Help Us Add More Gear To The Techdirt Insider Shop

Question

We want to keep our Insider Shop stocked with an always-expanding selection of fresh Techdirt gear. This ongoing thread is for you to help us decide what to offer next, and to submit your own ideas.

We're interested in new products, and we also want to find out if there are demands we're not meeting with our existing line. We've already received a few requests through the store, and they've been included in the list below so we can see if others want the same thing.

We've also added some ideas and draft designs for new t-shirts. The Seized Tee and DMCA Tee have been very popular so far, but we want to extend the selection. Please vote on the ideas you like, and submit your own as well.

In addition to the gear itself, we also want to know about bundles. Our limited edition Staff Bundle was a huge hit, and we're definitely planning more limited offerings in the future. We're also considering some other packages like a t-shirt bundle, but maybe there are popular combinations that we haven't thought of, so please let us know what you'd like to see.

This thread is dedicated to physical Techdirt gear, or bundles of physical gear with digital items. We'll be launching another thread soon to discuss the new blog features and subscription packages.

Answer 1

What about the Photographer's Rights t-shirt or hoodie?  http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers

Comments

@justme love this idea! would like to come up with something snappy and "t-shirt-esque" to capture the message (something like "Photography Is Not A Crime" but more original!) possibly accompanied by a graphic. Ideas, anyone?

Answer 2

 

More Logo Gear

We currently offer t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, water bottles and USB keys featuring the Techdirt logo, but there are lots of other possibilities! Upvote if you'd like to see more Techdirt logo gear, and leave a comment if you have ideas about what we should offer next.

Comments

@leigh
Techdirt logo iPad covers.
If you do a mouse pad make it oversized please.

Answer 3

Collect the entire Techdirt article set, with comments, starting at day 1, compile them to a CD or DVD and sell them. I'd buy it. If a DVD (or three) is too small, consider a pre-loaded 32 or 64GB USB stick. Sorry, I don't know what the total volume, in bytes, of your page data is.

Answer 4

I made this T-shirt quip in the first article about the shop I think and it could be placed on badges (yes we absolutely need some stinkin badges) and caps and mugs and even pens..

At Techdirt the trolls feed you!

Oh and maybe we could have someone like Ahren Paulson cartoonist, and owner of Plognark and maker of all things cynical to do a cartoon about our shills/trolls/wnanabees etc (or anyone else who is good and cheap) like this classic design http://www.plognark.com/?q=node/10536

Answer 5

Well, not a product but a very good suggestion. Since you create these products in the USA, and because shipping from the USA to Europe and Asia is very, very expensive (easily $50 or more) it would be a nice idea to find some partners in Europe and Asia who can create the same printed t-shirts and have them shipped from a closer location to Europeans and Asia. If such a partner would e.g. be in Germany then shipping costs to e.g. the British or Dutch would be much, much lower.

I'd love to purchase a TechDirt t-shirt but the shipping costs are more than the t-shirt itself. And to make matters worse, I'd also have to pay import taxes of 21% over the total amount. Thus, a single t-shirt ordered at TechDirt would cost me more than $100 and sorry, they're not made from Gold so they're not worth that price.

There are many readers outside the USA who have the same problem, I'd say.

Answer 6

TL;DR: Vector graphics file for each design and permision to print it.

International shipping of this kind of t-shirts makes no sense. You are buying the image design (digital), not the fabric (physical). What I would want to buy from you is a personalized certificate that authorize me to print a limited number of Tees, posters, mugs or whatever, with the design I purchased. I would receive this certificate or permission along with a SVG file (or other formats) of the design by email.

Currently I could workaround this lack of offer by getting the best quality image out there of the design I want and then donating a few bucks true the "Friend Of Techdirt" option. This is not ideal, the quality of the image will probably not be good enough for most uses and well, I would like to have an official green light to do it.

I understand, that this thread was meant for "physical gear", and another one for "new blog features and subscription packages" is to follow. Well, that one does not cover this topic either. Right now, as Lisa Westveld wrote, non-US fans do not have a good option to get physical goods related to Techdirt, and this idea is meant to solve that. If I'm forced to stay withing the spirit of this thread, how about sending this certificate in a physical form by normal mail? That way this count as a bundle of physical goods with digital items.

Motivation, rationale and further thoughts:

Recently I ordered a bunch of products from the XKCD store. I live in Germany and the parcel was lost somewhere in the mail. They sent a second parcel, this time by a more expensive delivery system. When it arrived I had to pay a little more than 70 euros in import taxes for it. All I wanted was a witty t-shirt to show my appreciation of this awesome web comic and support Randall for his work. Instead they probably lost money on this order and I had to pay a considerable surcharge to German customs. Then I thought, why the hell I'm buying a physical good, shipped to me from the other side of the Atlantic, when what I really want is a digital design on my t-shirt that could be shipped to me at no cost? Well, XKCD had no donation option, so that was my only way to support them.

Also important is the fact that I don't particularly care about the t-shirt manufacturer, I wish to support you, and the less you expend making that possible the better. With this idea I spend less of my money and you receive more, win-win.

But, but, piracy... I understand that once the SVG is out there, "it's out there". But well, we aren't scared about that over here, do we? And certainly there's ways to monetize the exposure. I would be happy and proud to wear an added Techdirt logo to each of these designs.

Comments

@mematematica We love this idea! We're just working out some of the details. Most likely we'll set it up as another pay-what-you-want download like the ebooks, so you can get the files for free basically and donate whatever you like at the same time :)

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@leigh Awesome, the pay-what-you-want scheme sounds great for this purpose. Thank you!. Having the Techdirt logo included in each single SVG design would be great, since printing two sides of a t-shirt is usually more expensive. Also a single file with just the logo doesn't hurt. =)

Answer 7

 

Other Bundles

Have ideas for different ways to package the various Techdirt gear and digital subscriptions? Upvote and leave a comment with your idea for a bundle.

Answer 8

I think it would be cool to have some live interactive sessions with Mike with limited group sizes so that everyone can pose questions to him and get a direct response. Something like that might be neat. His time certainly is a very real scarcity.

Comments

@pjerky You can get this! Check out the Watercooler Special and the Behind The Curtain special - both include group google hangouts with Mike and other insiders, and the latter includes a personal 1-hour phone call

http://rtb.techdirt.com/products/watercooler-special/

http://rtb.techdirt.com/products/behind-the-curtain-special/

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@pjerky For what it's worth, in the current store, some of the packages do include group Google  Hangout sessions, where I'll talk to folks.  You can see one example at the bottom here: http://rtb.techdirt.com/products/watercooler/

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@mmasnick I probably should have looked over the new store more than I did. That would be cool. @leigh On the phone call, I'm not sure I could talk that long, but that is cool man. Thanks, both of you.

Answer 9

Redacted Shirt

Simple idea. A Tshirt/hoddie/etc with scaring looking test and most of it blacked out sporadically.

Answer 10

Instead of "Lunch with Mike", a "Lunch by Mike"? Join Mike in a local restaurant where the two of you will spend some time in the kitchen preparing your own lunch. So, not sitting at a table talking but actually working together on a simple project (lunch) while discussing your favorite topic.

Comments

@lisa I've upvoted but only on the proviso that Mike's a decent cook ;¬)