$234raised
$666valuation
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Project summary

Create a Manifold merchandise store.

What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?

Manifold has already distributed some merchandise in the past; custom shirts and playing cards. There was decent interest in these; I believe 71 people bought shirts, and 100+ people took one of the decks at Manifest. We plan to create a centralized home for such products, allowing anyone to purchase them online, and also to expand the offering to other Manifold-branded things such as socks and hats.

We may also expand the store to cover general EA and forecasting merch, such as the "Shrimp want me me, unaligned AIs fear me" hat, since there doesn't seem to be a central location for those either.

How will this funding be used?

To cover the up-front costs of producing a few of each item (custom physical items are really expensive), and the development costs of a website. (The website will be bare-bones at first to see if there's interest, and then professionalize as necessary.)

Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?

I'll be creating the product designs (if they're not already made) and handling production and shipping. Isaac King will be doing the programming, soliciting product ideas, and wrote this description.

I have extensive experience as a graphic designer; it's my full time job. I've professionally made several playing card decks and T-shirts before, including the aforementioned deck of Manifold cards that was handed out at Manifest. You can see my website here: https://vyseri.com/

Isaac has no experience with selling merch, but knows how to make a website, and can coordinate with the Manifold community to get new ideas and advertise the store.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)

Lack of interest from the Manifold community. It's not very big and many of its members are not interested in this sort of ingroup signaling, so we'll be pleasantly surprised if we get 10 orders a month.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

No external funding, though of course the products will cost money themselves. (We will likely donate all profits after production costs to charity.)

FoldyOfficial avatar

Manifold Markets

10 months ago

January 15th Evaluation Results

Valuations: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 100

Weighted Median Valuation: 0

Eliza: I don't see any updates.

cc6: Nothing has happened

wasabipesto: It doesn't look like there is any activity on this project.

Rachel: Seems like nothing has been published. Sorry Manifold took over, but I bet they'd still appreciate designs from Tobi!

SG: No comment

James: Barak ended up taking this over. It was kind of tricky to figure out the arrangement of what to do with profits anyway.

Austin: Barak was so excited by the idea of something like this he couldn’t help but try to in-house it, haha. That said, we still don’t have an operating merch store yet, and I’d really love to have one exist.

Isaac-King avatar

Isaac King

10 months ago

It looks like Manifold is taking over the merch store themselves at https://shop.manifold.markets/, rendering this project superfluous. Tobi and I are still happy to help in any way we can with design and printing.

FoldyOfficial avatar

Manifold Markets

11 months ago

December 15th Evaluation Results

Valuations: 0, 0, 500, 0, 100

Median Valuation: 0

SG: Not started.

Rachel: Excited about this project! Contrary to the suggested failure mode in the description, I think nerds actually do more in-group signaling via graphic tees than most other groups. I’ve loved Tobias’ Manifest card decks, so excited to see the final designs here. All that said, nothing has been shipped yet, so have to give a $0 valuation.

Inga Wei: Yay merch!

Ian Philips: I don't see any progress, yet! But would be awesome to have a store selling manifold merch! Probably $300-500 valuation if you sold some shirts and had some cool designs?

Austin: I agree that the merch store is something that the community would love! I also have high priors on Tobi, who made the amazing playing cards used that we gave out at Manifest. That said, since the store itself is not yet launched yet, this low valuation just reflects the groundwork put into the brainstorming and the designs posted so far.

Isaac-King avatar

Isaac King

12 months ago

Project update: I have not yet started working on the website, I've been focusing on other projects. Tobi has come up with some preliminary shirt designs, pictures here. I'm not a huge fan of any of those TBH, so we're still brainstorming.

We're still undecided on a name, weigh in here: https://manifold.markets/IsaacKing/what-name-will-we-choose-for-the-ma

holds 0.7%
Anthony-Giovannetti avatar

Anthony Giovannetti

12 months ago

Putting this across the finish line, merch feels like something the community wants.