How we judge

The stamp scale

Every verdict carries one stamp, and only one.

• OK to print: well done, we’d make it exactly the same.
• Off register: bold, it breaks a rule and it’s right to. The highest distinction.
• Redo: the idea holds, the making doesn’t. We say how to save it.

The Merch Index method

Every month, the Index rates a trend out of 100. The intended method combines three measures: 40% public search interest, 40% the number of objects spotted in our watch, 20% the choices made in our tools (garment color, item, method), as anonymous totals.

That third part is not active yet: until it is, the rating rests on the first two, and we say so. Each line shows the strength of its signal (strong, medium, weak): a small sample is never presented as a certainty.

Forecasts

Every forecast has a number (PRV-2027-001), a confidence score out of 100 and a deadline. At the deadline, it is declared called or missed, with the reasons. The register stays public, misses included.

The Charts

The criteria are published before the ranking. No star ratings, no service providers ranked, and no chart is ever sponsored.

Images and credits

Our in-house illustrations are generated images that only show fictional brands: their caption says so. A real piece of merch is shown in color, never retouched, with its source: the official embed, the press visual under the terms we read, or the visual sent with its licence. Without rights to the image, we publish the sheet without an image.

Right of reply and corrections

The brand or print shop concerned by a verdict can reply: its answer is published as is under the article. A reported error is corrected, and the correction is dated in the article’s version line.

We don’t pitch anyone: we answer those who write to us.

How we make a living

Off-Register is published by Depixelise, which offers free tools to get a logo ready for print. The publication lives on sponsored content, always labelled, and on links marked as sponsored. At most one piece in ten is sponsored, and never a verdict, a chart, a forecast, a comparison or a test.