Merch Madness

Five years ago I went to an Arizona Ice Tea pop up in New York. They had all kinds of cool merch but my main goal was to get a free tattoo from the famous JonBoy but the lineup was longer than I could stand. Instead, I brought home this kerchief and wristband.

On Thursday, my friend Sonya invited me to a media preview for Arizona Hard Tea — boozy versions of the famous beverage. The brand had installed a pop up shop and party room on Queen Street. And Sonya thought I might like to come become one of the objects on sale was a watch.

The pop up space was styled as a 1990s video store. The watch, an homage to the G-Shock. There where also t-shirts, scrunchies, bucket hats, skateboard wheels and so much more. At the preview we were allowed one item. Naturally I chose the watch.

Did I mention that every piece of merch was priced at just 99 cents (just like a can of Arizona). So I resolved to go back on Friday to get a few more things…starting with this teal and pink baseball jacket.

For 99 cents a pop, I would have bought out the whole shop, whether I needed it or not. But shoppers were limited to one large item (jackets, sweatshirts and t-shirts), and four smalls). Greedily I grabbed the jacket (I was first in line when the doors opened). In retrospect, I should have gone for the sweatshirt because the jacket turned out to be pure polyester—a material that I have sworn off. It looks cool though.

For the smalls I selected a pen (because I like stationary as much as I do watches) and a Fanny pack (practical).

I also took home a baseball hat (there was a bucket hat option and I’m considering disguising myself and going back for it tomorrow because I love the cherry blossom motif), and socks (I run the risk of having patterned hosiery becoming my whole personality). That’s it. Five dollars worth of merch that brought me hours of joy.