Let's get physical.
The creative energy that has emerged within the Scatter ecosystem is simply too powerful to remain contained to the digital realm. While the Net will always be our home and digital collectibles forever our trade of choice, we recognize the infinite crossover potential of many of the projects and artists that have found a home on Scatter.
Thus far "NFT merch" has been the domain of a few larger "blue-chip" collections creating their own one-off solutions. As an artist-first platform, we at Scatter wish to make this available to all.
To that end, Scatter has launched merch efforts with our partner site, Happy UFO. You may even have seen Okekaki Connect's Kittykaki on your timeline, or perhaps caught a glimpse of a Radcat from Radbro Webring (if your Radcat came with ants and they are still alive those belong to us, we want our property back). Both the Kittykaki and Radcat projects are already Happy UFO success stories.
Feedback we've received so far on the product has been tremendous and we've decided more creators need access and avenues to bring their creations into the physical world. This is why we're pleased to announce we are opening up the Happy UFO storefront, fulfillment, and production facilities to any NFT projects with a committed team seeking to create physical merchandise.
What is Happy UFO?
Happy UFO (HUFO) is our exclusive partner provider of physical merch. They handle design (with you have final creative control), manufacturing, and logistics for all of our physical products. Their talented team brings years of experience in the creation of high-quality physical products.
This is not a dropshipping store, nor does it merely offer printed t-shirts and mugs. Happy UFO is fully equipped custom design and manufacture firm that generates everything from custom plushies, jewelry, patches, and even axes for chopping wood (yes, really).
We are excited to see what products our collections and Happy UFO will come up with in the future!
As in art, the limit is your imagination.
How much does it cost?
Merchandise production of course comes with financial costs that are not always an issue in the digital realm. Exact costs will differ product to product, and depends on complexity. You should expect to spend minimum of a few K USD to order the minimum order amount. These costs are of course recouped through product sales, but it is important to recognize initial costs may be more than that of launching an NFT. Scatter is open to supporting and assisting committed projects with clear vision in the early stages of product development.
For exact quotes on prices, get in contact with HUFO.
How does it work?
We are interested in helping as many projects as possible be they from Scatter or elsewhere, fully realize their visiting for physical merchandise.
Our initial focus is on plushies, but we have the ability to facilitate production of all sorts of merchandise via Happy UFO. At the beginning of the process teams will go back and forth with Happy UFO on their products design. Once a design has been agreed on and finalized a single test product will be produced by the manufacturer for the team to review for quality/accuracy. Assuming the team is happy with the prototype, production can begin and your product can be ready to ship to your community in as soon as a month.
This is obviously an undertaking that requires a degree of commitment/dedication from the team. As such interested projects will need to be reviewed by Scatter and Happy UFO for eligibility. We will be looking for projects that have proven themselves to have the kind of community/following that makes physical merch sustainable.
Here's an example of the process of creating and selling a plush toy with HUFO:
- You are a qualified creator who has an audience that you wish to make a plush toy for. You have a reasonable amount of funds in ETH ready to go for the minimum order size of 500 units.
- You reach out to HUFO on their X (Twitter) account. Propose your project briefly, and then a HUFO rep will setup a group chat with your team and a Scatter representative.
- You will give a HUFO rep details and concepts of what you wish to make. A HUFO rep will produce industrial drafts to propose the toy design. After you approve the drawings, you will pay a small fee for the creation of the initial toy design. This toy is created by a designer who will attempt to match the physical toy to the drawings you approved.
- You and the toy designer can go back and forth on details for the toy. If there is anything bothering you about the proposed toy design, its materials, or its proportions it is important to bring up issues now.
- Once the initial physical toy design is approved, another design will be made by the factory. This design will be an attempt to make the initial toy design efficient for production. At around this point you will get a quote on how much it will cost to produce each toy, with cost going down the more you order at once.
- After you have paid HUFO for the production of the toy, the factory will begin making the quantity you ordered. You will be sent images of the product as it is made by the factory.
- Once factory production is complete, you will need to pay for the shipping costs from the factory to the fulfillment center. HUFO will attempt to combine multiple projects into the same shipping to lower fees for everyone, but if you're on your own you will need to pay the full cost.
- Shipping can take a few weeks. Once the product has reached the fulfillment center, everything for the product will be able to be setup to make the product ready for sale.
- Your initial costs will be refunded to you first as your product sells. After which you and HUFO will split proceeds 50/50 with HUFO paying you over time.
- HUFO covers costs such as fulfillment fees, external marketing, and potentially re-ordering more stock or what it would cost to produce new merch within a line.
- The main desire for HUFO is to help kickstart entire product lines, not just a single toy, and so everything is aligned toward that mission of making a sustainable and long term business deal with you.
All details depend on the deal you agree to with HUFO. The above is only an example to help set your expectations. Depending on the project needs there may be different steps. HUFO can be flexible with helping you to reach your vision.
What happens if merch doesn't sell? Our vetting process should hopefully ensure this doesn't happen, and that merch does sell until it sells out. In the standard HUFO deal, you are paid back first so if a product doesn't sell enough for you to break even HUFO won't even make anything. It costs money to store product within the fulfillment center, so eventually you will need to come to an agreement with HUFO of where the unsold product should be sent to or what should be done with it.
HUFO is extremely serious about ensuring high quality products are made and delivered to customers. When HUFO's partners within the chain of production and delivery ever slack or get out of line you can be confident HUFO will ensure they fix it and cover the costs of any broken promises they made.
HUFO's fulfillment center can handle both domestic shipping as well as international shipping. HUFO ensures that shipping costs are as low as possible for buyers.
HUFO's fulfillment center is extremely reliable and timely. Sold product should be fulfilled promptly always.
The HUFO team has a decade of experience with physical merch, and this professional experience is demonstrated with how smoothly the Radcat and Kittykaki product launches were handled.
HUFO wants to support you and your community long term. HUFO is in this for the long haul and is in it to win! Come along for the ride!
Looking Forward
Ultimately, the dream is for any collection to be able to deploy their own merch store from Scatter with as little as a few clicks. Happy UFO is a significant first step in that direction. If we truly wish to carve out a culture, a real physical presence is a must. Teams interested in looking at a Happy UFO merch run should open a ticket in our Discord or DM us on X (Twitter), and we can get the ball rolling! We look forward to your merch ideas being as cursed and creative as your NFTs!
Follow Happy UFO on X for news about new physical merch drops, and to see all of the fun communities are having with HUFO physical merch products.