Merchandise

merch time!

One of the most exciting and memorable parts of an event are the memories we take home - for CSK, part of that is the adorable merch! Here are some guidelines for getting started with budgeting, designing and producing merchandise.

1. Budgeting and Funding

One of the most important things to iron out is how much you're willing to allocate to merchandise. As it's not the most primary expense (there are much more important things to allocate money to if you don't have an excess of it) keep that in mind when budgeting. Some things you can consider when deciding how much to budget are:

1. How much money do you have to spend?: as aforementioned, make sure you've funded the essentials before thinking of spending on merchandise - it's a "nice to have", not a "must have"

2. How big is your CSK and how many people are involved?: Berkeley's CSK grew from 30 - 100 participants, so the amount of merch to produce grew a lot in proportion. Keep in mind you don't only need to give merch to participants, but also to the leadership team and any guest speakers or participants.

Funding Sources

1. Merch Sponsors: you could reach out to merchandise companies to get better deals on their products in exchange for promoting their company or putting their logo on the merch/flyers.

2. Funding: use money from sponsors to fund merch production

3. Partners: companies that you establish sponsorships or partnerships with may provide you with fun merch that you can include in your gifts to participants

2. What to Make?

After you know how much you have to spend, you can start deciding what to make.

1. Brainstorm some ideas for things to make: use interest polls to gauge general interest and preferences

2. Research an average cost per item for each product you're intending to make: look at customised items in particular, as these can be considerably more expensive than a generic version.

3. Make a spreadsheet: multiply the cost of each item by the number you're aiming to make to get a total cost

4. Using these numbers, figure out which merchandise items fit within your budget!

Ideas

1. Stationary: pens, lanyards, notebooks, sticky notes, stickers (a must have!)

2. Clothing: hoodies (a favourite!), t-shirts (popular and versatile), caps, bucket hats, socks

3. Extras: bags, mugs, bottles

Our versions of CSK have featured tote bags, pens, stickers, cups, hoodies, to name a few!

3. Time to Design!

Gather up the most creative members of your team to draft up designs for your chosen merch items: you can use Procreate, Canva, Photoshop, etc. to perfect.

Some considerations:

1. Colors: designs with more colors will be (in majority of cases) more expensive to print

2. Branding: try to incorporate your branding (colors, fonts, logos, aesthetics) as much as possible, you want the merch to be cohesive with the CSK brand

3. Detail: certain designs print better on certain types of merchandise, so keep in mind what you're designing for

4. Make It!

Now that you've decided what to make and designed it, it's time to produce: research and contact suppliers to find the best fit for your needs and place merch orders ASAP, as production and shipping often take longer than you would think - there is a lot of potential redesigns and delays in the process.

Some considerations:

1. Distance: how far is the supplier from your university? This affects shipping cost and time.

2. Pricing: some suppliers offer discounts for bulk orders, and as aforementioned some are willing to do deals and provide discounts in exchange for promotions

3. Communication: pick a supplier that is communicative and quick to respond, who's willing to work with you to perfect your designs! Some are slower to reply or inflexible with creating mockups and providing samples

4. Samples: if possible, ask the suppliers for samples of the items in order to assess their quality