Scripting an 'epic' story: MC Sid on winning the game of merchandise!

While his emceeing skills bring in the cool quotient at events, his products sell like hot cakes, both online and offline. Today, he joins us for a fun conversation to tell us the story of his epic journey.

Tell us about your journey from being a rapper-emcee to an entrepreneur?

Worldwide, rappers have a habit of being part of the hustle. In my case, the hustle involved a product that I am deeply fond of, "officially licensed fan merch" being a hardcore Superman fan (not - NOT Marvel), I started out at comic con ironically not selling merch but displaying my comic called MC SID RAZZ and realized there were so many more like me who wanted fan merch in India, that was the beginning of MC SID RAZZ my brand of licensed merch which has now evolved into Epicstuff.com our new avatar and marketplace for all things Fan merch!

What made the idea of Epic Stuff epic when you were envisioning it?
There were a lot of factors but the most prominent one would be a trip to Camden Town in London, the awesome comic book stores, and this giant graphic adaptation of the last supper with Superman as Jesus, which just blew my mind. I decided this kind of stuff was something that likeminded folks back home would love! Then the following summer of 2012, I landed up at the OG of comic book stores Forbidden planet in Newyork city and realized the "home of heroes "was here! So I set out to build the same back home in India.

Explain to us the craze for pop culture-related merchandise in the market today.
It's gone, berzerk! POP culture is the new cool. And it's the social capital each, and every youngster wants to make an affordable mark and style statement! It's also just something one is so invested in - like friends the tv show - we sell it's official merch, and so many people I know swear by the show.. it is the most watched tv show on Netflix for a reason!

Covid-19 hit businesses badly. What was its impact on your venture, and if you discovered your resilient self in the last two years?

Covid was like an Atom bomb. It decimated our entire offline presence and lead to a huge set of issues with retailers who wouldn't pay and others who wouldn't even return the stock they had to forget paying. Of course, enforcing any law in India is quite challenging. Still, we learned through sheer determination and focused following up that one can convince the most conniving of old-school retail foxes to cooperate. Our online presence helped us stay afloat, and it's safe to say seeing atleast 2 of our competitor's folds (both funded) does give us a lot of confidence that our bootstrapped baby has survived and our best days are ahead.

In terms of reach and revenue, are you happy where you are? Are there any big expansion plans from here on?

No entrepreneur is ever happy with their revenue - only their kids have those luxuries. Same here - I hope my daughter is spoiled rotten, and I can build her the largest fan merch company in the world. Period. Till then, I'm never satisfied.
We have refocused on our offline business and are looking to reach atleast 1000 + points of sales along with our Omni channel presence.

The competition in this genre is quite fierce. What are you doing differently to stay at the top?
Everything we do is always different. We never delve into the regular like apparel and electronics these we feel are commoditized plays, and eventually, the licensed brand doesn't play much of a role in differentiation, only boxes the products more in the ‘ kids zone ‘ for gifting at most.

We are in the fan merch business with collectibles at the core and hope to remain at the top for this with our partners Warner Bros, Burbank, USA. Check out our products on www.epicstuff.com