brand mascot”? What does that even mean, and why label it as such rather than just referring to it as a logo?
The idea for making a brand mascot first came when we looked at our company and the inspirations that led to its genesis in the first place. If you’ve followed along with me and my writing for a long time, you know that I’m a big fan of Bill Simmons and The Ringer; the rinky-dink publication I launched in 2017 was my attempt to replicate Simmons’ penchant for high-quality, longform storytelling, only catered to an audience who learned to speak in emojis.
Additionally, though, came this long-held love for sneakers and the streetwear culture forever intertwined with it. I've sold on eBay, set up PayPal accounts, integrated Stripe, built online stores for people, bought on GOAT, and even once traded a pair of kicks with someone in Britain (believe me, it was complicated). I grew up in the newfound world of e-commerce, of self-aware brands cracking jokes with each other on Twitter and releasing hyped-up collaborations.
My reselling business in middle school paved way for my interest in graphic design in high school, where I started a custom t-shirt business catering to my peers. For this venture, I opened up a business checking account for the first time, this one with Bank of My Closet.
(Fun fact: when I went off to college, I had over $1,000 in cash tucked away in a shoebox in my closet because most of my peers hadn’t adopted Venmo or PayPal at that point in time and opted to instead pay me in paper for my products. This stack actually brought me through pretty much all of fall quarter of freshman year. And if you’re wondering, Bank of My Closet has since been declared an illicit tax haven by the government and all day-to-day operations have ceased. Also, for legal purposes, my lawyers have informed me that I must refer to this as a “joke.”)
My goal was always to place Unplugg’d squarely in the middle of those two influences: incorporate my love for telling unique, longform stories while embracing the design and e-commerce influences that defined a large chunk of my adolescence.
Plus, streetwear and sneakers are, quite frankly, expensive. Why not print my own products on the low and rep my own brand in the process? Or, on a different note, design a 500-piece puzzle and promptly take over a month to solve it?
To my roommates’ chagrin, this remained on the table for quite a long time
What can I say — I’m a longform guy. I move slow.
With that being said, though, comes a dilemma. How do I make my venture more than a gift shop? After all, there’s a mission driving this thing…right?
Producing content and driving fans towards related products is no insider secret. In fact, for artists, singers, YouTubers, and Yogurts alike, merchandising is where the real money gets made.
The thing is, though, just because you slap a logo on something doesn’t mean it will sell out, no matter the degree of star power attached. Just ask Justin Bieber, who’s currently peddling $150 “Holy” hoodies on his website that fall somewhere between the range of mediocre to straight ugly.
This isn’t a dig at the singer and his Beliebers. Moreover, it’s a comment on how difficult it is to strike a solid balance between building something with meaning — whether it be through its innovative design or symbolic context — and something that sits on the shelves.
Therefore, when I’m starting my creative process, the first thing I think is simple: How can I make a product with meaning? That can stand out on its own right?
This is where the core tenet of my work comes into play. I whole-heartedly believe in the power of branding, storytelling, and design to shed light on important topics and institute change, and I aim to imbue the missions we take on into everything I do.
For example, the D&D’s collab is about more than just “shopping small”; it’s about reminding college students that while they may move on after graduation to pursue other pursuits, local business owners don’t always have that luxury. They rely on the students they strive to form positive relationships with while also providing value in our day-to-day lives.
This dynamic has been heightened more and more during the pandemic past the mass exodus of students in March. Kosta told me stories about undergrads showing up to D&D’s without masks and making his other customers — and employees, for that matter — feel on edge.
But enough about that. That’s what everything dropping tomorrow is for — to provide context and, depth to the project. Because at the end of the day, when it comes to partnerships like the one we’ve been working on, it’s all about telling a good story that resonates with people.
I think Jacques Slade — who I interviewed in a past episode of my podcast — explained this really well in the above video. Around the 7’ mark, he comes back to an idea I’ve written about before: to build a community, you must create things open to interpretation, that people are proud to rep across their chest or on their coffee table because of the distinct connection they’ve formed with your brand.
To come full circle, when I look at The Ringer, I see one of my favorite media companies, a group of talented individuals working on content I very much enjoy consuming. But what exactly does The Ringer stand for? What’s the mission of their company? And why should I cop a Ringer Dad Hat from their side store when they seem to have put little-to-no effort or imagination into it whatsoever?
That’s why I label this whole thing a “storytelling experiment.” I know what our stories and products mean to me, the missions and values we stand for, the reason I’m proud to rock an Unplugg’d t-shirt across my chest when I venture out into the world every day.
I’m just still figuring out how to to create things that mean something to you, too. To make it more than just another hat, another hoodie, another gift shop.
Links (And Other Things)
Some Sway Boys Invest in a Familiar Face
Like many bored people, I downloaded Tik Tok in March. My time with the app may have only lasted for about 2 months, and yet it’s been hard to ignore just how influential this new medium has been in establishing the new faces of celebrity for young people.
And there aren’t many people more famous than Josh Richards, Bryce Hall, and Griffin Johnson, three members of the self-labelled “Sway Boys.” The trio’s average age may only be 20, but they already boast tens of millions of followers through various social media channels — including more than 40 million combined on Tik Tok — and have diversified their revenue streams with endorsements and ventures of their own.
They’re not stopping there, however, as they’ve recently picked up a new route: venture capital. The Sway Boys recently came on as angel investors for a startup called Lendtable, which provides people with cash advances so that they can get their 401K match from their employer.
Lendtable recently participated in Y Combinator — the accelerator program famous for launching companies such as Airbnb and Stripe — and has raised over $4.5 million. since its founding less than a year ago. The Sway Boys see growth potential in joining their latest round; simultaneously, one of Lendtable’s co-founders recently tweeted a thread about how bringing the Gen Z influencers on as investors is already benefitting the business:
He goes on to write about how most of their investors are over the age of 30, so not only do The Sway Boys bring a unique perspective to the table, they also know all about engaging young communities and creating things through hard work. It’s a symbiotic relationship that truly makes sense for any company given how strongly the upside works for both parties.
That’s not the only reason I’m writing about this development, though. Because if you’ve been following along with Unplugg’d for the last couple of years, how in the world could you forget about Sheridan Clayborne, the dude who got into Northwestern when he was 15 and made $10 million reselling sneakers before he turned 21?
I wrote a profile piece on Sheridan back when we were the only two people staying up late working in The Garage every night. The guy is nuts in every sense of the word — for better or worse. I still keep up with him every once in a while; in fact, we almost took on Lendtable as a client with Powder Blue Consulting. He also offered me a room at his house in San Francisco back in April if I wanted to come on full-time with them; I politely declined.
It’ll be interesting nonetheless to see if more young influencers move into investing; after all, if the story of Jon Wexler told us anything, it’s that the celebs who leave the grandest legacies are the ones who learn how to differentiate their revenue streams.
As for our friend Sheridan? He certainly seems to be living it up in Beverly Hills with his new investors.
A Reminder That Steve Bannon Got Arrested by the Post Office
This is old news, by all means.
However, I still haven’t gotten over the fact that All-Timer Real-Life Villain Steve Bannon was brought into custody by postal carriers! For fraud! This is a thing that happened exactly two months ago! We should still be celebrating this!
Okay, the real reason I bring this up: in response to the news way back when, The Lincoln Project — the embodiment of the Enemy-of-My-Enemy-is-My-Friend conundrum — tweeted this:
Which, as one is wont to do when seeing the words “nature is healing” in any sort of context, made me decide to spend the next hour creating this meme:
Ever thought you’d see the Mad Titan rocking a USPS beanie? No? Well, you’re welcome, regardless.
Out-of-Context Rap Lyric of the Week
As a reminder, I’ve decided to post a new rap lyric every week that’s completely out of context. First person to respond to this newsletter with the name of the artist, song, and year it was released gets a free Unplugg’d t-shirt featuring Stormy, shipped free!
Alright, here’s this week’s lyric:
“You left your fridge open, somebody just took a sandwich."
Think you got it? Send me an email with the answers and your address and you’ll be good to go. Oh, and congrats to Justin Fleischman for winning a free t-shirt last week!
Thanks for reading this edition of ‘The G-L Review.’ If you liked it, consider sharing it with a friend or supporting us here. If you want to keep the conversation going, send me a reply at ngl@powderbluemedia.com.
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