Awesome Merchandise is celebrating its 15th birthday in the true spirit of community – introducing schemes to bring together and support local businesses, creatives and artists.
With a customer base of over 97,000 (including the Brudenell and designer Drew Millward) Awesome Merchandise is also introducing a staff voucher scheme.
Luke Hodson, Founder of Awesome Merchandise said: “Given the current circumstances, it felt only right to continue doing what we do best to celebrate our birthday – which is bringing together the creative communities – by supporting each other. That’s why we’re not only launching a grant scheme during this tough time, but also incentivising our employees to get out and support fellow independent businesses in the City.”
The company will share £15,000 amongst performing arts and creative businesses so that they can use it for marketing and create their own custom merchandise.
Staff will each be given a voucher for £50 to spend at independent businesses in the City, including North Bar, Colours May Vary, Laynes Espresso, Bundobust and Meat Liquor – to further show their support for the local independent community.
Sarah Hardy, Marketing Manager at North Bar Leeds, one of the independent businesses participating in the initiative, said: “We jumped at the opportunity to be involved in Awesome Merchandise’s voucher scheme. We have a long-standing relationship working with them and it’s been great to continue working together throughout Covid 19, and see them supporting our family of independent bars as we try to rebuild after being closed during lockdown.
The independent scene in Leeds has grouped together to support each other during this pandemic, and we are really excited to continue doing so.”
(Some readers may not know that Luke founded the business when he decided to make badges to fund his way through university. So awesome were these that he quickly received an order for 80,000. Luke left university at that point to put all his energy into the business; a dramatic move which has led to impressive success.)
You can find out more about Awesome Merchandise here.
Feature photograph shows: Left to Right: Sean Mort (Marketing Manager), Warren Smithson (Digital Department Manager), Amy Hau (HR Manager), Jonny Hodson (Business Development Director), James Lyall (Managing Director), Zara Sutcliffe Baran (Customer Experience Manager), Matt Hubbert (Senior Production & Operations Manager), Eure Pranckunaite (Embroidery/Finishing Team Member)
