Shirts
Shirts are common because they advertise the act after the sale, but sizes and inventory multiply quickly.
Control SKU explosion
Every design, size, color, and cut becomes separate stock. Start narrower than a clothing brand.
Use sales history before expanding.
Sell a shirt people will wear after they stop being excited at the merch table.
Hats
Hats avoid size complexity but introduce fit, shape, embroidery, and shipping considerations.
Sample the fit
Snapback, dad cap, trucker, beanie, and structured styles fit identities and audiences differently.
Wear the sample.
One-size merch still has fit and freight.
Posters
Posters can be inexpensive, collectible, and easy to sign—until tubes, creases, and travel enter the picture.
Create a reason to keep it
Tour art, city-specific editions, special taping art, or limited signed prints can feel more meaningful than a generic advertisement.
Numbered editions require honest inventory control.
A poster becomes merch when it is worth hanging after the date passes.
Stickers
Stickers are low-cost, light, and useful as entry-level merch or packaging extras.
Design for distance
Small complex art disappears at sticker scale. Strong shapes and legible type work better.
Test actual size.
Cheap merch still needs a reason to exist.
Specialty Merch
Specialty products can make the table memorable but also create manufacturing and inventory problems.
Tie it to the act
A strange item works when it connects to a recurring joke, character, visual, or audience ritual.
Random novelty inventory is harder to explain.
The weirder the merch, the more carefully the logistics need testing.
