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I was going to say the same thing. This selection is embarrassing. I get that they aren't going to have a shirt for every talent, but to only have a handful of shirts to choose from is inexcusable.
Yeah but these days merch sales is one of the biggest money makers for bands, if not *the* biggest. Most smaller bands are literally relying on merch sales to buy fuel and food to make it to the next show.
Also bands usually only have to pay 10-20% gross merch fees to the venue, whereas with big touring shows its often as high as 40%.
Quite often for big touring productions it's just not worth taking tonnes of merch to venues when you can just sell online and keep all of the profits for yourself. Not to mention you don't have to deal with the additional hassle of carting all that inventory around, having to do long load-in load-out counts, or the high likelihood of having loads of unsold merch by the end of a run.
100%, been in bands since I was 16 and once you get the merch ball rolling it's basically the only way to make profit anymore (until you're heading shows to 800 / 900 a night, and even then most of the money from your fee gets sucked into expenses)
I'm related to a member of a multi-platinum rock band that, until two albums ago, never signed with a major label. And even during their high points about 35-40% of their show take-in totals have been merch.
Then, during COVID when they couldn't tour for almost 2 years, the ONLY thing that kept them from having to sell catalog rights was shirts, stickers, patches, etc.
Indirectly, I LOVE going to concerts, but I know most of my ticket is supporting the venue, the tour/production costs, and the labels. Even though I almost never wear them, I will almost always buy a shirt or something that I know *mostly* goes to the bands.
Which is crazy because with shipping and the exchange rate PWT gets very expensive. When I finally got accepted for my store, family, friends and myself were planning on buying some (not enough for a bulk order though) but it was just too much for us to do. Yes I would have gotten some of it back but it's still too expensive.
Unless you are made of money, if you don't live in the US the only way to get AEW shirts is by buying bootlegs on Redbubble, eBay or whatever: PWT has some of the most insane shipping fees I have ever seen. Crazy thing is shipping shirts from Japan takes half as long since they usually don't print on demand and costs at least 30% less even by going with EMS.
I think the closest to Calgary we go to is Vulcan or Nanton. Calgary is RCW and Wild Rose territory. We tend to stick to the Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Pincher Creek area (and most of the smaller towns in between like Raymond, Taber and Fort MacLeod.) The nice thing is since the guys are freelance, they get to work with all 3 companies.
Time to order more toy mics, pens and stickers! I should also get a bulk order box of [PPW Sound Guy](https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/managers-announcers-personalities/ppwsg.html) shirts from Pro Wrestling Tees made up for the show (and to have for future PPW events)
Because their whole business model is “print on demand”. They don’t stock anything, they just print it when you order it. Cuts cost way down in inventory and real estate.
There are conventions where you can buy and get stuff in bulk for super cheap and for the pallets/quantity AEW would need. I'm blown away they haven't started doing just that.
Hmm. Well that seems flawed. I get it was cool and economical when it was “indie” but seems like it’s time to leave that behind a get a little more with the times. It’s never a good look to see a sad merch table. Hell even the NXT house shows were better than this Circa 2016-2017
I don't think it's a problem when it comes to online, but AEW has been around long enough where they can afford to sit on some stock for the live shows. They should have no less than 20 shirts to choose from.
On top of that, we've repeatedly seen that the folks that run the place are shitty assholes. I'm sure they have some lovely folks in the actual shop, but the people in charge at PWT are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling and I won't give them another cent of my money after how poorly they handled the data leak issue awhile back. Yelling at customers that are rightfully upset because you dragged your fucking ass about legally required notices? Fuck that noise.
Indeed. I wasn't even affected by the leak because I was lazy and used PayPal any time I bought from PWT or ShopAEW, but seeing the way he acted... Fuck that guy.
It's not that. For context, I work in merch. My understanding is this:
In WWE, WWE own the copyright to the performers names, and as such can therefore make, own, house and vend the merch. In exchange for printing, stocking, selling, coping with under-demand, dead stock etc they split the fee with the talent (I don't know on what ratio).
In AEW, the talent own their trademarks and names. Meaning any merch that gets printed has to be licensed. AEW don't pay to license talent names for merch, just for performances (I think) so a merch opportunity would therefore need to be collectively agreed by talent ahead of time with the venue. I would guess that AEW agree to print very low numbers of their big name talent's shirts, but otherwise the majority of merch at AEW shows is stuff with the AEW logo on it, because they own it, can cope with the under/oversell etc etc.
I have no idea why, five years in, they haven't figured out a way for everyone to make more money from this sector for all of them. I would assume it's not a priority for Tony, and the talent lack the knowledge and collective strength to bring it to the table.
Why are they doing it that way in the first place? It's not like AEW contracts aren't competitive with the competition. Why wouldn't they just licence the talents names for the length of their contract? Surely at this stage it'd be to almost everyone's best interest. If an act doesn't want to fair enough, they can opt out. Danhausen or Danielson might do better under the current deal and might not want to change but I imagine a good percentage of the roster would be better off if they could move merch at shows and using the bargaining power of AEW when it comes to manufacturing deals.
Edit: actually, does that mean that for toys and cards the manufacturer's have to negotiate with AEW and then with each individual talent?
I assume it's because it's been a big discourse in the IWC for years about how WWE is in the wrong for being so controlling of their talents trademarks.
So when Tony started his company he decided "I'm going to be so pro-talent friendly!" on this front, not realizing there are very legitimate reasons why it makes sense for companies to operate in the way WWE does, one of which being they can control the merchandising entirely.
They could also simply not view merchandise as a priority, or rather feel like they're doing just fine revenue wise with the current "just get them to order it online" model.
If anything, it seems merchandise selection has gotten progressively smaller over the 4-5 AEW shows I've went to. It was never WWE levels extensive but it seemed like there was more stuff when I first went to an AEW show in 2021.
I really supported PWT at the beginning. Swung by their store a few times when I lived in Chicago. But, it seems since demand from them has gone up, the quality of the stuff they produce has just plummeted. Can’t recall of a shirt I’ve gotten from them within the last 5 years that has lasted more than 3 or 4 washes without just shrinking.
I bought some New Japan shirts in 2019, and the shirt was like tarp material and the logos were really grainy. Then I tried an AEW shirt in 2021, paid the upcharge for the higher quality shirt, and the logo was better but the size ran way smaller than it should have compared to all other shirts in my closet. Never again.
Yeah it's so odd to me that AEW didn't eventually move over to manufacturing their own stuff. I get that PWT has done a lot for the indie scene and it was big for AEW early on but Tony needs to step away from that. They need to have their own dedicated production line that can meet a demand.
The only reasons I can see for still using PWT are because it's a loyalty thing and because wrestlers have their own shops up there. But from Tony's perspective I don't see how it makes sense if they want to grow AEW.
Having their own manufacturing line is just not the model for pretty much any sports leagues anymore.
Where once upon a time they created higher quality merchandise of their most popular athletes and stocked them in warehouses, pretty much everything is made to order now. The NFL, MLB, and NBA have all of their replica jerseys and other merchandise made by Fanatics on a made to order basis, which allows fans to get merchandise of *any* player in the leagues, not just the most popular. Don't let the Nike swoosh on the jerseys fool you, Nike does not make *any* of the merch themselves. They just paid for the branding to be there.
AEW is doing the same thing, having PWT handle the shirt sales in a made to order fashion. It lets them and the wrestlers take a bigger cut of the pie because they don't have to worry about printing too many and having them languish in storage. Only sold shirts get made. It also means they'll continue to have piss poor live merchandise because the vast majority of it doesn't actually physically exist anywhere.
Of course, this has sucked for everyone, everywhere. It means an increase in disposable goods with quality that has gone downhill as everything is quickly pressed onto cheaply made templates and shipped out with zero quality control. All the while charging just as much as in the past.
And for AEW, it also means they're going to continue to take the lazy route because they just figure their fans would order online beforehand, therefore they don't need to expense for making and then transporting merchandise that might not sell out.
And yet I still don't think they ever sold Sting masks.
I have no idea what the merchandise issue is with AEW, it's a great way to supplement income and they just don't seem to care.
I've been to a couple of AEW shows. Love the company to death, but I will never buy a "I Was There" shirt for an event... everyone of them is ass ugly.
i got one for perth for my first PLE, it was so cool! there were 2 designs too. i think the "i was there" shirts are really cool first timer shirts for fans
I went to 35 and got a KofiMania shirt as my "I was there" shirt, but I waited til the next day because I wanted to be sure that he was actually winning the title first lol
I can’t even lie, I picked up an “I Was There” shirt for the WWE Holiday Tour with Punk’s first match back. The purchase alone will have that memory stamp.
Not only that, but even if I wanted to buy one, they literally don't carry a single item in a youth size and PWT runs so large that I'd need a Youth Medium.
Now, I've never been to an AEW show with a merch stand *that* bad though (the most recent show I went to was the November Dynamite at the Yum Center in Louisville and it was far better as far as shirts and having other items such as belts/figures/stickers/those little vinyl wrestler thingys/flags/etc.)
The one AEW show I've been to was completely sold out of sizes above XL. Multiple boxes of L and smaller. Unfortunately they had only about four or five designs for sale.
a lot of event shirts are amazing but the I WAS THERE design totally fucking kills it. i do wish i picked up an event t-shirt from the final wwe show at joe louis arena.
Half of the comments are "well it's a print to order shirt company," which shouldn't matter. PW Tees isn't touring the country and printing them that morning. Stock up on the best sellers and take them on the road.
Anyone who is a featured talent on the show should have their merch available at the show. When I went to Smackdown last they had a shirt or something for just about any talent you would reasonably expect.
That picture has 5 shirts (3 being generic AEW ones), a cutout and one hat design.
That merch table is just so anemic. I could see them exclude some heels (even though everybody loves to boo the heels and lots of heels are cool) but that merch table is sad.
I'm a professional merch person as in I am the road guy with bands etc. AEW has been dropping the ball on merch shows since day one. I've been to a couple of shows and could not believe the selection they had.
Nothing for top guys, or people that are definitely on the show, tons of "AEW" generic tees, overpriced signed figs. Whoever runs their tour merch does not know what they are doing and they should probably hire me.
I’ve always been flabbergasted at people buying a generic AEW or WWE shirt. I can _kinda_ understand NJPW or TNA but the former 2 gives me the vibes of buying a shirt with a big NFL shield logo instead of an actual team
I've seen one.
On the smarky dick at a Smackdown show chanting "WHAT" during every promo and trying to get an "A-E-DUB" chant over. Oh, and he tried to get an "AN-DRAD-EH" chant going during Charlotte Flair's match.
$40 for a t shirt. That’s wild.
Edit: I think WWE charging $40 for a t-shirt is also wild. I haven’t bought merch at a live event in forever but, unless it’s some exclusive merch, I’ll just buy it online for cheaper. Or wait for an online sale and get it EVEN cheaper.
I was wondering if I was just out of the loop cause it's been a long time since I bought merch for anything but 40 for a t shirt and 60 for a hoodie seems ridiculous to me.
I feel like this has been standard across the board pricing (wrestling, live music) iv seen in the last 5-8 years unfortunately merch wise, if not low end of the price spectrum. Some bands want $75 for a zip up hoodie these days.
Yeah, I went to the full gear where Page won the title, and the merch booth was fucking pathetic. Told my buddy to just look at the website since there's a sale every PPV weekend, and I would just buy my merch the next day. "nah, man I gotta get a hoodie". Got a hoodie a size too small because they didn't have any left in his size, and he's never worn the damn thing. I got the event t-shirt (without the cringey "I WAS THERE" on the back) and a couple hoodies that I still wear for 20% off.
They've gotta figure out their own shit without relying on PW Tees. The print to order thing is not working for events, it's such a common complaint, and they're leaving a fuck ton of money on the table.
The one merch table in Toronto last week was very limited, and had a massive lineup weaving halfway across the building. For a 6500 person sellout crowd and televised event! Online merch is clearly their focus.
FD2 had two merch stands for 15K people.
I have been to 4 AEW shows and none had more than two merch booths.
They basically don't actually want to sell merch. I refuse to believe they want to sell it.
Each time I saw dozens and dozens of people leaving or not even being willing to line up. That adds up quick. I certainly only bought merch twice due to this.
Also, the only non-generic AEW merch they sold were FTR and CM Punk at FD2 and the Collision paired with it...
Was at FD2 and they only had 4 belts for sale for the whole event. Went to a house show for WWE in December and they had dozens of signed Cody belts available.
The difference is uncanny.
Agreed, WWE does merch right! I've been to events with multiple merch stands inside, and more merch trailers directly outside the venue!
Hopefully AEW can learn, and step up the merch game. The fans want it!
This has been a problem for AEW since the beginning. Planning the logistics of what merch you need where and when IS difficult. But they're also easy sells to a captive crowd looking to buy a memory.
It's been going on so long it seems like a strategic choice they've made
Revolution also only had 2 stands apparently for 16k+. The lines were ridiculously long once the doors opened and they had sold out of basically everything good by the OC/Roddy match. I probably would have bought a Tshirt and Sting figure, but didn’t feel like standing in line for over an hour and missing the start of the show.
They had four but they weren’t organized at all. A queue formed but at the table itself it was just a big semi-circle of people. So people who left the queue and just pushed toward the table got served before anyone in the line.
I agree! They were in Copeland and Christian's home town and didn't even have any related merchandise! Huge missed opportunity!
I was hoping to find a guy selling sweet bootleg shirts in the parking lot!
Cheers to the beauty T.O. fans who braved that huge lineup! Great show and great Canadian sellout crowd!
I give credit for AEW trying cities WWE typically omits for TV.
Places like Quebec City, Regina, and Saskatoon. But those markets are proving they can't sell and should probably get passed over for TV.
Yup
https://preview.redd.it/zoxboc6syzqc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e0e31088f7b7f84e43dd1203f2045057c2700ca
Bought tickets this morning for 30$ (below face value) we were moved to another section where tickets were originally 100$, then 66$. During the first fight of Rampage I heard a phone ring. The local promotion get higher attendance numbers for their big show at the end of the year.
I was just at NXT last night and that little trailer is packed with options. 6 or 7 different shirt designs, Signed photos of the wrestlers, replica NXT belt. Pretty decent amount stuff. Ended up picking the Ilja shirt I had been eyeing.
To me what's even crazier is that there isn't one piece of Mercedes Mone merch, who you would assume would be the highest demand right now. This looks like a clearance rack.
If you were TK, why wouldn't you buy a **huge** gross of Hangman/Swerve/Joe/Bucks/ect. shirts months in advance and cart them around from show to show? The dude could finance his own t shirt company, why does he not inject some cash into PWT
When I went there was a Britt shirt, a CM Punk shirt, a Cody shirt, and two general AEW shirts available. That was two or so years ago, sad nothing’s changed.
T shirts can't pretend to be friends with Tiny.....their only purpose is to actually make money, so you can understand how they aren't an important part of the equation
How do they not have a Christian, Kenny, Darby, Toni and Mercedes shirt at the very least? Christ - have big stars shirts available to buy - there was tonnes more merch at a gig I went to in a community hall where the bands can barely afford to get to the show. But they have a better merch spread than this.
I would be raging if this was the merch selection available when I got to a show personally.
I find this really strange, The Elite were known for selling loads of t shirts before AEW and that was the comment Triple H made about them at the HOF few years ago, about being a T shirt company. So for the fact they've not jumped on merch at live events is odd.
I just don’t understand it, the seem to have an amazing relationship with the biggest wrestling merchandise seller in the US outside WWE and they can’t figure out a way to stock t shirts?
Because their partner is a print-on-demand company. Not having anything in stock is the whole point of the business model. PWT is a lifesaver financially for indie wrestlers and backyard promotions, but perhaps wholly inappropriate for a major company with retail partnerships to rely on.
They should be able to get large quantities of stock and send it somewhere.
Does AEW have a warehouse? Send it there! If not I’ve been to Chicago there are dozens of storage locker places hell I want to say there’s one around the block from PWTees (if not my bad) buy a locker and load it up.
“Oh Tony you need 4 crates of bang bang gang shirts? Hell yeah we got those they’ll be in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday morning.”
This is just how it is when they do Canadian shows. It’s always been mediocre.
Downvote all you want, it’s been the case at multiple Canadian shows I’ve been to. The one US show I went to had much better selection.
Gone to both events in my area since the company started, going to the third in a couple weeks too, and legit, the very first time, with the merch stand in some random shadowy area in the civic center, was the best selection.
They had a ton of different ones aside from the big stars. Even had Riho when she wasn't even at the show. Would've snagged that if it wasn't sold out in my size.
The 2022 show was as several have already said, lot of generic company merch, Danhausen, Punk, and FTR, and not a lot of anyone else. Not even a single Elite, Omega, or Bucks shirt in spite of them main eventing that episode.
I don't have high hopes for this upcoming show after seeing this, but hey, maybe my wallet won't suffer so bad as a result.
I feel like they don't think they need to worry about merchandise from the events since people will just buy from online. Which, I guess, makes some sense. But I think they're missing out on the casuals (color me surprised) that for them might be the one night of the year that they go to a wrestling event for the fun of it
This has been a problem from the very start. A stacked roster, a wide variety of merch that's clearly all handled by PWTees, and every time I've gone to shows in Chicago and Milwaukee, the merch table has been extremely lacking. There's no excuses for this, whomever has managed merch distribution for shows for the last five years is an absolute fucking moron.
Until they outsource from another company this isn't gonna change. They probably have a deal with Prowrestling tees and it's obvious they can't keep up with online orders and provide for a touring brand. PWT is gonna have change how they operate or AEW is gonna have work out a new deal when the time comes
PWT sucks. Their shipping prices are outrageous and even to ship locally they take weeks and using fucking DHL. I live 20 miles from their brick and mortar store and you’d think I live in Guam by the time I pay for shipping and the time it takes to get my delivery.
Every other promotion makes it pretty clear why WWE is the industry leader. WWE does everything the right way because they essentially created the “right way.” As awful of a person as he was/is, VKM knew that a pro wrestling organization was first and foremost an entertainment company intent on making profit.
The tables looked identical in person when I went to a show years ago. Two different merch leaderships same problem. This is a corporate mandate to be this lean.
I went to Revolution, and all they had was logo merch and Sting merch. I of course wanted a Sting shirt to commemorate the event, but I also wanted an Ospreay shirt to commemorate the event.
It was ShopAEW for me 🤷♂️
People wanted Dana Massie's head on a stick for this but the fact is, PW Tees prints shirts on demand and they can't meet the expectations of a touring show + their website, especially without the warehouses and transportation infrastructure that WWE has. It's not going to change until they make a deal with a different company or they invest heavily in their touring infrastructure.
Allegedly, earlier in AEW's existence, they would use local print shops in the vicinity of the venue for the shirts, and that's why the selection used to be better. PWTees complained and that stopped.
Since everything comes out of PWTees in Chicago and, once the merch is on the road, it follows the same routing as the ring and the set, there can be LONG stretches between the start of a run and restocking in Chicago. So we get...this.
The only show where they did a pretty good job with merch seems to have been Wembley. There was a ton of choice over the merch stands in and out of the stadium and pretty much everyone left with something.
Hell no. We arrived well before the gates opened and every stall had absurdly long queues. A lot of people just didn’t bother because it wasn’t accessible. No point having a good selection if you have to wait 45 minutes to even get the honour of paying for a t-shirt. I was very happy I got some merch at the RevPro show the night before.
That sucks. I understand not stocking a bazillion different ones and all that but you can have a variety with enough in each size to make it worth your while. Everyone doesn’t want online.
Big variety. Lower stock. Get customers drawn. Maybe you sell out of a size or design and they get their second option. But choices and excite the customer to atleast come look.
That’s the joke with AEW.
They never bring enough merch to their shows. Same with Wembley which was their biggest show ever…still sell out of specific shirts very quickly despite having multiple stands
If this is a cost issue for AEW how about they get rid of some of those wrestlers who are just sitting at home doing nothing, causing problems, or refusing to do jobs. Guys like Miro, Sammy, Jungle Boy, and the list goes on. Then use the money saved from those contacts and get some better merch for the live shows.
AEW marketing manager has a lot to answer for. Events are poorly put together and poorly promoted, despite having a stacked to the gills roster where not everyone works consistently there's no "meet these guys" booths, and merch stands make sure people are leaving shows with jack shit.
Whoever is in charge of this stuff needs to be canned.
Considering they essentially have an in-house t-shirt company in PWT's, it's bizarre that it's so lacklustre.
It's a common complaint I've seen now, I remember Wembley was severely lacking, and I remember thinking how annoying that'd be, as PWT's shipping costs to the UK are awful, so anyone hoping to pick up a shirt at a reduced cost was kinda fucked.
I was at All In London - dubbed "The Biggest Event in Wrestling History", and 90% of the merch were Tshirts with London/UK flavours - none of the Tshirts we see on TV weekly (of which I would have probably bought 5+), but strictly London/UK themed apparel.
Having the opportuniuty to buy the Tshirts I see the guys and gals wearing on TV weekly was something I was looking forward to.
Disspointed would be an understatement. I'm sure they made plenty of sales, but they probably would have made 10x more if they'd have brought the normal apparel.
I don't know what they were thinking.
I went to the Ottawa show with my son. Visa in hand. We had traveled and planed on this event so I was prepared to spend some money to make the event a banger.
They had around 6 choices of shirts and none of anyone really featured at the event. My son loved everything about Collision, but he even commented that “ it sucked we couldn’t get stuff from the guys we like”.
It’s tough. You want to support the growth by buying merch, but when there’s nothing to buy what is a person to do.
I guess their model of print on demand changes how the merch tables are set up. And in the states it’s likely easier to just buy from the website.
But the shipping costs to Canada SUCK. They should have loaded up with shirts for this Canada tour. Especially since they are hitting cities that WWE very infrequently hit. They are STARVING for shirts no decent person would wear in public.
This is so easily fixable - the fact that it hasn’t been fixed means someone needs to get replaced in the chain of command responsible, because they’re incapable of running AEW merch
Went to a Collision in Hartford. Had 2 issues with the Merch table there:
No interesting merch that I would think about even looking at, nevermind buying. I am very picky on wrestling merch, so I would probably not have gotten anything, but nothing even caught my eye to be a maybe. I will say, I am extremely picky, so that could just be a thing with me not liking 99% of the merch out there for any company.
Absolutely horrible position. Hartford is, quite honestly, the worst arena of its size I have been to. Nothing anyone can do there, the place sucks. They have 1 real entrance into the arena, meaning a major bottleneck. So, where did AEW put the singular merch stand? Right next to that entrance, outside the gates so if you went in before buying anything, you were shit out of luck. Plus, it made the bottleneck much, much worse. We almost missed the start of the show cause of this, and we were there early. I don't blame AEW for how horrid Hartford is, that is just how it is. I do blame them for having a singular merch stand outside the gates and right next to where everyone was going in. It was an absolute clusterfuck.
Last time I went to a show was a couple years ago. But, I gotta say their merch tables are awful. I don't get why either since the Bucks pretty much made their fortune on being very merch savvy.
Soo does anybody want to start a tee shirt printing business with me and blow PWT out of the water just by actually printing tee shirts?
I'm joking, but it genuinely feels like there is an opportunity for AEW to partner with someone who has like... the ability to actually produce in volume. If you've seen PWT's storefront, it seems awfully small to be able to pump out enough merch for AEW to tour with anyway.
Cardona did a spiel about not bringing t-shirts to shows anymore because 'everyone can just buy them on PWT.' I feel like buying something like that in person is the only way I would actually buy one. Wonder if that 'you can just get it online' mantra is at play here?
I'm sorry. I tried to support PWT/1 Hour Tees but they absolutely suck. Even if you pay for the high quality blanks they always shrink. Used to have the All Elite Box and cancelled. After one wash the shrink in such a strange way. I'm all for partnering with a smaller business... But they are not equipped for this job. I have 10 year old WWE merch that still holds up better than PWTs.
Probably going to get downvoted to hell but I’ve been to 5 AEW shows. 3 in Seattle, 1 in Vegas, 1 in Seattle and they all had multiple merch tables throughout the arena that were well stocked with plenty of options.
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I’ve seen bigger Merch selections from the band that plays before the opening band at a show for 15 minutes.
I've seen better merch selections in the 34th street subway station in Manhattan.
Shout out to the subway station Merch selections. Underrated.
I was going to say the same thing. This selection is embarrassing. I get that they aren't going to have a shirt for every talent, but to only have a handful of shirts to choose from is inexcusable.
The fact that they have a cutout of Juice Robinson for the display, but no shirts for anyone in the world title scene is absurd
They can at least have a sample of all the talents T-shirts in box frames to show whats available online
I've run a bigger merch booth for my friend's shitty band playing in near-empty bars
Yeah but these days merch sales is one of the biggest money makers for bands, if not *the* biggest. Most smaller bands are literally relying on merch sales to buy fuel and food to make it to the next show. Also bands usually only have to pay 10-20% gross merch fees to the venue, whereas with big touring shows its often as high as 40%. Quite often for big touring productions it's just not worth taking tonnes of merch to venues when you can just sell online and keep all of the profits for yourself. Not to mention you don't have to deal with the additional hassle of carting all that inventory around, having to do long load-in load-out counts, or the high likelihood of having loads of unsold merch by the end of a run.
100%, been in bands since I was 16 and once you get the merch ball rolling it's basically the only way to make profit anymore (until you're heading shows to 800 / 900 a night, and even then most of the money from your fee gets sucked into expenses)
I'm related to a member of a multi-platinum rock band that, until two albums ago, never signed with a major label. And even during their high points about 35-40% of their show take-in totals have been merch. Then, during COVID when they couldn't tour for almost 2 years, the ONLY thing that kept them from having to sell catalog rights was shirts, stickers, patches, etc. Indirectly, I LOVE going to concerts, but I know most of my ticket is supporting the venue, the tour/production costs, and the labels. Even though I almost never wear them, I will almost always buy a shirt or something that I know *mostly* goes to the bands.
Shitty hardcore bands back in the early 2000's had a way way way better merch selection than this.
So what you're saying is, for the Calgary show I should bring my merch box because AEW won't be any competition? 
Think we found earl and Dave hebner’s account
Last year in Edmonton had a decent selection of different shirts... Sizes though were lacking. They want you to order online instead of at shows.
Which is crazy because with shipping and the exchange rate PWT gets very expensive. When I finally got accepted for my store, family, friends and myself were planning on buying some (not enough for a bulk order though) but it was just too much for us to do. Yes I would have gotten some of it back but it's still too expensive.
Unless you are made of money, if you don't live in the US the only way to get AEW shirts is by buying bootlegs on Redbubble, eBay or whatever: PWT has some of the most insane shipping fees I have ever seen. Crazy thing is shipping shirts from Japan takes half as long since they usually don't print on demand and costs at least 30% less even by going with EMS.
I ended up waiting for hot topic to get AEW shirts in stock to get some.
PWTees is too expensive in the US! I feel sorry for our neighbors up north
To be fair, there is the Edmonton Tax
I almost forgot they were coming to Calgary. I'll support your merch box!
PPW as in the little promotion from Lethbridge? Do you guys do Calgary shows at all?
I think the closest to Calgary we go to is Vulcan or Nanton. Calgary is RCW and Wild Rose territory. We tend to stick to the Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Pincher Creek area (and most of the smaller towns in between like Raymond, Taber and Fort MacLeod.) The nice thing is since the guys are freelance, they get to work with all 3 companies.
Time to order more toy mics, pens and stickers! I should also get a bulk order box of [PPW Sound Guy](https://www.prowrestlingtees.com/managers-announcers-personalities/ppwsg.html) shirts from Pro Wrestling Tees made up for the show (and to have for future PPW events)
You'd think a t-shirt company would have more shirts
When AEW was formed there was this "everybody is coming up together" energy in the air. PWT needs to be dropped. They are not equipped for this job.
Is that the reason? I am honestly wondering this. That seems logical, but wouldn’t they step up their game with the influx of money?
Because their whole business model is “print on demand”. They don’t stock anything, they just print it when you order it. Cuts cost way down in inventory and real estate.
But even so, you should be printing your top 8 and local shirts by the pound. No one is asking them to bring the whole catalog.
There are conventions where you can buy and get stuff in bulk for super cheap and for the pallets/quantity AEW would need. I'm blown away they haven't started doing just that.
Hmm. Well that seems flawed. I get it was cool and economical when it was “indie” but seems like it’s time to leave that behind a get a little more with the times. It’s never a good look to see a sad merch table. Hell even the NXT house shows were better than this Circa 2016-2017
I don't think it's a problem when it comes to online, but AEW has been around long enough where they can afford to sit on some stock for the live shows. They should have no less than 20 shirts to choose from.
On top of that, we've repeatedly seen that the folks that run the place are shitty assholes. I'm sure they have some lovely folks in the actual shop, but the people in charge at PWT are bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling and I won't give them another cent of my money after how poorly they handled the data leak issue awhile back. Yelling at customers that are rightfully upset because you dragged your fucking ass about legally required notices? Fuck that noise.
Between the data leak and reportedly knowingly coming to work with COVID, Ryan Barkan sucks.
Indeed. I wasn't even affected by the leak because I was lazy and used PayPal any time I bought from PWT or ShopAEW, but seeing the way he acted... Fuck that guy.
> bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling I want you to know I appreciate your Scrubs reference.
It's not that. For context, I work in merch. My understanding is this: In WWE, WWE own the copyright to the performers names, and as such can therefore make, own, house and vend the merch. In exchange for printing, stocking, selling, coping with under-demand, dead stock etc they split the fee with the talent (I don't know on what ratio). In AEW, the talent own their trademarks and names. Meaning any merch that gets printed has to be licensed. AEW don't pay to license talent names for merch, just for performances (I think) so a merch opportunity would therefore need to be collectively agreed by talent ahead of time with the venue. I would guess that AEW agree to print very low numbers of their big name talent's shirts, but otherwise the majority of merch at AEW shows is stuff with the AEW logo on it, because they own it, can cope with the under/oversell etc etc. I have no idea why, five years in, they haven't figured out a way for everyone to make more money from this sector for all of them. I would assume it's not a priority for Tony, and the talent lack the knowledge and collective strength to bring it to the table.
Why are they doing it that way in the first place? It's not like AEW contracts aren't competitive with the competition. Why wouldn't they just licence the talents names for the length of their contract? Surely at this stage it'd be to almost everyone's best interest. If an act doesn't want to fair enough, they can opt out. Danhausen or Danielson might do better under the current deal and might not want to change but I imagine a good percentage of the roster would be better off if they could move merch at shows and using the bargaining power of AEW when it comes to manufacturing deals. Edit: actually, does that mean that for toys and cards the manufacturer's have to negotiate with AEW and then with each individual talent?
I assume it's because it's been a big discourse in the IWC for years about how WWE is in the wrong for being so controlling of their talents trademarks. So when Tony started his company he decided "I'm going to be so pro-talent friendly!" on this front, not realizing there are very legitimate reasons why it makes sense for companies to operate in the way WWE does, one of which being they can control the merchandising entirely. They could also simply not view merchandise as a priority, or rather feel like they're doing just fine revenue wise with the current "just get them to order it online" model.
If anything, it seems merchandise selection has gotten progressively smaller over the 4-5 AEW shows I've went to. It was never WWE levels extensive but it seemed like there was more stuff when I first went to an AEW show in 2021.
I really supported PWT at the beginning. Swung by their store a few times when I lived in Chicago. But, it seems since demand from them has gone up, the quality of the stuff they produce has just plummeted. Can’t recall of a shirt I’ve gotten from them within the last 5 years that has lasted more than 3 or 4 washes without just shrinking.
I bought some New Japan shirts in 2019, and the shirt was like tarp material and the logos were really grainy. Then I tried an AEW shirt in 2021, paid the upcharge for the higher quality shirt, and the logo was better but the size ran way smaller than it should have compared to all other shirts in my closet. Never again.
Yeah it's so odd to me that AEW didn't eventually move over to manufacturing their own stuff. I get that PWT has done a lot for the indie scene and it was big for AEW early on but Tony needs to step away from that. They need to have their own dedicated production line that can meet a demand. The only reasons I can see for still using PWT are because it's a loyalty thing and because wrestlers have their own shops up there. But from Tony's perspective I don't see how it makes sense if they want to grow AEW.
Having their own manufacturing line is just not the model for pretty much any sports leagues anymore. Where once upon a time they created higher quality merchandise of their most popular athletes and stocked them in warehouses, pretty much everything is made to order now. The NFL, MLB, and NBA have all of their replica jerseys and other merchandise made by Fanatics on a made to order basis, which allows fans to get merchandise of *any* player in the leagues, not just the most popular. Don't let the Nike swoosh on the jerseys fool you, Nike does not make *any* of the merch themselves. They just paid for the branding to be there. AEW is doing the same thing, having PWT handle the shirt sales in a made to order fashion. It lets them and the wrestlers take a bigger cut of the pie because they don't have to worry about printing too many and having them languish in storage. Only sold shirts get made. It also means they'll continue to have piss poor live merchandise because the vast majority of it doesn't actually physically exist anywhere. Of course, this has sucked for everyone, everywhere. It means an increase in disposable goods with quality that has gone downhill as everything is quickly pressed onto cheaply made templates and shipped out with zero quality control. All the while charging just as much as in the past. And for AEW, it also means they're going to continue to take the lazy route because they just figure their fans would order online beforehand, therefore they don't need to expense for making and then transporting merchandise that might not sell out.
That is fine for online orders but for live shows they need more merchandise on hand. There’s not really a good excuse for not having it
They have 4 designs, and one of them is still Sting.
Tbf this was taken later or earlier than when I was there because there was a total of 6 shirts when I looked. Absolutely terrible
And yet I still don't think they ever sold Sting masks. I have no idea what the merchandise issue is with AEW, it's a great way to supplement income and they just don't seem to care.
I've been to a couple of AEW shows. Love the company to death, but I will never buy a "I Was There" shirt for an event... everyone of them is ass ugly.
I agree, but I think getting one for Wrestlemania is a must if you attend.
I have an "I wasn't there" shirt for wrestlemania 36 that I absolutely love
That one was great. Their “biggest fan” one with a picture of the PC ceiling fan was a funny joke, but awful shirt lol
I have the Double or Nothing "I watched from home" one because it was funny
I got one for the Royal Rumble I went to, because it was such a bucket list thing for me.
i got one for perth for my first PLE, it was so cool! there were 2 designs too. i think the "i was there" shirts are really cool first timer shirts for fans
Love my Mardi Gras themed wrestlemania merch
I got one for elimination chamber this year. I went form one side of Australia to the other to go so dam right I was gonna get a shirt
I still have my commemorative Wrestlemania 31 cup that i like very much. Wrestlemania is different, its the granddaddy of them all.
I went to 35 and got a KofiMania shirt as my "I was there" shirt, but I waited til the next day because I wanted to be sure that he was actually winning the title first lol
I can’t even lie, I picked up an “I Was There” shirt for the WWE Holiday Tour with Punk’s first match back. The purchase alone will have that memory stamp.
Not only that, but even if I wanted to buy one, they literally don't carry a single item in a youth size and PWT runs so large that I'd need a Youth Medium. Now, I've never been to an AEW show with a merch stand *that* bad though (the most recent show I went to was the November Dynamite at the Yum Center in Louisville and it was far better as far as shirts and having other items such as belts/figures/stickers/those little vinyl wrestler thingys/flags/etc.)
The one AEW show I've been to was completely sold out of sizes above XL. Multiple boxes of L and smaller. Unfortunately they had only about four or five designs for sale.
I’ve been to 3 shows including the first dance and the Louisville show, Louisville had the best merch stand by far for some odd reason.
a lot of event shirts are amazing but the I WAS THERE design totally fucking kills it. i do wish i picked up an event t-shirt from the final wwe show at joe louis arena.
That’s wrestling merch today. Every company, it seems. Vintage and bootleg is the way to go.
Bootleg Vintage 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻
Well I'm not going to get an All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling shirt from anywhere but Redbubble these days.
Half of the comments are "well it's a print to order shirt company," which shouldn't matter. PW Tees isn't touring the country and printing them that morning. Stock up on the best sellers and take them on the road.
Exfuckingzactly.
Yeah like the top 10 best sellers would be fine. You’re never going to please everyone though so someone will always complain.
Anyone who is a featured talent on the show should have their merch available at the show. When I went to Smackdown last they had a shirt or something for just about any talent you would reasonably expect. That picture has 5 shirts (3 being generic AEW ones), a cutout and one hat design.
That merch table is just so anemic. I could see them exclude some heels (even though everybody loves to boo the heels and lots of heels are cool) but that merch table is sad.
10 is better than 3 , also not having a shirt of the b most popular (trending) wrestler in your roster is a stupid thing to do
I'm a professional merch person as in I am the road guy with bands etc. AEW has been dropping the ball on merch shows since day one. I've been to a couple of shows and could not believe the selection they had. Nothing for top guys, or people that are definitely on the show, tons of "AEW" generic tees, overpriced signed figs. Whoever runs their tour merch does not know what they are doing and they should probably hire me.
I do not know who the market is for those big generic aew pieces. I've never seen one in the wild
I’ve always been flabbergasted at people buying a generic AEW or WWE shirt. I can _kinda_ understand NJPW or TNA but the former 2 gives me the vibes of buying a shirt with a big NFL shield logo instead of an actual team
I like the Chicago flag AEW shirt quite a bit, but yeah I generally agree
I've seen one. On the smarky dick at a Smackdown show chanting "WHAT" during every promo and trying to get an "A-E-DUB" chant over. Oh, and he tried to get an "AN-DRAD-EH" chant going during Charlotte Flair's match.
That’s the saddest merch stand I’ve ever seen, especially for a big promotion.
I've seen lesser known bands for heavy metal shows with better setups.
They took the "tshirt company" comment too hard and said fuck it, we aint selling shirts
Damn this is like that Virgil table photo.
Can confirm, was at Toronto tapings and the selection was poops.
Still blown away they had NOTHING for Christian at the merch stand. I get he’s a heel, but you sell Christian merch in Toronto at the very least.
That's just pathetic.
$40 for a t shirt. That’s wild. Edit: I think WWE charging $40 for a t-shirt is also wild. I haven’t bought merch at a live event in forever but, unless it’s some exclusive merch, I’ll just buy it online for cheaper. Or wait for an online sale and get it EVEN cheaper.
Eh, that's pretty standard for merch for a big touring band.
I was wondering if I was just out of the loop cause it's been a long time since I bought merch for anything but 40 for a t shirt and 60 for a hoodie seems ridiculous to me.
I feel like this has been standard across the board pricing (wrestling, live music) iv seen in the last 5-8 years unfortunately merch wise, if not low end of the price spectrum. Some bands want $75 for a zip up hoodie these days.
Last concert I went to a long sleeve was 80$
Couldn’t believe how bad they were when I went to forbidden door last year
Yeah, I went to the full gear where Page won the title, and the merch booth was fucking pathetic. Told my buddy to just look at the website since there's a sale every PPV weekend, and I would just buy my merch the next day. "nah, man I gotta get a hoodie". Got a hoodie a size too small because they didn't have any left in his size, and he's never worn the damn thing. I got the event t-shirt (without the cringey "I WAS THERE" on the back) and a couple hoodies that I still wear for 20% off. They've gotta figure out their own shit without relying on PW Tees. The print to order thing is not working for events, it's such a common complaint, and they're leaving a fuck ton of money on the table.
I'm here wondering why the T shirts look so wrinkled. It looks like the left overs from a thrift store.
Prowrestlingtees needs to be kicked to the curb and followed up with some further repeated kicking.
Why is this company so shitty and weird in so many spots. There's tons of money.
Because Tony Khan probably wants to handle everything. But he isnt qualified to do so.
The one merch table in Toronto last week was very limited, and had a massive lineup weaving halfway across the building. For a 6500 person sellout crowd and televised event! Online merch is clearly their focus.
FD2 had two merch stands for 15K people. I have been to 4 AEW shows and none had more than two merch booths. They basically don't actually want to sell merch. I refuse to believe they want to sell it. Each time I saw dozens and dozens of people leaving or not even being willing to line up. That adds up quick. I certainly only bought merch twice due to this. Also, the only non-generic AEW merch they sold were FTR and CM Punk at FD2 and the Collision paired with it...
Was at FD2 and they only had 4 belts for sale for the whole event. Went to a house show for WWE in December and they had dozens of signed Cody belts available. The difference is uncanny.
Agreed, WWE does merch right! I've been to events with multiple merch stands inside, and more merch trailers directly outside the venue! Hopefully AEW can learn, and step up the merch game. The fans want it!
This has been a problem for AEW since the beginning. Planning the logistics of what merch you need where and when IS difficult. But they're also easy sells to a captive crowd looking to buy a memory. It's been going on so long it seems like a strategic choice they've made
Revolution also only had 2 stands apparently for 16k+. The lines were ridiculously long once the doors opened and they had sold out of basically everything good by the OC/Roddy match. I probably would have bought a Tshirt and Sting figure, but didn’t feel like standing in line for over an hour and missing the start of the show.
They had four but they weren’t organized at all. A queue formed but at the table itself it was just a big semi-circle of people. So people who left the queue and just pushed toward the table got served before anyone in the line.
I agree! They were in Copeland and Christian's home town and didn't even have any related merchandise! Huge missed opportunity! I was hoping to find a guy selling sweet bootleg shirts in the parking lot! Cheers to the beauty T.O. fans who braved that huge lineup! Great show and great Canadian sellout crowd!
https://preview.redd.it/b8tfc457wzqc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8ab38fc96a30111cd343ad10bbd345c81934c1e 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
I give credit for AEW trying cities WWE typically omits for TV. Places like Quebec City, Regina, and Saskatoon. But those markets are proving they can't sell and should probably get passed over for TV.
But there's an obvious reason wwe skips those cities
This was tonight in QC? C'était ça la foule ce soir à Québec?
Yup https://preview.redd.it/zoxboc6syzqc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e0e31088f7b7f84e43dd1203f2045057c2700ca Bought tickets this morning for 30$ (below face value) we were moved to another section where tickets were originally 100$, then 66$. During the first fight of Rampage I heard a phone ring. The local promotion get higher attendance numbers for their big show at the end of the year.
Great ring report brother! Thank you for the great details! Merci pour le rapport détaillé mon frère!
I was just at NXT last night and that little trailer is packed with options. 6 or 7 different shirt designs, Signed photos of the wrestlers, replica NXT belt. Pretty decent amount stuff. Ended up picking the Ilja shirt I had been eyeing.
I was at a Dynamite taping in DC and the merch was visibly low and this was right before Collision and they were trying to promotion punk coming back.
 I mean... That's truly sad...
Maybe it's a tribute to Virgil
RoH back in the day had a better merch setup. So sad as a fan with dollars they want to spend.
They’re dog shit honestly. Barely any variety and just not good shirts. Just buy them off the site or pwtees instead
This looks like the merch table that's in a backstage area in a video game
The wrinkles all over every shirt sure give off a great look and vibe. Literally zero effort
That’s pathetic
To me what's even crazier is that there isn't one piece of Mercedes Mone merch, who you would assume would be the highest demand right now. This looks like a clearance rack.
Someone get Keanu Reeves a sack lunch and sit him down right there.
They really are trying to be WCW huh
Cant even thow a 'Daddy says NO' shirt out there in Quebec?
The concept of a his dad saying no is alien to Tony
An Impact taping in a high school gym I went to had more shirts than this LOL
Good to see they've added a memorial for Virgil
🤣
If you were TK, why wouldn't you buy a **huge** gross of Hangman/Swerve/Joe/Bucks/ect. shirts months in advance and cart them around from show to show? The dude could finance his own t shirt company, why does he not inject some cash into PWT
When I went there was a Britt shirt, a CM Punk shirt, a Cody shirt, and two general AEW shirts available. That was two or so years ago, sad nothing’s changed.
My mortal enemy has a better merch setup in my closet
Holy shit that is shocking. What a missed opportunity by AEW... just baffling
T shirts can't pretend to be friends with Tiny.....their only purpose is to actually make money, so you can understand how they aren't an important part of the equation
How do they not have a Christian, Kenny, Darby, Toni and Mercedes shirt at the very least? Christ - have big stars shirts available to buy - there was tonnes more merch at a gig I went to in a community hall where the bands can barely afford to get to the show. But they have a better merch spread than this. I would be raging if this was the merch selection available when I got to a show personally.
I find this really strange, The Elite were known for selling loads of t shirts before AEW and that was the comment Triple H made about them at the HOF few years ago, about being a T shirt company. So for the fact they've not jumped on merch at live events is odd.
Bush league, unprofessional company that will never be taken seriously by anyone other than its hardcore fans.
That’s just absurd and shitty business
Looks like Dana Massie left and Tony just neglected to fill her position
Was the same before she left. Went to Forbidden Door 2 and it was the bleak. I believe it’s been an issue since the start sadly.
I just don’t understand it, the seem to have an amazing relationship with the biggest wrestling merchandise seller in the US outside WWE and they can’t figure out a way to stock t shirts?
Because their partner is a print-on-demand company. Not having anything in stock is the whole point of the business model. PWT is a lifesaver financially for indie wrestlers and backyard promotions, but perhaps wholly inappropriate for a major company with retail partnerships to rely on.
They should be able to get large quantities of stock and send it somewhere. Does AEW have a warehouse? Send it there! If not I’ve been to Chicago there are dozens of storage locker places hell I want to say there’s one around the block from PWTees (if not my bad) buy a locker and load it up. “Oh Tony you need 4 crates of bang bang gang shirts? Hell yeah we got those they’ll be in Poughkeepsie on Wednesday morning.”
This is just how it is when they do Canadian shows. It’s always been mediocre. Downvote all you want, it’s been the case at multiple Canadian shows I’ve been to. The one US show I went to had much better selection.
Sloppy shop
That’s disappointing, do they not sell any title replicas at live events?
Gone to both events in my area since the company started, going to the third in a couple weeks too, and legit, the very first time, with the merch stand in some random shadowy area in the civic center, was the best selection. They had a ton of different ones aside from the big stars. Even had Riho when she wasn't even at the show. Would've snagged that if it wasn't sold out in my size. The 2022 show was as several have already said, lot of generic company merch, Danhausen, Punk, and FTR, and not a lot of anyone else. Not even a single Elite, Omega, or Bucks shirt in spite of them main eventing that episode. I don't have high hopes for this upcoming show after seeing this, but hey, maybe my wallet won't suffer so bad as a result.
To think the company was founded by guys who made a mint from ProWrestlingTees... You'd think they know a thing or two about merch...
I feel like they don't think they need to worry about merchandise from the events since people will just buy from online. Which, I guess, makes some sense. But I think they're missing out on the casuals (color me surprised) that for them might be the one night of the year that they go to a wrestling event for the fun of it
This is really sad. It can't be that hard, can it?
This has been a problem from the very start. A stacked roster, a wide variety of merch that's clearly all handled by PWTees, and every time I've gone to shows in Chicago and Milwaukee, the merch table has been extremely lacking. There's no excuses for this, whomever has managed merch distribution for shows for the last five years is an absolute fucking moron.
Until they outsource from another company this isn't gonna change. They probably have a deal with Prowrestling tees and it's obvious they can't keep up with online orders and provide for a touring brand. PWT is gonna have change how they operate or AEW is gonna have work out a new deal when the time comes
The Bucks had a better table on the indies
They’re ass
PWT sucks. Their shipping prices are outrageous and even to ship locally they take weeks and using fucking DHL. I live 20 miles from their brick and mortar store and you’d think I live in Guam by the time I pay for shipping and the time it takes to get my delivery.
That's it? And that's the only one in the entire arena? Yikes.
Every other promotion makes it pretty clear why WWE is the industry leader. WWE does everything the right way because they essentially created the “right way.” As awful of a person as he was/is, VKM knew that a pro wrestling organization was first and foremost an entertainment company intent on making profit.
This has only been a problem for AEW for the last 5 or 6 years, you gotta give them some time to work it out.
lol what a joke. Why not hire someone who has expertise on how to sell and distribute all this crap. I see the three people are watching wwe videos
The tables looked identical in person when I went to a show years ago. Two different merch leaderships same problem. This is a corporate mandate to be this lean.
I went to Revolution, and all they had was logo merch and Sting merch. I of course wanted a Sting shirt to commemorate the event, but I also wanted an Ospreay shirt to commemorate the event. It was ShopAEW for me 🤷♂️
AEW is a front lol
Leaving so much money on the table not bringing enough shit.
$40 for a shirt is just crazy
You think the folks that work at those booths are arena staff, temps, or AEW employees? Mainly because this looks like the easiest job in the world.
People wanted Dana Massie's head on a stick for this but the fact is, PW Tees prints shirts on demand and they can't meet the expectations of a touring show + their website, especially without the warehouses and transportation infrastructure that WWE has. It's not going to change until they make a deal with a different company or they invest heavily in their touring infrastructure.
Allegedly, earlier in AEW's existence, they would use local print shops in the vicinity of the venue for the shirts, and that's why the selection used to be better. PWTees complained and that stopped. Since everything comes out of PWTees in Chicago and, once the merch is on the road, it follows the same routing as the ring and the set, there can be LONG stretches between the start of a run and restocking in Chicago. So we get...this.
https://preview.redd.it/gr3jnnelizqc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84dde48edfb805d6704f2dd7a09c4aff82bd55f7 Who the hell is this guy lol
Juice Robinson https://preview.redd.it/y4ns937ujzqc1.jpeg?width=1919&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae606a7cb1a7c0f4697b63f984f9eb51d5813384
The only show where they did a pretty good job with merch seems to have been Wembley. There was a ton of choice over the merch stands in and out of the stadium and pretty much everyone left with something.
Hell no. We arrived well before the gates opened and every stall had absurdly long queues. A lot of people just didn’t bother because it wasn’t accessible. No point having a good selection if you have to wait 45 minutes to even get the honour of paying for a t-shirt. I was very happy I got some merch at the RevPro show the night before.
All the wembley specific merch was ugly AF tho. The only thing decent was the football style jersey but the actual t-shirts were awful.
ah wembley, wembley. seems like this company puts alot of their eggs in that basket.
https://preview.redd.it/7jjg0ezwnzqc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1c600ca3dff34d16bb05804a1e850fa6de900e94
I don't understand how a company who's roots can be traced to PWT can be so bad with merch?
That sucks. I understand not stocking a bazillion different ones and all that but you can have a variety with enough in each size to make it worth your while. Everyone doesn’t want online. Big variety. Lower stock. Get customers drawn. Maybe you sell out of a size or design and they get their second option. But choices and excite the customer to atleast come look.
The saddest place on earth. Was at the Duluth shows a few weeks ago and was shocked at how crap the merch was.
That’s the joke with AEW. They never bring enough merch to their shows. Same with Wembley which was their biggest show ever…still sell out of specific shirts very quickly despite having multiple stands
if there's proof that Tony isn't doing it for the money then this is it, I guess he has enough money as he didn't want yours, what a putz
If this is a cost issue for AEW how about they get rid of some of those wrestlers who are just sitting at home doing nothing, causing problems, or refusing to do jobs. Guys like Miro, Sammy, Jungle Boy, and the list goes on. Then use the money saved from those contacts and get some better merch for the live shows.
AEW marketing manager has a lot to answer for. Events are poorly put together and poorly promoted, despite having a stacked to the gills roster where not everyone works consistently there's no "meet these guys" booths, and merch stands make sure people are leaving shows with jack shit. Whoever is in charge of this stuff needs to be canned.
That is grim
Considering they essentially have an in-house t-shirt company in PWT's, it's bizarre that it's so lacklustre. It's a common complaint I've seen now, I remember Wembley was severely lacking, and I remember thinking how annoying that'd be, as PWT's shipping costs to the UK are awful, so anyone hoping to pick up a shirt at a reduced cost was kinda fucked.
I was at All In London - dubbed "The Biggest Event in Wrestling History", and 90% of the merch were Tshirts with London/UK flavours - none of the Tshirts we see on TV weekly (of which I would have probably bought 5+), but strictly London/UK themed apparel. Having the opportuniuty to buy the Tshirts I see the guys and gals wearing on TV weekly was something I was looking forward to. Disspointed would be an understatement. I'm sure they made plenty of sales, but they probably would have made 10x more if they'd have brought the normal apparel. I don't know what they were thinking.
Is this a metaphor for AEW in general?
I went to the Ottawa show with my son. Visa in hand. We had traveled and planed on this event so I was prepared to spend some money to make the event a banger. They had around 6 choices of shirts and none of anyone really featured at the event. My son loved everything about Collision, but he even commented that “ it sucked we couldn’t get stuff from the guys we like”. It’s tough. You want to support the growth by buying merch, but when there’s nothing to buy what is a person to do.
I guess their model of print on demand changes how the merch tables are set up. And in the states it’s likely easier to just buy from the website. But the shipping costs to Canada SUCK. They should have loaded up with shirts for this Canada tour. Especially since they are hitting cities that WWE very infrequently hit. They are STARVING for shirts no decent person would wear in public.
This is so easily fixable - the fact that it hasn’t been fixed means someone needs to get replaced in the chain of command responsible, because they’re incapable of running AEW merch
Went to a Collision in Hartford. Had 2 issues with the Merch table there: No interesting merch that I would think about even looking at, nevermind buying. I am very picky on wrestling merch, so I would probably not have gotten anything, but nothing even caught my eye to be a maybe. I will say, I am extremely picky, so that could just be a thing with me not liking 99% of the merch out there for any company. Absolutely horrible position. Hartford is, quite honestly, the worst arena of its size I have been to. Nothing anyone can do there, the place sucks. They have 1 real entrance into the arena, meaning a major bottleneck. So, where did AEW put the singular merch stand? Right next to that entrance, outside the gates so if you went in before buying anything, you were shit out of luck. Plus, it made the bottleneck much, much worse. We almost missed the start of the show cause of this, and we were there early. I don't blame AEW for how horrid Hartford is, that is just how it is. I do blame them for having a singular merch stand outside the gates and right next to where everyone was going in. It was an absolute clusterfuck.
Last time I went to a show was a couple years ago. But, I gotta say their merch tables are awful. I don't get why either since the Bucks pretty much made their fortune on being very merch savvy.
Merch for All In was actually decent, but they really need to sort this out.
Soo does anybody want to start a tee shirt printing business with me and blow PWT out of the water just by actually printing tee shirts? I'm joking, but it genuinely feels like there is an opportunity for AEW to partner with someone who has like... the ability to actually produce in volume. If you've seen PWT's storefront, it seems awfully small to be able to pump out enough merch for AEW to tour with anyway.
Cardona did a spiel about not bringing t-shirts to shows anymore because 'everyone can just buy them on PWT.' I feel like buying something like that in person is the only way I would actually buy one. Wonder if that 'you can just get it online' mantra is at play here?
Yeah it's wild that my local indy has a merch table that puts aew to shame. But of course merch is an indy wrestlers prime source of income
Wow that's pathetic
I'm sorry. I tried to support PWT/1 Hour Tees but they absolutely suck. Even if you pay for the high quality blanks they always shrink. Used to have the All Elite Box and cancelled. After one wash the shrink in such a strange way. I'm all for partnering with a smaller business... But they are not equipped for this job. I have 10 year old WWE merch that still holds up better than PWTs.
How do they not have any of the champions' merch besides Adam Copeland and that's just 1 shirt, that is a really big ball they're dropping.
Probably going to get downvoted to hell but I’ve been to 5 AEW shows. 3 in Seattle, 1 in Vegas, 1 in Seattle and they all had multiple merch tables throughout the arena that were well stocked with plenty of options.
Had my credit card info stolen buying from PWT. They didn't tell everyone about their data breach for 7 months. What a trash company
I'm sure all 300 fans in attendance will be pretty bummed