The Dialup Log / Issue 6: A brave new world

Hello Dialers, it’s been a hot minute. First of all, a mandatory salutation: “Happy new year!” Hope 2026 has been treating you well. And as the title foreshadows I do have updates especially on how The Dialup Internet will be carried out for 2026 and onwards.

For the uninitiated of the newsletter, hate to start your first newsletter with a change in direction for the business. Though you are welcomed to snoop around the other issues from 2025 here.

Now that we have set the scene, let’s dive into what this is all about.

It’s the sixth issue of The Dialup Log! And I’m glad that this is not the last issue. Although it was quite close.

For those who’ve just joined the newsletter, in The Dialup Log I mostly share the behind the desk workings, which are design ideas in the works and research I’ve come a crossed. Though, we’ll see how that will change over the course of the next few months. This week is all about the direction.

Michael from The Dialup Internet

I’ve had about a solid month to think about the direction of The Dialup Internet. To preface, the business itself selling hats has rather been lackluster. Mostly because the landscape of e-commerce has been challenging at the least especially with the many changes now in effect surrounding AI tools becoming more ubiquitous.

This just means I’ll have to raise prices and let it feel more like artifacts, which I’ll explain in a minute. I love retro game tech gears on the side, and I’ve experienced plenty of other retro game tech related indie shops just disappear; where the idea itself and the product is surprisingly high quality, but running an one-person e-commerce business is pretty difficult particularly if you started out as a hobbyist. Meaning you put much love into your products, I guess by that definition it’s more than a product it’s more like an artwork, and the business-side is really the opposite of that. I would define these artworks more as an artifact. And while I don’t sell tech, I consider my own work to sit between a product and a work of love. Maybe it comes with the designer hat, pun intended.

And then there’s the pricing element of the hats. As a standalone hat, I just can not compete with other similar hats in the space. These nostalgic reproductions can be streamlined in larger quantities and the bestselling designs don’t necessarily need high detail. Which is in contrast to how I approach the designs where it’s a whole process of researching the past: looking into magazines, videos, archived websites, big box packaging, and etc; trying to find the correct perspective on how the companies and the logo itself was viewed at the time. And pinpointing which of the design variations was the most viewed or familiar. I mean each variation have slight changes, for example, AltaVista the 1998 logo is different from the 1995 logo. (Though as a designer, I don’t always choose the most familiar one at times)

I started to formulate this project at least 2-3 years ago. Where the idea started from creating various physical merchandise versions of the dot-com company’s visual works, mostly logos. And I would iterate on them with new found perspective, new data; aligned with the idea that it would be a better representation of the value of the company. It’s also a dive into what kind of effects these companies brought and how it influenced people during the 90s and y2k era.

Coming back to the pricing element, I thought offering free shipping would be a way to enter the niche industry, but it cuts into the margins pretty badly. The post-pandemic era for shipping has changed enormously. However, I’d like to still keep the idea of free shipping just as a means for me to participate during sales season where it wouldn’t be an automatic offering or a means to follow trends, but really let it be a season of offering thanks to people who support and sharing that to others.

All this to say, I’m raising prices and expanding on products without trying to compete with other merchandises out in the wild internet. While I can point to these cool shops and surely they can do a better job creating a streamlined versions of what I have to offer. However, I on the other hand will stick to my artifacts and sell them as art pieces rather than products. But not until Q2, I will raise the prices of products that were bound to be risen like the Netscape badge hat. But starting Q2 you’ll see single hats closer to the $40-$50 at the minimum as I figure out how to best present better valued options.

I’ve also considered the possibility of a quarterly subscription, where I include not only the digital work file, the new archived files of the logo and monthly hats, but create other memorabilia of the era that matches the vibe. E.g. more shirts, cups, even find pens and pins. I’ll need the see what’s available and more importantly if I can keep up with it to let it be an option, but one way or another I want to design big box packaging for these past relics and let it be a whole experience that changes hopefully seasonally. Here’s a few designs I’ve did as a creative outlet in the past.

Honestly, I’m just glad this isn’t the last issue of the Dialup Log. I’ve considered that option as well. But knowing how I felt when indie shops no longer operate, there’s a weird sadness about it, like finding an abandoned mall. And I started this project more in the sense of keeping the nostalgia alive and sending that era’s best lessons to today’s generation.

I’m reading this book called the The Nineties: A Book by Chuck Klosterman. I haven’t gotten too far, but it really shows the naissance of the era setting up for how Generation X came up to be and I see a lot of correlation between the generation that shaped the 90s and y2k with today’s younger generation in their 20s and 30s.

I’m a millennial who did experience the 90s as a child and my twenties in the y2k era. But, I realize that the childhood and the twenties I experienced is shaped by the adults of that era. They didn’t have an agenda, they just lived through it creating products and culture along the way. While I might have a certain influence being part of the culture in the y2k era as an adult, I’m sure I’ve only consumed what others made during the 90s.

And this is interesting for me in learning about the past. What made the 90s tick such nostalgia and difference from today’s world. Is it really a particular nostalgia of that era that’s being chased today, as in is it really that special? Or is it the same nostalgia other generations have felt as they’ve gotten older? Whatever the answer, I do feel there was a creative expressiveness during that era which I’d like to capture and share with the world in hopes that it would create a better and a lightened up place.

Alright, back to the Dialup’s future.

I’m keeping the Dialup Internet alive more as project rather than a business. I’d hope you would look at the price tags more as a way of funding the project. Though since there’s a price tag unto products it’s really hard to escape the reality of the business aspects of all this.

Here’s a heads up by February the Netscape badge hat will increase to $34.99 until the start of Q2 where most products will rise in prices at least by another 15-40%, I will try to get a feel for leaving a few hats or just one in legacy prices, but most will seriously be bumped up. I will leave free shipping just so when I do any sales it will be a more considered act. Something I’d also want to participate in by letting the sales cut into my margins of time, sweat and effort. I find putting up sales is also another marketing tool that sometimes easily delineate myself from the initial purpose of the brand.

And of course the newsletter will continue, and I’ll be sure to keep the once a month timeline.

That’s a wrap. I’ve been thinking about this since November last year and I feel great about the direction. Now that a direction is set for 2026, I’ll need to think about how to share more of the research efforts online. But for now this will suffice.

As always real thanks for reading all the way through! I’ll be signing off! If you ever have questions or suggestions or photos of hats or early internet company gear send me an email at

This was a real heartfelt writing and hope you stick around for 2026.

And finally, if you would like to support The Dialup Internet, it helps me and this indie project immensely if you can write a review, share a photo of the hats, and/or share with people about The Dialup Internet, so that it can keep doing the things it does: finding more archival internet and turn them into archival artifacts.