shapeshiftersvt

[shapeshiftersvt]

So anyway, Boston Dyke March is today

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A deep and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has responded and everyone who has boosted! Also, I want to clarify something: You do not need to know how to run a business already. This business is very weird, even amongst Vermont-based microbusinesses, and all I need from you is a commitment and a bit of experience working with people to do weird things. If you are self-rejecting because you think you're not qualified, remember that I ran and grew this thing for eleven years on, basically, a wing and a prayer and a lot of hubris. I want this to be an opportunity for someone who was in the place I was in 2014. That was not a place of great experience. So let's talk! eli@shapeshifters.co Thank you all.

A Transition

Okay. Deep breath. Here we go.

I started Shapeshifters when I was 28. It was the spring of 2014, we were at a Transgender Tipping Point, and I wanted a binder covered in scales. I had been trans and out for two years and I felt right. I felt queer. I felt like an alien: beastly, monstrous, fantastical. Powerful. I connected with other queer and trans people feeling similar ways. I wanted to give them my best feelings; I wanted them to feel what I felt when I put on my homemade blue-scaled binder.

Tomorrow I will turn 40. It's 2025, and putting on a binder feels more like armor. Like protection. Like: this is a container that holds who I am, still, always. Like: I am connected to my queer folk. I am connected to my found family and my greater community and to over twelve thousand people who we have clothed with binders just like these.

Shapeshifters has borne my partner and I through eleven years. We got married, moved to our dream town, bought a house, had a child. I have put everything into this enterprise and it has given me everything back. I am so grateful for this job and this career and this life.

And I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to begin a new career, to make a few large changes in my life for my own mental health. Somehow, by luck as much as hard work, this company grew out of the aether, and, honestly... it's outgrown me. I never really meant to run a business, or employ people, or manage a supply chain. It just sort of happened along the way. I've done my best with it, I've made it what it is. And I know that someone with a different kind of energy and organizational capacity and drive could make Shapeshifters into so much more.

So, this is my notice! I am selling Shapeshifters.

Not right away, and not to just anyone. I want to hand this company over to someone who will do right by it; who will keep it as this local, community-focused business known for customization, acessibility, and genuinely compassionate customer service.

We are the high-end tailored option for a highly niche market. We need someone who knows the field and can bring love to the work. Preferably someone who is near or can relocate to southern Vermont. We need someone who can manage a small team, who can approach every week as a new challenge, who can organize tasks and processes on multiple levels.

We have helped thousands upon thousands of people go out into the world as their authentic selves! It's wild. It's wonderful. It's fulfilling. And, sometimes, it's a lot of finicky detail work involving layers of spreadsheets, pattern math, hands-on sewing, and machine repair. Sometimes it's road trips to Pride festivals and sometimes it's filing taxes. All this too is part of the work.

If that's the kind of work you want to be doing, reach out to me. Shoot me an email at eli@shapeshifters.co with the subject line 'Biz Transition' and let's talk. Tell me about yourself and what you want and what you can do. I'm open to all the financing options. I would love to train the right person from scratch and seller-finance a long-term sale.

If you know someone who you think would be a good fit, please send them my way. We have relied upon word-of-mouth from the very beginning, and I suspect that's how we'll find our new showrunner going forward.

So. Do you want to run an established, successful business that pays trans people to make things for trans people?

Hit me up.

[shapeshiftersvt]

Have you ordered your Miku binder for Dashcon 2 yet?????

just realized that because of DashCon 2 I will be in Canada for the 250th anniversary of the US and this feels like some kind of covert Canadian plot

ah, well, I’m sure I’ll see plenty of Thomas Jeffersons at the con to get me in the revolutionary spirit, even if they’re wearing Miku binders

[shapeshiftersvt]

A Transition

Okay. Deep breath. Here we go.

I started Shapeshifters when I was 28. It was the spring of 2014, we were at a Transgender Tipping Point, and I wanted a binder covered in scales. I had been trans and out for two years and I felt right. I felt queer. I felt like an alien: beastly, monstrous, fantastical. Powerful. I connected with other queer and trans people feeling similar ways. I wanted to give them my best feelings; I wanted them to feel what I felt when I put on my homemade blue-scaled binder.

Tomorrow I will turn 40. It's 2025, and putting on a binder feels more like armor. Like protection. Like: this is a container that holds who I am, still, always. Like: I am connected to my queer folk. I am connected to my found family and my greater community and to over twelve thousand people who we have clothed with binders just like these.

Shapeshifters has borne my partner and I through eleven years. We got married, moved to our dream town, bought a house, had a child. I have put everything into this enterprise and it has given me everything back. I am so grateful for this job and this career and this life.

And I'm ready to move on. I'm ready to begin a new career, to make a few large changes in my life for my own mental health. Somehow, by luck as much as hard work, this company grew out of the aether, and, honestly... it's outgrown me. I never really meant to run a business, or employ people, or manage a supply chain. It just sort of happened along the way. I've done my best with it, I've made it what it is. And I know that someone with a different kind of energy and organizational capacity and drive could make Shapeshifters into so much more.

So, this is my notice! I am selling Shapeshifters.

Not right away, and not to just anyone. I want to hand this company over to someone who will do right by it; who will keep it as this local, community-focused business known for customization, acessibility, and genuinely compassionate customer service.

We are the high-end tailored option for a highly niche market. We need someone who knows the field and can bring love to the work. Preferably someone who is near or can relocate to southern Vermont. We need someone who can manage a small team, who can approach every week as a new challenge, who can organize tasks and processes on multiple levels.

We have helped thousands upon thousands of people go out into the world as their authentic selves! It's wild. It's wonderful. It's fulfilling. And, sometimes, it's a lot of finicky detail work involving layers of spreadsheets, pattern math, hands-on sewing, and machine repair. Sometimes it's road trips to Pride festivals and sometimes it's filing taxes. All this too is part of the work.

If that's the kind of work you want to be doing, reach out to me. Shoot me an email at eli@shapeshifters.co with the subject line 'Biz Transition' and let's talk. Tell me about yourself and what you want and what you can do. I'm open to all the financing options. I would love to train the right person from scratch and seller-finance a long-term sale.

If you know someone who you think would be a good fit, please send them my way. We have relied upon word-of-mouth from the very beginning, and I suspect that's how we'll find our new showrunner going forward.

So. Do you want to run an established, successful business that pays trans people to make things for trans people?

Hit me up.

[shapeshiftersvt]

Champ walked the runway last September at Queer AF 2024, as a shoulder-to-knee swimsuit with layered lace applique and built-in chest binder. Photo by Matt Wright.

Chaymp.

Listen. Vermont is small. The mountains are stubby, the people are sparsely settled, the state itself can be crossed in an afternoon. Our field of view is short; there's always a mountain or six lifting up out of the horizon to block the way, and though they won't have the height of the Rockies they sure will keep you from seeing the next twenty miles.

Travel and the scenery will change every thirty minutes, a new mountain ridge visible over the next, and the next, and the next. The landscape comes in layers, each a little grey-greener and foggier than the one before. When the clouds gather at the base of the mountains, the dark ridges that emerge look like dragons floating through the mist.

I've lived on flat land. I've lived by the seashore. I've gone out my front door and seen the earth or the ocean stretch forth, seen the sky come down to meet it at an impossibly far-distant line. It's awful. Sorry. I know there's poetry about that, I know it inspires probably more people than it puts off. But I'm cozy up here, with my little gently-rolled Appalachians hemming me in on all sides.

And Lake Champlain is big! It's got that oceanic quality, where you can't always see the other side of it and there are deep currents running beneath. Of course there's a sea serpent in that lake, a monster, a swimming dragon as thick as a barrel and as long as a city bus. Plenty of folks have seen it. It hit me when I got there: we need to see it. We need that dragon's back layer, that extra ridge, that mystery for more mysteries to hide behind. You get used to the mountains up here, the way they halt the eye even when they're shrouded in mist. It feels bad to be able to see all the way clear to New York.

That's not to say Champ isn't actually there. It's just to say that Vermonters as a people are probably predisposed to look for it.

[shapeshiftersvt]

fresno nightcrawlers but one is wearing JNCO jeans and the other is wearing tripp pants

[shapeshiftersvt]

Hi, what adjustment options will make the shoulder holes bigger? I have misshapen shoulders due to disability stuff, and because of that I'm unable to get most binders on unless I order a size bigger, which I don't really want to do. I'm planning on getting a zip to make it hopefully easier anyway, but any adjustments that you offer that could help out too would be great to know about!

For this, select Low Arms in any product listing!

[shapeshiftersvt]

can you wear a sprotsbra without boobs? or would you take crop top commissons? ive had my top surgery so i dont need binders anymore but ive always loved your store and considered making a purchase for one when i still used binders.

i still think of buying but it doesnt seem to reasonable now so like, maybe? if possible to get something that doesnt compress my ribs too much i might not have to tell myself no everytime i think about it and just most of the time

Heck yeah we can make crop tops! Hit me up: eli (at) shapeshifters (dot) co

[shapeshiftersvt]

I noticed the gatchapon binder kits don't have a space to put measurements or requests for things like zippers, stiff insert, and fit type. Should that stuff just be added to the comments on the order?

Hi anon! This was a glitch, it's since been fixed. Please let us know via the store contact page if it recurs!

[shapeshiftersvt]

"fellas, is it gay to make it all up as you go along because the existing systems don't fit you?"

-actual thing i said in a podcast interview today

[shapeshiftersvt]

LAST DAY OF THE SHAPESHIFTERS STOREWIDE SALE!

Today is the last day to take advantage of our store-wide sale and to get your favorite cryptid binders and sports bras before we officially retire The Cryptid Collection!

10% off all bespoke binders and sports bras!

An ADDITIONAL 5% off all cryptid binders and sports bras!

PLUS, with every purchase of a cryptid binder or sports bra, receive 50% off the purchase of any cryptid travel poster!

Discounts are applied automatically. This sale ends TONIGHT, March 31, 2025, 11:59 PM EST.

[shapeshiftersvt]

LAST DAY OF THE SHAPESHIFTERS STOREWIDE SALE!

Today is the last day to take advantage of our store-wide sale and to get your favorite cryptid binders and sports bras before we officially retire The Cryptid Collection!

10% off all bespoke binders and sports bras!

An ADDITIONAL 5% off all cryptid binders and sports bras!

PLUS, with every purchase of a cryptid binder or sports bra, receive 50% off the purchase of any cryptid travel poster!

Discounts are applied automatically. This sale ends TONIGHT, March 31, 2025, 11:59 PM EST.

[shapeshiftersvt]

do you have recommendations for how to link up with local queers in a very very conservative and very very rural place? looked up on centerlink and the closest places are several hours away. through eiq there's only one place within a half hour drive, and it's a tattoo/piercings place, not a cafe or anyplace i could really hang out. i feel so isolated and alone and surrounded and i just don't know what to do

Really, truly, the best I have for you is to call those places. I know they're several hours away. They know it. Ask them what they would do if they lived where you are.

You need to find someone a little closer to whereever you are who knows the barest minimum little bit about what it's like out there. I can't tell you where to look because we're hidden in different places all over.

The tattoo place on EIQ: are the proprietors on social media? DM them and ask. The worst they can do is say no.

Good luck.

[shapeshiftersvt]

YEAH BUD first thing you do is you get yourself to CenterLink!

Find your closest one. Get to their website and sign up for their mailing list. Then go over to Programs or Events or Offerings or whatever they got and pick one. Put it on your calendar. Show up.

If you don't have transportation, if you don't know which one to pick, if you're not sure about any of this: EMAIL THEM. Introduce yourself. Say "hi, I need my people".

I'm so serious, there are people employed by centers all over this dang map whose job is to check their email and go, "oh! Hello, a new queer person near me! How can I get you hooked into our network of support and care? Here's three suggestions you tell me what works!"

If there isn't one near you, email the nearest anyway. Say "hi, I'm located here, you're the closest one I got, what you got for me?" The answer may be "sorry, nothing", but it may also be "here's a meetup right next to you! It's offline but we know about it because that's our job. Go say hi."

That's probably plenty for now. But just in case you want another way in, here is the NEXT THING YOU DO. Check the EIQ map:

and find you a gay third space near you. Coffee shop, bookstore, comic shop, what-have-you.

Go. Sit in the corner and be shy the first time. Check the bulletin board for events and meetups.

The best way to find good online spaces, too, is to show up offline and ask.

Good luck frand.

Anyway, I was queer before it was legal and I'm still queer now

I grew up not knowing a single trans person til I was in my twenties and I still turned out trans as shit

There's millions of us and we're everywhere and we're better than ever at connecting with each other.

join your local queer discord / signal / affinity space / community center wherever and whenever you can. as always link up with each other. c'mon out to OITO if you're local to us. go to that cheesy meetup for old gay fogeys if that's all you can find. whatever!!

that's how we've always survived. the joyful histories we have are of small groups loving each other closely. find you one.

[shapeshiftersvt]

Anyway, I was queer before it was legal and I'm still queer now

I grew up not knowing a single trans person til I was in my twenties and I still turned out trans as shit

There's millions of us and we're everywhere and we're better than ever at connecting with each other.

join your local queer discord / signal / affinity space / community center wherever and whenever you can. as always link up with each other. c'mon out to OITO if you're local to us. go to that cheesy meetup for old gay fogeys if that's all you can find. whatever!!

that's how we've always survived. the joyful histories we have are of small groups loving each other closely. find you one.

[shapeshiftersvt]