From ‘Throwing Fits’ to ‘Crime Junkie’, Podcast Merch has become big business

Podcast merchandising in particular is booming, as more listeners want to show their allegiance to their podcast of choice through a T-shirt, mug or hoodie. Marisa Morales, the chief of merchandising at Stitcher, a podcast conglomerate, said sales of merchandise related to Stitcher shows such as “WTF with Marc Maron,” “Sklarbro Country,” and “Freakonomics Radio” roughly double every year. She likened the excitement surrounding, say, a newly launched mug from ‘The Office Ladies’, a podcast about the bygone sitcom, to the frantic hype surrounding the release of Air Jordan sneakers. Hundreds of coffee cups can sell out within hours.

This fervent commodity market has no parallel in traditional media. Newspapers and magazines are still more attractive for giveaway subscription deals – many of us have New Yorker tote bags languishing in our closets, or own that ‘ESPN the Magazine’ fleece that was advertised a lot on TV during the evenings. But podcast merchandise works as a standalone phenomenon with listeners picking $ 30 just for a T-shirt or $ 60 for a hoodie. As Ms Morales said, merchandise is attractive because it makes a listener’s connection to a podcast tangible.

In that sense, the closest cousin to podcast merchandise is band T-shirts. Dita Cordelia, 24, a freelance video producer and dedicated podcast listener in Los Angeles, compared her Scriptnotes shirt – indicating her commitment to a weekly screenwriting podcast – to the Morrissey T-shirt she wore in high school. In either case, she said, the shirts broadcast an insider message (some would say hipster): “Oh, you don’t know about this … you should listen to this.”

And just like concert T-shirts, podcast gear returns listeners to their favorite entertainment sources. “It supports something I feel like doing,” said Corey Long, 40, contract coordinator at a university in Atlanta, who recently bought a shirt from the new podcast “How Long Gone,” hosted by two older millennial bros. (In the case of larger shows with huge audiences, it is the sale of advertisements, not merchandise, that the microphones typically hold.) Mr. Long admits that, unlike buying concert shirts while surrounded by a swarm of other fans, buying podcast merchandise is not a “shared experience.” You are home alone and you listen in isolation.

However, that bubble of privacy is central to a podcast’s appeal. Ms. Cordelia from Los Angeles said she started listening to podcasts last year instead of the radio to keep calm on the commute. Podcasts, she said, “felt like listening to friends having an easy conversation compared to Ryan Seacrest telling me to listen to this rap song at eight in the morning.” That intimacy provides an escapism that some listeners have especially enjoyed over the past insane year. Tellingly, Ms. Cordelia and her friends have been buying podcast shirts for each other over the past holiday season, rather than band shirts as in the past – reflecting their changing listening habits.

When it comes to the design printed on a podcast shirt, “the more in the joke the better,” said Ms. Morales of Stitcher, whose merchandise site Podswag.com lets you buy head-scratcher T-shirts with the text “Cheese Side Down” or “Don’t be an irony.” Only listeners downloading “The Sporkful” or “The Murder Squad” respectively will really chuckle at these shirts.

The T-shirt Mr. Long bought “How Long Gone” riffs on a cover design from an obscure punk album. The shirt’s painfully niche reference helped him identify with the show’s presenters: “The podcast is from two aging hardcore punk dudes. And I am also an aging hardcore punk dude. “Until now none of his friends have noticed the reference of the shirt.

Promoting a community through merchandise is certainly one of the goals of the show. “We want to build the ‘How Long Gone’ universe,” said co-host Chris Black. After releasing a few referential T-shirts and totes, he and his colleague Jason Stewart team up with Tinker, an Indianapolis-based coffee maker. to release a canned cold brew coffee called ‘Mudd’, the term Mr. Black uses when discussing coffee on the show.

This caffeinated plan epitomizes how podcasts become full-fledged lifestyle brands. “The Office Ladies” sells blankets, backpacks, Frisbees, and appropriately a stapler (get it, “The Office”). The Last Podcast on the Left, a crime comedy show, has released a now sold out cruiser bike featuring New York’s Priority Bikes. And “This Podcast Will Kill You”, which focuses locally on disease and epidemiological issues, has sold its own signature soap.

Not all podcast merchandise customers will pick up the tie-in initially. Not knowing it was related to a show, Dan Christansen, 38, who works in marketing in Philadelphia, was recently hit with a tote he saw on Instagram from the New York-based basketball podcast “Cookies Hoops.” (A wry parody of the classic New Yorker bag, the $ 35 bag features Eustace Tilley spinning a basketball.) After touring the show’s site, Mr.Christansen bought a shirt, featuring NBA’ers Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid in the Beavis & Butthead caricature and the phrase “Practice Sucks” on the front. While the tee refers to topics covered in the show, Mr. Christansen it as a “standalone piece” rather than as a “badge” indicating that he is listening to the podcast.

Certain podcasts are even pushing their merchandise into the luxury realm. In recent months, ‘Throwing Fits’, a cult-esque fashion podcast, has partnered with Italian shoe brand Diemme for $ 300 co-branded olive green suede Chelsea boots and US shoe label Blackstock & Weber for $ 295 couch-made bitloafers . Each of the shoe designs sold “hundreds of pairs,” said co-host James Harris.

Alex Green, a 21-year-old college student in Amherst, Massachusetts, was one of those who bought the Chelsea boots. Given his budget, the shoes were an investment, but he put his trust in the two hosts. “They’re great trendsetters … These are guys I go to for fashion advice,” he said. “And there aren’t many people I can turn to for fashion advice.”

For the hosts, choosing a tangible, luxury product to sell certainly took more effort than just barking up some hot takes. The co-hosts wanted the listeners to “be happy with what they spent their hard-earned money on,” said Lawrence Schlossman, Mr. Harris. They considered several samples and tested the boots and loafers for wear for months before releasing them. This process turned “Throwing Fits” from a mere merchandise operation to something close to a private label garment maker. Mr. Schlossman said, “When we’re in loafer mode or boot mode it’s like I don’t feel like a pod anymore. I feel like we are a brand. “

Write to Jacob Gallagher at [email protected]