Elon has just fixed this and changed the Twitter logo for you…
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from the blue bird into an X…
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don’t you mean the X logo? 
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There’s a thread for iNat store suggestions, but it’s not recently active, and I didn’t see this request. Seems like an obvious choice for iNat to offer organic cotton tshirts! More expensive, of course, but why not at least offer it?
Meanwhile, I’d love if they DIDN’T offer the 100% acrylic knit cap. We now realize that acrylic/polyester non-wovens are a tsunami of microplastics. I can’t believe its effectiveness as an iNat “advertisement” outweighs its harmful features… I just don’t think iNat should advocate for the production & use of those products. You can debate the virtues of organic cotton, but acrylic knit for a non-essential item is plain-old, flat-out counter to the spirit of iNat’s mission. In my opinion. 
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I merged the above post to and reopened the iNat store ideas/feedback thread
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I definitely agree; cotton, organic or not, and other natural fibers are great, but synthetics are very much NOT. A sustainable (and better quality) alternative to acrylic knits could be wool… especially if its regeneratively ranched wool but even commercial wool, cotton, etc is far better for the environment than any synthetics.
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That would be awesome!
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Amen 
i would love it if someone started their own shop (on Etsy or something similar) to sell high-quality handmade fan merch that isn’t available in the regular store. i suspect iNat staff wouldn’t mind as long as the maker wasn’t harming the brand.
iNat’s mission more than anything is to get people more connected to nature. i think part of this means connecting people to other people interested in nature. so fan merch at a reasonable cost is part of that and does not strike me as counter to the mission.
if you want to argue that some products are harmful to nature, i would argue that all non-essential products create unnecessary harm to nature. but i think that sort of debate to create real specific organizational or collective action is best suited for a legislature, not this kind of niche forum.
you answered your own question i think. there’s probably not a big enough demand for this to offer this kind of product at a reasonable price for the masses. the same kind of person who would want organic cotton would probably want a different printing process, different packaging, etc. it’s hard to change all that or add all that as an option just for one relatively niche product.
every product comes with problems. agriculture releases chemicals, antibiotics, etc. into the environment, takes land (habitat), serves as a vector of diseases, etc., etc.
i think worrying about one particular problem like microplastics is missing the overarching problem of overconsumption.
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I think everything you said here is largely correct. It’s true that there are barriers to listing an organic shirt, but would still be a nice-to-have in the shop. And I love the idea of an Etsy-ish shop.
And yep, all non-essential products give me some agita which I try to moderate for the sake of those around me. And what you say about every product being problematic is technically true… but I’m disposed to being an every-little-bit counts sort of person, especially as regards low-hanging fruit. And taking an acrylic hat out of the store is very quick & easy low hanging fruit. Given that the fundamental mission of iNat is outreach, there’s no reason to reach out with a product that’s pretty dramatically contrary to what iNat “values”, if that’s the right word.
Then decades of environmental education have failed. But yeah, we already knew that, based on how many voters are under the impression that “the economy” is more important than the environment. As if an economy can exist without an environment.
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In the spirit of plastic reduction, I wonder if we could find a source for say, bamboo rulers?
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Hmmm. I don’t know. That is a good question. That would be very cool.
Especially as it has – compared to other items – a higher than average chance of getting lost.
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Yeah. I’ll look into bamboo rulers.
Here is a brand from Amazon. Maybe Inat could partner up with this company. https://a.co/d/8UtlI5w
Let me know what you think.
Woah. That’s much more than I would have guessed.
Just checked AliExpress and found 20 six-inch bamboo rulers for less than $18 CDN, delivery included. Hmm.
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(whispering) If I don’t find umpteen rulers in the kids’ rooms when I pack the house, maybe I could find a little one at the mercado, write iNaturalist on it in Sharpie and try to draw a stick bird, and then make a little donation to iNaturalist…
Sorry, international shipping is just ridiculous usually.
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i think crafting your own fan merch out of things you already have or are already locally available is the best possible way to get fan merch.
(also, if you wanted some assistance to draw an iNat logo, you might be able to use a an AR tracing app on your mobile device to help you copy the logo a little more precisely.)
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