When I founded High Life Tech in 2019, the original business model was direct-to-consumer custom phone accessories. Within the first few months, it became clear that the market was saturated, so I pivoted and began creating custom accessories for local businesses.
That pivot exposed a much bigger opportunity.
I realized that when it came to creating genuinely cool branded products, smaller brands were often left out. On one hand, most custom manufacturers required high minimums, while on the other, traditional promotional companies offered the same limited selection of products with a logo added to them. I set out to change that by giving brands the ability to create unique, fully custom products in quantities that they could afford.
Along the way, I learned everything I could about sourcing, manufacturing, and custom product development. In our early days, nearly all of our clients were small to mid-sized streetwear and fashion brands looking to create their own accessories, from keychains and jewelry to leather goods, packaging, and more. At first, we had a catalog of around 20 products, but our clients kept asking us to make things that weren't in it.
As we continued taking on new projects, our catalog became less and less relevant. Instead of choosing from a predetermined list of products, our clients began coming to us with ideas. Over time, we built a reputation as a company that could do just about anything.
Over the last three years, we've expanded far beyond our original customer base, developing products for some of the biggest brands in their categories, including Liquid Death, 7 Brew Coffee, DUDE Wipes, and many more.
What continued to set us apart wasn't simply what we could manufacture. It was how we approached the product itself.
Brands came to us because they were tired of being presented with the same conventional merchandise ideas. They wanted their own recipe of merch built around their brand and culture. Other merch agencies also came to us to develop products for their own clients for many of the same reasons.
When it came to deciding on our new brand, we wanted to capture an identity that showed what we had been creating all along: merch that isn't from a catalog.
In many ways, our approach is similar to the work of a private chef. A good private chef does not serve his clients the same meals. They take the time to understand who they are cooking for, their needs, their tastes, and the type of experience they want to create. While merch companies start with a menu of the newest stocked items, we start with the brand.
Before deciding what to make, we want to understand who we are creating for. We want to understand the brand, its audience, its culture, what the campaign is trying to accomplish, and what someone should feel when they receive the product.
With our own in-house design team, direct product development and production capabilities, and e-commerce and fulfillment, we’re excited to continue serving more brands that want to create their own merch recipe.
That is what led us to Off Menu, a merchandise design company that believes great merch isn't from a menu; it's made from scratch.
We aren't in the business of reheating ideas either.