Growing up, back to school shopping was one of the few times my parents gave me the green light to shop ’till I dropped’. Now I’m paying it forward.
To my parents, education was priority number one and no expense needed to be spared in preparation. I piled up the folders, protractors, hair scrunchies, new purple tops (my favorite color), and new shoes into the cart with little regard for the price tag. The day before the first day of school, I would iron and plan a week’s worth of outfits, knowing full well from previous experience that would be the only week I would actually go through the trouble. The excitement and anticipation of a new school year starting never waned for me, year after year, even in Jr. High when I cared more about touching up my makeup and decoding messages on my pager than studying.
Since I’ve been out of school for a few years now, I’m living my back-to-school fantasies vicariously through Adam. He’s getting so independent and opinionated about what he wears though, I have had to start including him in the shopping decision making process. So when the opportunity to partner with Redbubble came about, I thought it would be a fun way to do just that.
Redbubble is an online marketplace which crowdsources designs from over 400k independent artists around the world. The selection is both unique and vast, priced perfectly for a student budget. With items ranging from vintage cool to quirky, it is amazing the cultural niche you might find represented. For example I found an artist called @thepakistanimarthastewart – she creates hilarious pop-art memes with a South Asian twist – I didn’t even realize that was a thing until now, and I am officially obsessed.
The difference between Redbubble and other independent artist platforms is the delivery. They don’t carry inventory, nor do the artists ship directly to you, so when you order something it is regionally printed, making it a smooth and consistent shipping process. By printing after the order is place It is also reducing waste and therefore making for a much smaller carbon footprint.
Adam and I went through the website and picked a few new tees for his back to school wardrobe for first grade. We had a lot of fun reading some of the funny designs and choosing our favorites, and I even let him add his items to our virtual ‘cart’. I’m hoping one day maybe he will even look back on our back to school shopping experience fondly like I do now. Or is that just wishful thinking on my part? *sigh* Oh well…
If you love supporting independent artists designers and also finding one of a kind things, you need to visit Redbubble. Get 15% off your order with my code: zahra_sandberg15
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