The total eclipse of the sun cutting across North America from Mexico to Maine on Monday, April 8, has people from all over the world chasing the chance to see the rare celestial event.
Although the last total solar eclipse crossed the continent in 2017, the next won’t be until 2044, and this one is extra-special because its path of totality is unusually wide (almost double the 2017 path), affording millions more people the opportunity to see it.
Savvy marketers in the path are cashing in on the opportunity to help celebrate and commemorate the event with souvenirs and special experiences. After all, an estimated 88% of U.S. adults viewed the 2017 eclipse, either directly or electronically, and that’s a huge potential market.
Of course, Etsy, Amazon and tons of other online retailers – including eclipse-specific shops – are offering merchandise branded with local flavor, but here are just a few of the local events and items on offer across the country:
- A special Delta flight from Austin to Detroit sold out in less than 24 hours, and the airline added a second flight from Dallas.
- Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio is hosting an eclipse event that includes drones and fireworks, as well as eclipse safety glasses and souvenirs like lanyards, T-shirts and buttons.
- Cleveland Metroparks in Ohio expanded its existing merch collection with a special eclipse capsule featuring a variety of stickers and two tees decorated with glow-in-the-dark elements. There’s also a hoodie with a stylized eclipse corona as the C in Cleveland.
- The Rochester Museum & Science Center in New York is hosting a three-day “ROC The Eclipse” festival with speakers, entertainment and merch featuring the city skyline.
- Sonic will release a limited-edition Blackout Slush Float starting March 25. Each drink comes with free eclipse glasses while supplies last.
IMAGE: Sonic
Located in Findlay, Ohio, about an hour southwest of Toledo, PPAI member City Apparel + Merch (242048, Silver) is directly in the path of totality. Last week, the company launched its own eclipse store online with Findlay- and Ohio-themed hats, shirts, totes, stickers – and of course, eclipse glasses.
Account manager Kelsey Jones, who took the lead on the project, says they wanted to capitalize on a memorable experience for the community, as well as the state and outside visitors.
“We wanted to focus on Findlay because that’s where we’re from, but we also wanted to speak to communities outside of Findlay,” she says, “so that’s why we went the route of having multiple designs available.”
The collection includes three design categories – Totality Ohio, Blackout Findlay and Total Eclipse – with two different designs for Blackout Findlay.
IMAGE: City Apparel + Merch
“We are seeing a lot of designs with the state of Ohio and the path of totality, which we did want to offer because it is a popular design that we’re seeing from other creators,” says Jones, “but we also wanted something more unique to City Apparel.”
Tourism hasn’t really been much of an economic factor for Findlay – until now. “News stations and outlets are talking about how this is going to impact our community from a tourism standpoint, which Findlay has never heard of before,” says Jones. “People don’t go to Findlay to visit and sightsee, but people are coming from all over the world.”
In fact, another City Apparel employee has rented camping space on her rural property to eclipse chasers from England.
“It gives us a big opportunity to sell this type of merchandise for people coming from out of town, as well to help market our name outside of just this event,” adds Jones.
It’s also an opportunity to demonstrate what City Apparel can do, says Andrea Kramer, the company’s president. “We have a new DTF high-capacity printer in house, so we’re doing full service from designing to building the e-commerce site to decorating and shipping out the garments or merchandise,” she says. “We’re doing that all in house, so it made things easy.”
Although they are not offering the collection for co-branding, Kramer and Jones say they may place some pieces with a local boutique with whom they’ve worked in the past.
“We’re trying to stay away from doing anything physical on this shop,” Kramer adds, noting that adding a retail operation to their office would be possible but very disruptive. “So, we’re offering a low price of $11.99, no matter where you’re located in the U.S., to have this shipped to you, and we’re going to turn orders in 48 hours. We’ve got everything, we’re doing in-house decoration, stickers and hard goods are done, so we’ll be able to turn it quickly and just hope that everyone’s OK with having it shipped to them.”
It makes sense that a business named City Apparel + Merch is making city-themed merch, and it flows into a larger trend over the past decade for goods that celebrate regional pride. (Think RAYGUN for tees celebrating Midwestern towns and teams, or the H-E-B Brand Shop for Texas-themed apparel.)
That said, it’s still a retail look and feel they are going for, so the eclipse merch team chose Vintage Zen acid-washed charcoal shirts from alphabroder and Bella+Canvas black tees and hoodies from SanMar.
“We wanted to create our merchandise as more of a commemorative piece that spoke both to the day and time, but also something that had a little bit of futuristic feel and something that would feel retail, that people would want to wear on a regular basis, not just as a one-time event,” says Kramer.
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