About The Merch Project
Records
you can wear.
We make streetwear for Cape Town’s scenes: the crews, rituals and corners that make this city feel like home to the people inside them.
How it started
It started with a trade.
“Teach me what I need to know about cars, and I’ll teach you what you need to know about fashion.”
One of us lived for the track. The other lived for the clothes. Neither knew much about the other’s world.
So we swapped. Race days at Killarney for fittings and fabric. Lap times for print placement. Somewhere in between, we noticed something: every scene in this city has its own language, and almost none of it ends up on what people wear.
That’s the gap we make things for.
How we make things
The house rules.
- 01
One scene per drop.
Every drop belongs to one community. We spend time in it before we design anything.
- 02
The scene on the front. The story on the back.
The front says where you belong. The back carries the detail only insiders will clock.
- 03
Black or white. Nothing else.
The design does the talking. The colour stays out of the way.
- 04
Small runs.
We print in small batches. If your size is out, we make it to order.
- 05
Not souvenirs.
We’re not selling Cape Town to visitors. We’re documenting the city as it’s lived.
Where we are now
We started at Killarney.
Drop 001 is The Circuit Collective: the track, the cars, the crews, the culture. Killarney International Raceway, on your back.
From October, it’s one scene a month. Some are already on the wall. Some haven’t been found yet.
Built with the scene
Made with the people inside it. Not about them.
We show up.
Before there’s a design, there’s time spent in the scene. The details come from the people.
We ask first.
No crew, event or venue gets named on a tee without saying yes.
We credit properly.
If a scene shaped a drop, the scene gets the credit.
Run a crew, a club or a Sunday session with its own inside jokes? Nominate your scene →