Why Indie?

“Indie” is about ownership and control, not about staying small or struggling.

If you:

• Own your shop or company outright (or with a small group of partners),

• Make your own decisions about pricing, customers, and tools,

• Are not part of a holding company whose job is to roll up the industry,

Then you are indie, whether you are a one-person garage or a multi-press, multi-location operation with great margins.

Being financially successful does not disqualify you. In fact, we want independents to be healthy and profitable. The red flags are when decision making is driven by investors, a parent conglomerate, or a platform whose main goal is to capture and control the whole pipeline.

The Indie Print Collective was started by Patrick Salo at Ministry of Bits, an independent software studio that builds tools like Sherpa for decorator apparel shops. In other words, the initial steward is an indie supplier, not a holding company or investor group.

The Collective itself is not a product funnel. Membership is free, supplier listings follow the same rules, and there are no paid placements or hidden boosts for anyone, including Ministry of Bits. Over time the goal is to share stewardship with other shops and suppliers who care about keeping this space genuinely independent.

No. Membership is free. The only real “cost” is showing up honestly, sharing what you can, and not using the network to spam or exploit other members.

At minimum, be honest about who you are, respect other members, and do not treat the directory or mailing list as a lead farm. If you can, share what you learn, show up for calls, and support other independents when they need a hand.

Yes, within reason. Indie suppliers are part of the Collective because they want to support independent shops, and sometimes that includes discounts, bundles, or expo specials. We just keep a few ground rules:

• Live calls are for relationships and problem solving, not full sales pitches or demos.
  

• On the listserve, suppliers can share offers on the supplier list. For shop-facing specials that fit the indie ethos, contact Patrick Salo and he can send a clearly labeled announcement to the shop list on your behalf.

• Offers should be rare and clearly in service of independent shops. Most of the time that will look like collaborative specials, such as joint expo bundles from multiple indie suppliers, with the occasional high-value one-off offer that doesn’t turn the list into a promo channel.
  

No. There are no bids, no transaction fees, and no jobs routed through a central platform. The directory and webring simply help people find each other and then work together directly.

Yes. Many independents have to use some big tools to survive. The point is not purity. The point is having a place to compare notes, avoid lock-in where possible, and support alternatives that respect the trade.

That is expected. The Collective assumes that your real competition is the corporate stack, not the shop across town. Multiple independents in the same area can share knowledge, push back on bad terms, and even send work to each other when it makes sense.

The goal is minimal data, minimal tracking. Contact forms and lists collect only what is needed to keep you in the loop. There are no pixel based ad campaigns and no selling of member data to third parties.

No. The email list is an old school listserve. You subscribe with your address, then real people send plain text emails to the group, and anyone can reply. No templates, no funnels, no pixel tracking. It is closer to the early internet, when email was the first social network, than to a modern “newsletter platform.”

Because email is still more human than an algorithmic feed. A listserve keeps the circle small and focused, so shops and suppliers can actually read each other’s messages, reply thoughtfully, and build relationships over time. No follower counts, no boosted posts, and no “engagement hacks.” Just people in the trade talking to each other.

You do not have to live in your inbox to stay involved. The list runs on classic listserve tech with digest options. Instead of getting every single message as it is sent, you can choose to receive:

• A daily digest of that day’s messages bundled into a single email, or

• A less frequent digest (e.g. several messages grouped together), depending on how you configure your subscription settings.
  

You can switch between normal delivery and digest mode anytime. That way you can skim the subject lines once a day, dive into the threads that matter, and ignore the rest, without being buried under a constant stream of individual emails.

There will be two core lists, one for shops and one for suppliers. Shop owners and production teams can talk shop-to-shop without every message going to vendors, and suppliers can discuss product, tech, and logistics with each other without flooding shops. Indie Print Collective announcements that matter to everyone, like events or major updates, will be posted to both lists so the whole network stays in sync.

A webring is a simple loop of websites, each linking to the next and previous site in the ring. It is an old school way for people with shared values to point visitors toward each other without an algorithm or marketplace in the middle. The Indie Print Collective webring is how shops and suppliers can visibly say “we’re part of the independent side of this trade” and send visitors on to other independents.

There are two webrings, one for shops and one for suppliers, so visitors can follow the path that makes the most sense for them. The shop webring links together independent print and embroidery shops, so customers can discover real local and regional printers. The supplier webring links indie ink makers, equipment builders, and software/tool creators, so shops can find the people who power their work. You can join one or both, depending on what you do.

No. You just need a site where you can add a small snippet of HTML, like a footer block or a sidebar widget. It works fine with WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify themes, custom sites, or a simple static page. If you only have social profiles and no website yet, you can still join the Collective, but you won’t be able to join the webring until you have a site.

No. The webring uses a tiny bit of markup and a simple link structure. Search engines are used to normal outbound links, and having a few clean links to other relevant, real sites is generally a positive signal, not a penalty. There are no tracking scripts, no heavy widgets, and nothing that should noticeably slow down your pages.

Membership in the webring is curated. Sites have to actually represent independent shops or suppliers in the decorator apparel trade, not drop-shippers or generic merch resellers. If a site gets sold to a holding company, becomes spammy, or stops aligning with the indie ethos, it can be removed from the ring to keep the signal clean for everyone else.

No, the calls will not be recorded. The goal is real conversation, not content capture. People should feel free to speak candidly, ask blunt questions, and share what is really going on in their shop or business. If you want to be part of that, you show up live and participate as a human, not as a viewer catching the replay.

No. This is not an all-or-nothing commitment. You can:

• Join the directory but skip the email list,

• Read the listserve digests but never post,

• Attend calls when a topic is relevant and ignore the rest.

The Collective is there when you need it. The only real ask is that when you do participate, you do it in good faith and with respect for the other independents in the room.