Rapper Machine Gun Kelly ventured into the punk rock world with his latest album, “Ticket to My Downfall.” While some people questioned his punk credibility, he’s at least giving fans an opportunity to get DIY with his merchandise by selling a pair of pants that come with an at-home screen printing kit.
MGK teamed up with the platform NTWRK and screen printing brand Individual Lab to sell the “Sold Out” twill work pants with a kit that includes graphics from the album. Each kit comes with five air-dry inks, a squeegee, ink mixing sticks, an “eco-friendly ink spray cleaner,” a screen print frame and instructions on how to do the screen printing at home, according to LoudWire.
▫"Tickets To My Downfall" Screen Print Kit.
$200 USD.
▫TTMD Cotton Twill Work.
$175 USD.⚠Ships within 10 business days. pic.twitter.com/3qTpC2xSoj
— MGK México🇲🇽 | Fan Club. (@MGKMexico) April 6, 2021
It’s actually a decent deal, too. The kit doesn’t cost that much more than the pants alone. And it gives people the chance to make a one-of-a-kind design on a limited edition drop.
You might recognize NTWRK as the app that also hosted an influencer-led shopping event for Chipotle’s makeup drop, which sold out in minutes. As brands, artists and designers choose the limited-edition drop style for their releases, especially during a pandemic where in-person events are rare, app drops like this have become common.
Kitting has also been a huge trend during the pandemic. Companies are sending fans kits with everything they need to tailgate at home or create a gameday bar experience from their living room. Employers are sending out welcome kits to new hires so they feel like part of the team instantly, or sending existing employees little packages to let them feel some togetherness with the brand while working from home.
More than anything, this is just another example of a fun spin on music merchandise. It required thinking about the artist and the album he’s promoting, recognizing the punk-tinged aesthetic he’s pushing and turning it into something memorable. It would be easy to just make T-shirts and call it a day.
And when fans make their own custom design, they’re more likely to hold onto it. It’s something they can wear around and proudly tell people that they screen printed it themselves.
If they have ink left over, they’ll probably even put those logos on their own T-shirts or bags, thus creating even more DIY branded merchandise to advertise Machine Gun Kelly’s album. Huh. That’s pretty punk rock after all.
