Shopping for direct-shipped pronoun pins
October 28, 2024 9:39 AM Subscribe
My company is interested in ordering pronoun pins for employees for Transgender Awareness Week. Most people work remotely, so we'd like to ship each person the pin of their choices to their home. Is it possible to make this affordable?
We've used vendors to send out t-shirts in the past, and coworkers have been able to go to a link, pick their size and enter their shipping address, and then each shirt is shipped individually to their homes. Those orders were billed centrally, so individuals don't have to enter payment info.
I haven't found a vendor yet who can also let the user pick between multiple designs (i.e., different pins that say "she/her," "he/they," etc.) as part of this process. Our usual direct-ship t-shirt vendor does offer a variety of pins, but each has a minimum order of 50 per design. I know we won't hit anywhere near that limit for many of the less-common pronoun variants that our coworkers use.
Some swag vendors do seem to have the ability to show a storefront of multiple products that a user can order, which might do what we need, but sounds like it might involve more set-up costs, and may still involve minimum orders per item.
Some requirements:
- International shipping -- most folks are in the US, but we've got folks on several continents
- Each user needs the ability to pick their own pronouns/design from at least several options (given the nature of this product, I'd prefer not to collect picks directly from coworkers and then bulk input them into a vendor site -- I don't want people feeling like the company is compiling spreadsheets of everyone's pronouns)
- Users don't pay, the group order is invoiced/charged after all individual user selections are completed
- We don't need custom designs and we're happy to use a vendor with pre-existing pin designs (especially if this means we can support a queer-owned company)
- Budget is murky, but given the anticipated high shipping costs, I think we're likely looking for pins on the lower end of the price spectrum, simple round pinback buttons are fine
Given those requirements, what vendors should we consider? Are there companies that already sell pronoun pins with the kind of group ordering we need? Are there other vendors that could handle this order well?
We've used vendors to send out t-shirts in the past, and coworkers have been able to go to a link, pick their size and enter their shipping address, and then each shirt is shipped individually to their homes. Those orders were billed centrally, so individuals don't have to enter payment info.
I haven't found a vendor yet who can also let the user pick between multiple designs (i.e., different pins that say "she/her," "he/they," etc.) as part of this process. Our usual direct-ship t-shirt vendor does offer a variety of pins, but each has a minimum order of 50 per design. I know we won't hit anywhere near that limit for many of the less-common pronoun variants that our coworkers use.
Some swag vendors do seem to have the ability to show a storefront of multiple products that a user can order, which might do what we need, but sounds like it might involve more set-up costs, and may still involve minimum orders per item.
Some requirements:
- International shipping -- most folks are in the US, but we've got folks on several continents
- Each user needs the ability to pick their own pronouns/design from at least several options (given the nature of this product, I'd prefer not to collect picks directly from coworkers and then bulk input them into a vendor site -- I don't want people feeling like the company is compiling spreadsheets of everyone's pronouns)
- Users don't pay, the group order is invoiced/charged after all individual user selections are completed
- We don't need custom designs and we're happy to use a vendor with pre-existing pin designs (especially if this means we can support a queer-owned company)
- Budget is murky, but given the anticipated high shipping costs, I think we're likely looking for pins on the lower end of the price spectrum, simple round pinback buttons are fine
Given those requirements, what vendors should we consider? Are there companies that already sell pronoun pins with the kind of group ordering we need? Are there other vendors that could handle this order well?
...and they could give away the extras, increasing uptake & awareness!!
posted by wenestvedt at 11:01 AM on October 28 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 11:01 AM on October 28 [1 favorite]
Gift card for Heckin Unicorn maybe? Queer owned, involved in activism, etc which is a must for this purchase.
posted by Iteki at 12:14 PM on October 28 [1 favorite]
posted by Iteki at 12:14 PM on October 28 [1 favorite]
They also do a cute "tell me your pronouns" badge which may be a better option if people don't want to out themselves everywhere but would love to with someone who is safe, and still doesn't want to wear pronoun badges that aren't their pronouns. It puts the ball out there for a nice conversation or basic info exchange if wanted.
posted by Iteki at 12:17 PM on October 28 [4 favorites]
posted by Iteki at 12:17 PM on October 28 [4 favorites]
I can't speak to the invoice requirement, but I follow this creator on several platforms and can recommend: Retrophiliac. They have a number of options/combinations.
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:03 PM on October 28
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:03 PM on October 28
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posted by demi-octopus at 10:10 AM on October 28 [10 favorites]