Our merch operation has always been, well… improvisational. We’ve done what we could with what we had — and we didn’t have much. Back in the early days, I screen-printed Hanes tank-tops by hand and our first ‘zine was put together by Rachel at Kinko’s. For the first few years I handled merch shipping myself, and then Riese took over in late 2011. When it became too much for her, the Merch Girl duties were passed off to Bren Perfect Human, somebody we’ll tell our children about around a campfire when we’re old. She saved us. She allowed us to sell things we’ve made and is such an overall organized and reliable person that we knew we could trust her to handle what was becoming a huge wing of the business. Along with the A+ Subscription, Autostraddle merchandise is a big part of keeping Autostraddle alive.
For those of you who have ever crowd-funded a campaign or had your own store even, you know that shipping a lot of stuff out at once is the worst part. It sucks! Plus, the more merchandise we developed, the less room Bren had in her tiny apartment to, you know, live. It was just getting pretty ridiculous.
The solution? We’ve hooking up with a family-owned merch fulfillment business in Northern Michigan. We searched long and hard to find an independently-owned operation that could store our merchandise and handle our shipping without breaking the bank. This was always an inevitable next step if we wanted our merchandise store to really succeed, and we’re excited about what we’re capable of doing now. The experience of ordering and shipping will be so much better for y’all, our customers.
Yes, we intended to launch the new store an entire month ago — and we did! But almost as soon as we did, we learned that some of the merchandise was in backstock, and so we took down the link at the top of the page decided to focus on making sure those initial orders were taken care of before making a big announcement on the site and opening the gates to an inevitable rush of orders. We’ve been working overtime the past month to ensure the best customer service possible and to get everything in shape and now, today, we finally feel ready to thrust open the doors loudly and tell you that THE NEW AUTOSTRADDLE STORE IS READY FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
We want to provide better shipping options, more payment options, and a nicer storefront to navigate when shopping our store. And even better — now that our storage area is bigger than Bren’s apartment, we can expand and offer more merch! Speaking of more merch…
Scissoring Heavy Duty Tote Bags!
Introducing the Scissoring Heavy Duty Tote Bag! This tote is so serious you guys — it’s made with 100% cotton canvas and it has a depth of 5″ so you can fit so many things in there!
And another thing!
Gal Pal Track Tees!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re really into our track tees. They’re just so soft and comfy. So since we’re all really into the Gal Pal thing right now, obviously we would make ourselves some Gal Pal Track tees.
Our Gal Pal crop tops sold out in a few days, so watch this spot!
Scissoring Boxer Briefs
And last but not least, we have more underwear!
We’re really looking forward to bringing you tons of awesome new merch in the near future and we appreciate the continued support from all y’all. Selling stuff that we make is a huge part of our income to keep Autostraddle going and can’t thank you enough for continuing to purchase from and support us.
Also, if you’re able, please post pics of yourself on instagram and tumblr in the merch! Tag with #autostraddle/@autostraddle or, even better, #autostraddlemerch — and you just might show up on a store page one day! Right now, due to our limited budget and time, all the merch is modeled by me and my girlfriend and we obviously represent a really limited group of clothing sizes. We’d love to have more pictures of what the merch looks like on all bodies!
Go check it out!
Visit store.autostraddle.com
Love the new storefront! BTW, I would really love to see more curvy-sized models alongside the straight size ones in the future… :) Hard to know how those tees will fit!
Hey babe! Did you check out http://store.autostraddle.com/pages/image-gallery. I know it’s not the same as having models of all the stuff, but there are lots of different bodies featured in the image gallery. In fact, if you buy something, you should tag it for the image gallery!
WHAT IS HAPPENING
There’ something weird about this comment thread it says at the top it’s awaiting moderation
i think that’s ’cause the comment was made when we accidentally published this post on september 21st for about three minutes and then immediately took it down
LOL
I think it’s fixed now. Phew. :) Either way, submit your photos. Be the model you want to see in the world. Etc. Etc. Also, yay!!!!!!!!! MERCH!!!!
YES! YAY! HUZZAH! ETC!
Oh cool. I didn’t see that yet but the galleries are always SO helpful! I don’t order anything from Modcloth anymore unless I’ve seen a photo of it on a real person. Thanks Kaelyn!
Whoa that was supposed to be re: Kaelyn’s comment, whoops
Mother. Fucking. Scissoring. Boxer. Briefs. Yes!
The tote is beautiful! I already own too many, unfortunately, but I might get finally the gal pal or the scissoring tee.
Still hoping for a new edition of the AS calendar…
Can I make a suggestion for a gal pal flask in black and/or scissoring flask?
YES YOU CAN <3
YAAASS
Oh Bren, that trooper, we’ll never forget the sacrifices and cordial emails you made for us!
It’s the end of an era, but the beginning of so.much.more!
yaaaaaaa
What are you going to do with all the extra space in your home, @Bren? You will have room for furniture now!!!
I’m so thrilled about the new merch and new store!!!!!!!!!! Really considering those scissoring boxers for my spouse-person.
My vote Is nursery.I
Caaaaan we bring back the scissoring tanks in black?
So I’m really happy about the new merch because it’s something I’ve been saying forever – that we need more, I want autostraddle to get more money and merch is a good thing.
But there should be more v-necks? Crew necks do nothing for me. V-necks are hot. Even if they’re not low, which would exclude some people that don’t want to show cleavage. They can still be a unisex v-neck.
I vote for v-necks.
Yeah, I’m a bit busty, so v-necks flatter me more. I vote for more v-necks!
we used to ONLY have v-necks actually — the problem is that lately we’ve been doing shirts with two words on them and that’s hard to place on a v-neck. but yeah you’re right i hadn’t realized that most of our new stuff had shifted away from v-necks! we’ll be sure to introduce a new one before the holidays!
If you sold pants, I would pretty much buy all my clothes on autostraddle.com
i know we need sweatpants so hard
Yes!! :D The new website looks beautiful & I’m very excited about all the new merch
Might I suggest a gal pal crop top in a heathered charcoal grey? like this color:
http://www.discountmugs.com/product-images/zoom/canvas-unisex-jersey-short-sleeve-t-shirt-3001c-dark-grey-heather.jpg
And also I like the style of ringer t-shirts, it’s cute and has a retro aesthetic. kinda like this:
http://evanwebsterink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Bella-and-Canvas-Heather-Ringer-Jersey-T-Shirt-Male-Blue.jpg
or a navy for the gal pal crop top, now that I think of it
Bren Is so awesome
YOU’RE awesome.
All items bought before the launch of the new store are now considered collector’s items due to the fact they were lovingly folded and handled by Bren Perfect Human.
Awesome!
I hope there’s some sort of Bren Perfect Human Memorial Statue in Future AutoHQ.
I tried on the scissoring jumper* at A-Camp and made Alex be my human mirror and they were the best at it. For that reason alone I would recommend buying stuff from the merch store.
Plus the jumper* is super snuggly and I wear it like all the time.
*Sweater