Company Merch Design Psychology - What Gets Worn?

Here at Ethix, we talk a lot about the ethics, sustainability, and responsibility behind company apparel. If you're producing t-shirts for employees, for giveaways, for trade shows, for job fairs, or whatever other occasion, you want to make sure you're getting the most ethically produced and sustainably manufactured apparel you can.

There's an unspoken assumption there, though, which is this: that people are going to wear and enjoy your apparel.

If you're giving someone a branded t-shirt, and they're going to wear it, it makes sense that you want to provide them with the most globally-conscious piece of apparel you can get.

But what if they don't want to wear it? No matter how green the apparel is, if it doesn't fit their aesthetic sense or their values, they aren't going to wear it, and it will either languish in a drawer or a box until it's discarded, or be discarded immediately. Even the most sustainably manufactured item isn't sustainable if it goes from factory to landfill with nary a stop in between.

So, we thought, it's worth taking a look at the psychology behind company merchandise. What gets worn, what doesn't, and how can you avoid your merchandise ending up in landfills or donation piles without serving its purpose?

What Makes People Wear Branded Merchandise?

First, let's look at it from the affirmative angle: what makes people want to wear a piece of branded merchandise? In broad strokes, there are five main reasons why people will choose to wear branded merchandise, be it a hat, a shirt, or another item.

They want to show support for a brand they love.

Brand loyalty is the reason why you really wish people would wear your merchandise. For most brands and for most people, though, it's probably not one of the top reasons. Some brands definitely have their adherents – the Disney Adults decked out in Disney-branded clothes from head to toe, or high-class luxury brands like Gucci, are prime examples – but a lot of brands don't have those kinds of followers. Or, if they do, it's a small handful of people, and not the kind of numbers that are worth a merchandise order.

Sometimes, though, representing a brand is about more than representing just that brand. It might be about what the brand itself represents. Patagonia, for example, is a well-known brand when it comes to environmental activism. People who wear Patagonia items aren't necessarily doing it to support Patagonia; they're doing it to support the environmental activism behind it.

There's also the semi-related way that brands can represent something other than themselves. Nike represents athleticism; people who wear Nike aren't necessarily doing so because they like Nike, but because they like being active, and the apparel is everywhere in their circles. Similarly, brands like Razer are deeply involved in gaming and e-sports, and people who wear Razer-branded apparel are signaling their part in the social group of gamers.

Broadly speaking, this is one of the biggest reasons why people wear branded merchandise, though the brand itself is often a secondary consideration.

They like the aesthetics of the apparel and don't mind the branding.

A second reason why people wear branded apparel is because they like the aesthetics of the brand, but are ambivalent to the brand itself.

You see this a lot in certain kinds of fashion brands at all levels of the luxury spectrum. People shop for the aesthetic rather than the specific brand name, and find apparel that suits their tastes. They may not care what brand produces the items. In fact, if their taste is in a higher-cost luxury area, they may even seek out replicas or counterfeits to maintain that aesthetic without the price tag.

When it comes to the kind of apparel you might be handing out at events or giving to employees or customers, it's less likely that they're into the overall aesthetic of your brand, and more into the aesthetic of the specific design you've created. Whether it's a graffiti style, an elegant cut with a subdued logo, or even just an interesting pattern, if it catches someone's fancy, they'll enjoy it enough to wear it.

A related reason is if they like the aesthetic of a partnership. Brands often partner with other brands or with specific artists, designers, or celebrities, allowing them to infuse their aesthetic into the brand's products. These can be very attractive to fans of the celebrity or artist behind the work, if not the brand making it happen.

They want to show off something fueled by FOMO.

One area where handing out merchandise at a convention or trade show can really benefit you is being able to give out event-specific merchandise to people who are hyped to attend the event.

This works best for things like a gaming convention, media convention, toy convention, or other show, but tends to work less well for B2B trade shows and other more "formal" events. Think more like CES or ComicCon than TED or the Meltwater Summit. If the average attendee is wearing a graphic tee, they'll be more interested in limited-edition merchandise than if everyone at the convention is wearing a suit.

FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out, is a big driver of this. People who like to wear exclusives and know other people don't have access to the same apparel either turn to expensive luxury items, or to time-limited items that can't be normally obtained. It does help, though, if your convention items are aesthetically interesting and different from your normal merchandise.

They find the item useful or comfortable and don't care about the branding.

This is a big one when your merchandise isn't something typical. If you're just handing out branded t-shirts, sure, maybe people will wear them because they need shirts, but a shirt is a shirt. On the other hand, handing out a sunhat or sunglasses, an umbrella, a jacket, a backpack or tote; these are the kinds of items people will use because they're useful, and the branding is secondary.

The ideal here is, of course, items that have real value to them. If you're handing out cheap-feeling plastic sunglasses that barely tint the light, let alone use polarization, you aren't going to see many people wearing them. On the other hand, if you're handing out compact umbrellas during an unseasonably wet weekend event, you'll see more than a few of them pop open.

They don't have any other choice.

It's worth including this one on the list: some people wear your merchandise because it's available and they don't have a lot of other options. This often happens when your merchandise isn't attractive enough, but the people who receive it don't want to just throw it away, so they donate it. When your merchandise ends up in thrift stores or in donation boxes for the disadvantaged, it can have a second life as support for those individuals.

There's nothing bad about this, and having your merchandise rescued and given another opportunity to help people is a decent consolation prize, but it does indicate that your design or your choice in apparel is not aligned with what your primary audience wants.

What Prevents People from Wearing Branded Merch?

Now let's flip the script and look at things from a negative light: why might people avoid wearing your company merchandise?

They don't like your brand.

One of the big reasons is simply that they don't like your brand.

Sometimes they might not really care about your brand, but they don't like the way you've added branding to your apparel, so they avoid it so they don't feel like they're advertising a company they don't know or care about.

Other times, there's something you've done (or something they perceive that you've done, or something you've not done) that they don't like. The ongoing "culture war" where people display their fealty with hats and shoes, and burn the ones that go too far in the wrong political direction, is a big example of this.

Sometimes there's justification there. If you're a brand that uses exploitative labor and unethical manufacturing for products, people who are more environmentally conscious are going to avoid or disregard your merchandise.

Other times, the connection is there, but a little more tenuous. Your business may be fine, but if your CEO donates to a political party, the opposite political party may choose to avoid or boycott your brand.

You can also run into situations where the reason people are avoiding your brand is based on rumor, hearsay, or misinformation. It can be hard to separate fact from fiction, and people who misread, misinterpret, or outright lie about something your brand has done or not done can get a headline going viral and cause reputational damage that can take months or years to sort out.

They feel like the item is low quality.

If people view your merchandise as low quality, they're going to treat it as low quality or even disposable.

If you hand out a tote bag but the bag feels like it might fall apart if anything too heavy is put in it, that bag is going to be set aside and never used. If you hand out t-shirts where the stitching is uneven and fraying and the fabric is thin and weak, it might be used a couple of times, but filed away long before it actually wears out. If you hand out cheap plastic sunglasses that barely tint the light… well, you know the rest.

Yes, quality merchandise is more expensive than cheap merchandise. But, if your metric is people actually getting use out of it, cheap merchandise doesn't give you a return.

They view the item too much like a company uniform.

This tends to happen if your branded merchandise is too close to the kinds of merchandise you hand out to your employees. If the person wearing your t-shirt feels like if they visit your store they'll have customers asking them for assistance, they aren't going to want to wear it.

This is primarily an issue with shirts, usually with understated branding. Just make sure your merchandise is distinct enough not to be viewed as a uniform.

They don't like wearing anything with a logo on it at all.

Some people don't want to wear anything with a logo on it. Some people go as far as to remove tags and pick out embroidery on items they find useful but have too much of a prominent logo. Others try to replicate the "old money" aesthetic of never wearing anything with someone's logo on it.

This is one area where the objection to your branded merchandise doesn't have anything to do with you as a brand, and is simply due to the individual's personal preferences. On the plus side, these people are less likely to accept and then discard your items; they're more likely to just not accept them at all.

What to Learn for Your Merchandise

What lessons can you take from this quick overview on the psychology of branded merchandise?

Some people will be impossible to please. There's nothing wrong with that, but you should never expect a 100% wear-rate from your branded items.

If you want to get as many people wearing your merchandise as possible:

• Make sure it's high quality and feels like it.
• Pick a compelling design. It should be interesting, reflective of your brand, but not too overly promotional.
• Take actions as a company that promote the reasons people would support you. Making sure your merchandise is ethically produced is a good step to take. Putting some money behind environmental support and human rights can also be helpful.

At Ethix Merch, we have done a lot of legwork to make sure everything we offer in our store has something going for it. Whether it's union labor, USA-made products, or sustainable and eco-friendly raw materials, there's something for everyone.

From there, it's just a matter of coming up with a good design and a strategy for handing it out to the people most interested in wearing it.