Callie Crofts of Die Shiny

A growing wave of buzz surrounds Die Shiny, the edgy electropop sensation emerging from Salt Lake City's vibrant counter-culture. Formed by songwriter/bassist Callie Crofts and drummer/audio engineer Zac Bryant, the project is a refreshingly unique commentary on the absurdity of existence and an electrifying fusion of cerebral darkness to danceable fun.

Trainings Completed:

Please give us a brief overview of your merchandise strategy and offerings over the last 12 months:
I do NOT mess around when it comes to merch! My life partner and I don’t have “day jobs” outside of music - Die Shiny is our dream while cover gigs and his work as an audio engineer pay the bills. This means that our merch shop is the #1 way for me to make extra money that can be used to drive growth and success for the dream. Luckily, I happen to really enjoy visual branding as an art form. I put in massive time and effort making one-of-a-kind, fun and collectable items.

I've designed all of our logos and artwork for both apparel and media, and have spent countless hours coming up with tie-dye patterns that make each apparel piece unique. From the very first one, we've never played a show without multiple people commenting that our merch table looks like a beautifully displayed retail store. Other bands are always especially impressed as they throw a couple hats and stickers in a pile on a bare table next to our elaborate display (we’ve all been there 😆.)

We sold just over $4k in merch in 2024 with a handful of customers purchasing up to 4 times, which I think is amazing for our fairly small following and our current tech setup (I don’t even have my mailing list properly running yet!) I've set up my shopify beautifully and don't cut corners on product photos and putting my personality into product descriptions.

Stores and Links:
- Website
- Shopify

Please describe your best selling merchandise and your most unique/creative merchandise:
Anyone who has seen our band play live since our very first show knows that we have a stage uniform. All of our members wear all-white clothing that is tie-dyed a specific color. It’s been a fun routine that has got a lot of attention from our fans. We offer multiple apparel items in a color that exactly matches our stage costume, and people seem to love the idea of matching the band.

I created a shirt design based on our most popular song, and it wasn’t selling very well for months. I thought about discounting it heavily, but I decided it would be so much cooler to create a bundle. I paired said tee with a limited 7” colored vinyl - our popular single on side A and a secret song 🤫on side B that will never be released publicly (signed and numbered of course.) As soon as I created it, this bundle quickly became our best seller.

Describe your fulfillment process for merchandise orders:
I do my best to always fulfill merch orders within 3 business days. My process includes:

- Custom-printed logo packaging
- Detailed hand-written thank you message
- Signing any media purchased
- Free sticker included
- Nicely folded apparel
- Sendle for label printing
- USPS delivery

I think customers should get giddy when they see the package, and feel like they are opening something special and thoughtful.

Please describe your best strategic merch offer to your fans over the last 12 months:

Over the last year I’ve noticed our project becoming important to our local queer and “othered” community 💗. My songwriting has been shifting toward activism and deeper purpose. As I felt this shift, I wanted our branding to communicate the transition to a new “era” that reflects our values. I decided to redo all of our branding imagery with new band photos, a new logo, and even a brand new live stage “uniform”, moving from our well-established white wardrobe to a darker, edgier look.

Alongside this new branding I created a bold statement t-shirt with 25% of sales benefitting a cause that means a lot to us and our audience.

We planned our last show for the year shortly after the new song release with all of the accompanying new branding, ushering in the new dark stage look. As the front-person, I’ve now incorporated the new t-shirt into my own stage wardrobe. We unveiled and sold more of those statement shirts than any other design that night. We have a lot of repeat show-going fans, and I think it felt powerful to them expecting the usual show aesthetic and being greeted with something new.

The white stage look is now retired, which I think gives all of our white merch a cool “classic” vibe - early fans are in the know. I’ll be wearing the new statement tee in every planned promo vid, interview and show for the foreseeable future in effort to display uncompromising solidarity and attract a community of people with whom this message resonates.

Lastly, please tell us why you think you should be a finalist for the Merch Maniac Award:

I am such a passionate and driven artist. I have been stubbornly working at this for well over a decade. I have sacrificed every other possible path I could have taken because I truly believe in my songs. I can honestly say I don't personally know another musician with more damn FITFON than myself haha. I do every bit of marketing, accounting, graphic design, video editing, and every other business management aspect of this band by myself.

Although this nomination is for my efforts in 2024, I am seeing the most success I ever had in early 2025. We started this year with 1300 monthly listeners on Spotify, had our first really successful TikTok vid, and now have over 18k monthly listeners in just over 1 month. I’ve grown my (not yet functioning) email list by 110 new eager sign-ups, and my goal for this year is to nurture my people and not let this new success be fruitless.