Klunkers Update: I Opened a Store

I opened an online store. And I want to tell you why. (It’s likely not for the reason you think.)

I’ve been feeling very re-invigorated by this website. Comments have been thoughtful. Traffic is up. I’m still waiting on more Readers’ Rides, but hey, I get it… social media might be more fun for those. Instant gratification and all that.

But if you’ve poked around this blog, you may have noticed a new page: SHOP.

Yep, I went and did it. I opened a store selling print-on-demand Klunker-bike themed t-shirts, hats, toques, stickers, hoodies and more. And I wanna tell you why.

From the get-go, I’ve always maintained this site is not a commercial enterprise. And nothing has changed there.

Opening the store is not a cash grab. It’s a further attempt to build the Klunker community, offline, by filling a gap in the market that I noticed almost right away—we didn’t have any cool, Klunker-themed clothes!

So here’s an outline of my ethos behind the store:

Pricing: I’ve set the prices as low as I can before Printful, my print-on-demand supplier, gives me a warning that I will “lose money on this sale.” I think you’ll be able to see that for yourself with some quick price-comparisons.
Platforms: I chose Woocommerce. It’s not as sexy as Shopify, but the only fees Woocommerce charges are transactional (rather than monthly and transactional), again, allowing me to keep prices low. And with print-on-demand as the service, I can forgo passing on any fees related to setup or warehousing!
Shipping: Part of my day job involves e-commerce. That’s why I was able to set this up easily. But it also means I know that some 78% of abandoned carts are due to shipping costs. So why didn’t I make shipping free? Simple:
- There’s no such thing as “Free Shipping.” If you see that, it simply means the price of shipping is built into the product price. I didn’t want to do that.
- Flat Rate Shipping? This is just a subcontract, based on market research that suggests the retailer’s flat-rate will cover, or better yet profit from, the actual shipping cost. I didn’t want to do that either.
- Live Shipping: This is what I did. It means shipping is variable, based on your location relative to the distribution centre. It also means I don’t take a penny of the shipping cost. It all goes to Printful. This allows me to price the actual product as low as I can—without having to factor in the cost of shipping.
Designs: These are all done by me. My concepts, brought to life via the technology I have available to me. Because I don’t have to stock anything, I can make as many as I can think of. So check back often!

Why I Did This:

Simple. I want to keep building this site out, but it does have a hard cost. So my plan is to use the meagre profits from these sales to pay for the hosting and domain fees associated with this site. This will keep Klunkers ad- and affiliate link-free.

My hope is that I can earn enough to further build out this site—hiring freelance writers, buying more products to do real-world tests (not bought-and-paid-for advertorial) and more.

My dream is that I can make enough to suppor tlocal, regional and national causes aimed at getting historically excluded demographics (disabled, neurodivergent, minority) into the cycling community and fund youth bike camps, groups and associations.

And get kids off their screens and outside riding Klunkers!

That’s all real. This isn’t meant to make me rich. It’s meant to enrich our Klunker community.

And if I can see just one of these shirts or hats out in the wild one day? Well, that’ll make it all worth it.

So check out the shop. And I hope you receive it in the good intention with which it was created.

Klunkers Update: I Opened a Store

I opened an online store. And I want to tell you why. (It’s likely not for the reason you think.)

So here’s an outline of my ethos behind the store:

Why I Did This:

Store Categories:

2 thoughts on “Klunkers Update: I Opened a Store”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply