With the decline in music sales, artists are turning to alternative methods of raising a buck to fund their music. This has led to a spurt of creativity in regard to artists’ merchandise. Gone are the days when all you could find with your fave band’s name on it was a plane old T-Shirt. Australia’s legendary band Icehouse, currently on a sold out tour, has just announced they that have ‘stepped’ up to the plate and put their ‘foot’ in the door of the brave new world of merch with a line of footwear in conjunction with the Nookiee brand.
Each pair of hand stitched, leather runners are based on one of ICEHOUSE’s albums or songs and fans will have seven separate designs to choose from including Crazy (Red and Black versions), Nothing Too Serious, Primitive Man, Great Southern Land, Electric Blue and Man of Colours. Nookiee is a new company based in Melbourne and started by former Nescafé Big Break winner, Josh Pell, which produces limited edition handmade shoes using on the best materials available. Iva said, “I was amazed at the care and attention Josh gave to the designs of the ICEHOUSE sneaker range. He’d thought about it deeply and incorporated interesting elements from our artwork into his designs. He is a true craftsman, very focussed on creating products of quality and I admire him for that. We are happy to have Nookiee represent ICEHOUSE so well for footwear”.
At ICEHOUSE’s recent sold-out performances, fans got to see samples of the shoes and orders have started to flow as well as compliments for Nookiee on the designs and manufacturing quality. Pre orders are open now for all seven styles, in men’s and women’s sizes (no half sizes), online via ICEHOUSE’S web store – www.icehouse-ivadavies.com/store.html, Nookiee – www.nookiee.com, and at the band’s upcoming shows on its Platinum Series shows. Each shoe is made to order with delivery taking place in approximately 4-6 weeks.
Unlike the new Icehouse range of quality footwear, there have been some dubious merch ideas from bands in the past.
You’d have to be a die-hard Metallica fan to bother forking out for the band’s own Monopoly game.
Likewise, only the very ardent KISS fan would want to be buried in their own Kiss endorsed coffin
You might want to purchase a Justin Bieber shower curtain, just for kicks!
Or if you’re not short on funds, a racey set of Rolling Stones snow skis
You’d have to be madly in love with Morrissey to sleep on his pillow slip
And why would anyone want to suck on a Britney Spears endorsed lollypop?
How about a Slayer winter woolly?
A Ween colouring book featuring bizarre pictures could be fun
Would you expect anything less from Lady Gaga than meat printed band aids?
So for bands out there looking to supplement their live gigs with some creative merch, it seems there are really no limits. Just stay off the hallucinogens when you’re work-shopping those ideas.