Exiting the Patreon Merch Program (Patreon)

Bloodworth here, I've been recovering from covid for the past week, but today I've got a different headache to update you about. Back in March, we decided to try out Patreon's merch program as an added incentive for patrons $50 and up. Along with other changes at EZX, the idea, of course, was to give patrons a new benefit to be excited about and give people a stronger reason to pledge at those higher levels. Unfortunately, today we're announcing that we will be exiting our participation in this program as soon as we possibly can.

Why are we doing this?

To put it quite simply, the costs are way too high, and any gains we might get from patrons raising pledges are far outweighed by the monthly cost of merely participating in the program, which has been running us over $1000 per month, or ultimately over $100 per T-shirt. We know you contribute in order to support Easy Allies so we can cover games and make fun shows, not for the sake of putting more cash in Patreon's wallet.

We were always a little skeptical about entering the program. The way patrons have to stay in the same tier for 3 months to earn a T-shirt seemed unnecessarily convoluted and confusing, and the costs were a little unclear up front as well. However, we still thought it was worth giving a shot to see if it all worked out in practice. Because of the way the program works, the first batch of shirts just went out in the past two weeks, and looking at the real-world numbers, it just doesn't make any sense to try to keep it going.

What this means for you:

About 50 T-shirts have been fulfilled and should be on their way to qualifying patrons. I haven't seen any photos in the wild, but those eligible should have gotten a shipping notification. So check your inbox.

If you are in one of those tiers, waiting for your three month timer to finish counting down,
please contact us via direct message, and we'll find a way to make it up to you. We greatly appreciate the support you've given us at such a high level, and I know some folks who used to be in Blood Pact will be impacted by this as well since they had to move tiers after the program started.

Our sincerest apologies, to anyone who was looking to get a shirt or future items through this program. It should have been a simple way to boost our Patreon with physical rewards that make perfect sense as pledge incentives, but the numbers and logistics simply don't add up.

Thank you for your understanding,
Easy Allies