Suggestion.....

OK, I'll bite. I don't mind the merchandise idea but I'm not keen on the exclusivity element. Perhaps, talking to the dumb-arses might assist them to become a little less dumb (BTW, not normally the kind of epithet I would use).

..... and the merchandising idea isn't all that sound, financially, given the limited market. Maybe you could achieve the same result by just asking those you meet if they read Tramper.nz

There are businesses which do very small runs of merchandising... Just means they are a little more expensive. I was once talking to a guy while on a day walk, and he was telling me about a local track and about how he read about it on this site. It just happened to be one of the tracks I have written the guide for on here :)

I had a run of bumper stickers made for another group via aliexpress. For a quarter of the local quote we got 5 times as many. Its going to take us a long time to use 600 stickers as well

I thought of that idea when reading about the recent dumb-arse who got herself severely lost in the Paparoas, which pissed me off a lot more than normal for some reason. Me personally, I would have it exclusive. So that you know the people displaying that moniker are sound. And you know if you get into a conversation with them, you can SHARE tramping wisdom and stories, rather than just giving advice to someone who you know is underprepared and asking for trouble. I KNOW I'm not the only one finding myself doing this over and over on a regular basis! I'd actually be happy to do this with my own coin, and give them to Matt to either sell (pure profit for him, no matter how many he sells), or give to those he chooses. And it's more of a way to connect with other regulars. Exclusivity exists all around us. Some people come on here (and of course, I, like others, welcome them with open arms) and they ask ridiculously simple questions, or put forth really insane plans with obviously very little tramping experience. These are not people I would want to display the Tramper NZ name. Kind of like..... There are a lot of sailors in the Navy. But only a very few of us are worthy enough to wear the dolphin badge of a submariner. ;) Just my thoughts on it.... :)

While we're at it, why not a secret handshake or our very own style of Morris dance X-D Or we could greet each other by imitating various NZ birdsongs ;) Why should the Freemasons and the Illuminati have all the fun?

Special handshakes immediately makes me think of this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oo18D-qHAYE Skip to 5:05-ish for the Freemason joke

Great rant from J.C!

Kia ora! I've been off camping with the family in the Waitākeres. Rained most of the time, but I saw my first pūriri moth and Bulbophyllum pygmaeum. Good times. Secret handshake sounds like a great idea! In regards leveraging the brand for some ruthless merchandising, yes I have some ideas and plans there. The podcast network Radiotopia includes a "challenge coin" as part of their fundraising campaigns. Challenge coins are a concept that came out of the US military I believe. That's quite a nice idea.