#MerchTalk Hey bands! I've been spending some lockdown time cleaning up Ye Olde Merch Boxes, thought I'd share a couple of ideas that have worked. (Thread)

How are you size sorting t-shirts? Are you leaving them in the big folded size piles like they come for the printer? This always seems good for about an hour then you're left with a giant messy pile you have to paw thru for 10 minutes to find a size.

Pre-sorting by size is a time investment, but with big returns. Maybe you're old school and roll them use the "masking tape/sharpie" technique? But woe be it to you if you leave the tub in a hot vehicle in the summer and the masking tape goo gets melty and bonds to the shirt.

To remedy this, I've come up with my patented Colored Rubber Band technique. Order a box of these fun fellows and permanently assign a color to a size.

Then, when you roll a shirt, just pop on the colored band for that size. So much faster/easier than masking tape, and no gooey residue!

There are more benefits! If you run a merch table, you're often in weird, dark corners of clubs. Of course you keep a little flashlight in your bin. Now, when someone wants a Medium, it's 10 times faster to just look for that colored band instead of trying to read sharpie or tags

If you have multiple shirt designs, this also lets you sort your bins by size and not style. That way, if you're out of a size, you can just look in the bin and say, "But hey, I have your size in THESE beauties." Works every time, and saves time.

Get an easily updated pricing sign. I like these clear, stand up frames, available at any office supply store. Get one when you order your colored rubber bands. Then, just slide your price sheet into the frame and stop having to answer "how much" 200 times a night.

Sometimes, you aren't at the merch table. Sometimes you have to play a set. Or pee. Or take pictures. This system makes it super easy for substitute merch slaves.

Slide another piece of paper in the back of your stand up frame with an abbreviated price list and key to color-coded sizing. Now your helpers can have easily readable info from THEIR side of the table.

Hope someone finds this useful. The time investment to size-sort t-shirt orders is annoying, but it will save SO MUCH time in the future, help you sell more, and keep your products from falling on the floor in clubs. Because we all know what those are like. Cheers!