Merch helps EAs express themselves and fosters a sense of community. It can also help EAs recognize each other within the same setting or act as a conversation-starter at a function. But most importantly, it’s fun!
How confident are you that encouraging members of the EA community to wear EA merch is a good idea?
I’ve not thought about this much but my inside view is somewhat against EA merch.
Some ways that merch might backfire:
Merch may encourage some individuals towards excessive identification with EA as a body of ideas or as a community.
The merch, or the people who wear the merch, may come across as low status, off-putting or otherwise unattractive.
Merch may contribute to unhelpful perceptions of EA (e.g. as a youth movement).
People may unwittingly wear merch in contexts where it undermines their goals (e.g. damages their credibility).
SBF might wear your merch.
Personally, I have a strong aversion to the idea of people wearing EA merch (I’m somewhat negative for startup merch and somewhat positive about band merch). I’m not sure where this comes from and how much to weigh it.
I’ve briefly discussed this with 5-10 people over the years. On a personal level, several shared my strong aversion to EA merch, while several others were neutral or strongly positive. I don’t recall anyone having a confident overall view about whether merch should be encouraged.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this, and especially your own steelman of the case that merch is, in fact, best discouraged.
If I thought about this more I guess that I’d end up moderately opposed to merch that uses the EA logo but neutral and relaxed about merch that is more oblique. Several of the items on your store are in the latter category and seem nicely done to me.
Anecdotally, in November I noticed that “being someone who regularly wears EA t-shirts” was somewhat predictive of “being very upset by the FTX blow up”. Obviously the merch won’t be causing the upset, but the decision to wear merch may be part of a pattern of relating that leaves some people in a less than ideal position.
″… the people who wear the merch, may appear low status, off-putting or otherwise unattractive.” seems like an extremely pointless and bad thing to consider.
I’ve just edited my comment to replace “appear” with “come across as” because maybe the original phrasing makes the point sound more focused on physical appearance than I intended.
Appear did make me think that it was at least partially focused on physical appearance. Although I’m not sure that it reads very differently still, since I’m not how else to take it, especially the “low-status” part. Arguing to gatekeep who can outwardly associate themselves with a social movement based on how they come across or who seems low-status or off putting feels needlessly exclusionary, particularly because those impressions are highly tied into social, racial, gendered and economic prejudices and, unavoidably, physical appearence.
I’m not a fan of merch generally and will avoid branded clothing as much a possible, and I don’t think selling EA merchandise is a good idea overall, but objecting to it on the grounds of how attractive the person wearing it may be, physically or otherwise, seems wrong-headed.
How confident are you that encouraging members of the EA community to wear EA merch is a good idea?
I’ve not thought about this much but my inside view is somewhat against EA merch.
Some ways that merch might backfire:
Merch may encourage some individuals towards excessive identification with EA as a body of ideas or as a community.
The merch, or the people who wear the merch, may come across as low status, off-putting or otherwise unattractive.
Merch may contribute to unhelpful perceptions of EA (e.g. as a youth movement).
People may unwittingly wear merch in contexts where it undermines their goals (e.g. damages their credibility).
SBF might wear your merch.
Personally, I have a strong aversion to the idea of people wearing EA merch (I’m somewhat negative for startup merch and somewhat positive about band merch). I’m not sure where this comes from and how much to weigh it.
I’ve briefly discussed this with 5-10 people over the years. On a personal level, several shared my strong aversion to EA merch, while several others were neutral or strongly positive. I don’t recall anyone having a confident overall view about whether merch should be encouraged.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this, and especially your own steelman of the case that merch is, in fact, best discouraged.
If I thought about this more I guess that I’d end up moderately opposed to merch that uses the EA logo but neutral and relaxed about merch that is more oblique. Several of the items on your store are in the latter category and seem nicely done to me.
Anecdotally, in November I noticed that “being someone who regularly wears EA t-shirts” was somewhat predictive of “being very upset by the FTX blow up”. Obviously the merch won’t be causing the upset, but the decision to wear merch may be part of a pattern of relating that leaves some people in a less than ideal position.
″… the people who wear the merch, may appear low status, off-putting or otherwise unattractive.” seems like an extremely pointless and bad thing to consider.
Can you say why?
I’ve just edited my comment to replace “appear” with “come across as” because maybe the original phrasing makes the point sound more focused on physical appearance than I intended.
Appear did make me think that it was at least partially focused on physical appearance. Although I’m not sure that it reads very differently still, since I’m not how else to take it, especially the “low-status” part. Arguing to gatekeep who can outwardly associate themselves with a social movement based on how they come across or who seems low-status or off putting feels needlessly exclusionary, particularly because those impressions are highly tied into social, racial, gendered and economic prejudices and, unavoidably, physical appearence.
I’m not a fan of merch generally and will avoid branded clothing as much a possible, and I don’t think selling EA merchandise is a good idea overall, but objecting to it on the grounds of how attractive the person wearing it may be, physically or otherwise, seems wrong-headed.