The easy way of understanding Protomillennial.com, is that it’s a new retail website that currently just sells tee shirts and sweatshirts from a couple of small WNY-based brands. We have an online store with about 22 different products currently for sale, plus this brand new blog that you’re reading, and a YouTube channel which we’re also just getting started with. We're an online retailer with an "old-school-meets-new-school" approach to marketing, design, printing, and business in general. We're focused on starting small and building community locally, by celebrating and promoting our region and the creative people who live here. This is actually kind of an over-simplified introduction, but it's a great place to start.
The word “Protomillennial” refers to the subset of the population that was born during the years of about 1977-1983, right on the cusp between the group we call Generation X, and the generation we now call Millennials. In the "developed world" these Protomillennials were the last group of children to grow up and learn how to live in a mostly analog, pre-internet world, which also put them among the first wave of students in public schools to be able to use and understand the internet when it was still brand new. Due to a very specific set of circumstances of time, technology, economics, and existence, the Protomillennials were given a unique opportunity to become the early adopters of modern global digital culture, whether they liked it or not. They were also, in many cases, the last generation to witness or learn certain "old world" skills related to traditional ways of procuring and producing things like food, clothing, and the necessities of life, which were handed down from elder family members through the generations.
At protomillennial.com, we are interested in hearing and documenting stories from the other people of our age group, (and all age groups) but particularly about peoples' experiences growing up in different areas during the 1980's and 90's. We're interested in learning about how some of these experiences, both shared and unique, have shaped us, and how they are continuing to affect us as adults. This is the real core of the stuff that we are here to talk about, and we have a lot to say. In addition to the previously mentioned media, we are also currently working on a bi-monthly printed zine, as well as a couple of collaborative audio/video projects for spring 2023 that aren't really ready to be talked about just yet.
One key underlying premise here, is the idea of doing whatever you can, as well as you can, with the resources that you currently have on hand. Another core concept is the benefit of getting started on a big project today, rather than waiting until timing or conditions are just right. We are not totally sure exactly what we’re doing or where we’re ultimately going with all of this yet, but we have started building anyway.
-BT