We had a good run with branded merch, but it’s over, folks – according to GQ writer Samuel Hine, anyway. This week, the men’s fashion and culture magazine published an essay by Hine titled “The End of Merch” in which he describes “the rise and fall of wearing your interests on your sleeve.”

But there’s a twist: The page features an ad for a bucket hat emblazoned with the GQ logo as an enticement for new subscribers.


Although Hine says “once-highly coveted merch doesn’t hit like it used to,” he also explains how merch provides an easy way for people to express themselves, including input from several veteran merch designers:

  • Andrew Kuo says merch “signals people who are like-minded” and offers “a way to come together.”

  • Elijah Funk says, “It’s such an easy way to communicate to strangers, Hey, we might have something to talk about.”

But there’s too much of it now, Hine argues, and the very ubiquitousness of merch is the problem. “Merch once made us feel unique,” he writes. “Then it made us realize that we’re not so unique after all." The widespread adoption of preorders made merch an on-demand commodity rather than an exclusive prize, he adds: “You wanted to be one of a small hard-core group of fans to have earned those stripes.”

And once you could order merch from your favorite artist from Amazon without ever attending a live concert, it became a brand instead of a memento. In this new paradigm, he writes, merch becomes more fashion than fandom. And as Heidi Klum used to say on Project Runway, “In fashion, one day you’re in, and the next day you’re out.”

Still, Hine admits at the very beginning of his essay that even though he can’t imagine wearing his stash of branded tees anymore, he can’t bring himself to get rid of them, either. He also acknowledges the enduring power of Taylor Swift and the demand for merch from her Eras Tour, with thousands of fans lining up for hours all over the country just to buy a sweatshirt or tote bag.

“As a category of consumer goods, merch is undoubtedly bigger than ever,” he writes. No doubt that’s what GQ itself is banking on with the branded bucket hat offer as an exclusive for subscribers.

IMAGE: GQ.com