What a year it has been. The attitude of most people at the start of 2022 was that of apprehension, and understandably so. The world has gone through some pretty rough stuff the last couple of years, but we tried to stay hopeful and positive throughout it all. We went into 2022 with a "full steam ahead" mindset - there were some ups and downs along the way, but we'd say we have some stuff to show for all the hard work!
Here's a little timeline of some of our highlights from this year:
BACK IN THE OFFICE
Our team in South Africa moved into a new office space in January, which meant Beer Fridays no longer had to be done via Zoom. It's great being in an office again after working from home for two years.
A BIGGER TEAM
We welcomed four new members to our team this year. Bux and Hardus joined the sales team in Bloemfontein, and Catherine joined in on our new project, Pins Tattoo Club. Mr. Ryan Thompson joined goods-out at the factory overseeing getting those decorated garments of goodness to your door.
BACK ROW
Johan Du Plessis (Operations Manager), Bernie De Sousa (Account Manager), Dewald "Bux" Van Der Westhuizen (Account Manager), Hardus Viljoen (Account Manager), Shannon Wellby (Director)
FRONT ROW
Anthony "Ant" Strauss (Marketing), Catherine Stevenson (Pins Tattoo Club)
Ryan Thompson (Goods-Out)
FESTIVAL-READY
Two big highlights for us were partnering with UK: Tech-Fest in June, and Damnation in November. We got to cook up some mint merch and enjoy the sick line-ups both festivals had to offer.
COMMUNITY-CENTERED
When we started working on a website revamp in July, we knew we wanted to have the new branding be very community-focused. We set up our Community page to hype up our clients, showcasing new music releases, the latest merch drops, and more.
THE SCENE: GLOBAL PLAYLIST
Continuing on pushing and promoting our clients; we collaborated with Jay to launch The Scene: Global playlist on our Spotify, showcasing the latest releases from bands, big or small. Ant was pretty stoked that he gets to listen to music and call it work. Check it out and give us a follow to stay up-to-date. We'd appreciate it.
DOING IT FOR THE FANS
In September we hit 8000 followers on Instagram. It may be a little superficial, but we're pretty amped that 8000 of you continue to support us.
JOHAN GOT HITCHED
A bit of a personal one, but our boy Johan (finally) tied the knot in September. There was drinking, there was dancing... We'll leave it at that.
JAY IN THE WILD
Production manager, Jay, took a trip across the pond in October to see what the South African office gets up to. The team gave him an all-out experience, including game drives, brandy drinking, and lots of braais! ("Braai" is Afrikaans for barbecue.)
SZIA, EUROPE!
November saw the beginning of two exciting projects, one of them being our launch in Europe. We set up shop in Budapest, Hungary, allowing us to cater to a wider audience and fulfill merch orders for UK/EU tours.
PINS TATTOO CLUB
Most of you may view Pins & Knuckles as a company that prints merch for musicians, but we've been fortunate enough to have worked with tattoo artists, clothing brands, and designers over the years. We wanted to set up a branch that would showcase the tattoo and alternative scene - enter Pins Tattoo Club.
This is a big one because we also set up our very own tattoo studio in Cape Town, which will be hosting guest artists in 2023.
