Makeshift started as a question: why is it so hard for independent artists to sell their work online without losing their soul to an algorithm?
Etsy became a search engine for mass-produced goods. Instagram became a pay-to-play billboard. Redbubble commoditised art into mugs and phone cases. The platforms that were supposed to help creators kept extracting more while giving less.
In early 2026, sitting in a Fitzroy studio surrounded by artists who were incredible at making things but exhausted by selling them, the idea landed: build a marketplace that’s curated, not algorithmic. That takes a fair cut, not a greedy one. That treats artists as the product, not the content.
So that’s what we’re doing. One artist at a time, one sale at a time, starting in Melbourne and expanding from there. The first 25 artists get a free subscription for 6 months. The community shapes the platform. And we stay bootstrapped so we’re accountable to artists, not investors.
That’s the whole story. We’re just getting started.