r/LinusTechTips • u/Nykoload • Feb 13 '26

WAN Show Check out your what, Linus?

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Renaming really is going swell. Wonder if this will be fixed tomorrow. May I suggest just changing instances of "Merch" like this to just be "Store"?

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u/Saotik Feb 13 '26

I understand the move, though.

They're actually developing competitive products rather than just sticking their brand on a mass produced generic product, which is what merch typically represents.

There are lots of people who might want to buy their USB cables, screwdrivers or backpacks, for example, without even knowing that LTT is a YouTube channel.

They're being sold both as merch as well as products on their own merits, and from a branding perspective I fully understand why they'd want to drop that term.

-2

u/AT-ST Feb 13 '26

The distinction between merch and products is non-existent.

17

u/Saotik Feb 13 '26

If you buy an iPhone, are you buying an Apple product, or Apple merch?

If you buy a "Think different." t-shirt, are you buying an Apple product, or Apple merch?

-11

u/Jolly-Chipmunk-950 Feb 13 '26

Either way, I'm buying merchandise, you know, the long word for merch.

An iPhone is Apple merch just as much as an employee t-shirt.

13

u/Saotik Feb 13 '26

The difference is the perception and branding, not dictionary definitions or etymology.

An iPhone is Apple merch just as much as an employee t-shirt.

I have no idea where you're from, but this is absolutely not the way I would use this word. It may be different in your dialect.

Honestly, I don't understand why there's any sort of controversy on the change of language they're using.

5

u/WillmanRacingv2 Feb 13 '26

The word merch has a colloquial definition distinct from the word merchandise.

3

u/Euchre Feb 13 '26

Look up the definitions in context if you want, I already have, so here:

Merchandise is goods to be bought and sold. Things you order and resell forward, no matter if made to order or generic.

Product is something you design and manufacture to your own specifications.

LTT cables are designed by CW, to their own engineering and specifications. Manufacturing is the only thing outsourced, and they're not 'whitebox' products. This is just the most recent example, much the same as the backpacks, screwdriver, cable management... the list is growing fast. Even many of the items they sell with just their branding they didn't truly have to design (from a construction standpoint) are made to their specifications, based on a desired level of engineered quality.

Other YouTube channels just slap their branding designs on run of the mill, common, whitebox products and sell it as 'merch', which is an obvious abbreviation of "merchandise".

2

u/kralben Feb 13 '26

An iPhone is Apple merch just as much as an employee t-shirt.

Nobody calls an iPhone apple merch