Just in time for the holidays, the WordPress Swag store has reopened. There are two things worth noticing. The first is that the link does not point to WP SwagStore which is where the original store called home. The second is that the new store is running on Joomla. It was shocking to me as well as others when I mentioned that fact on Twitter. Andrew Nacin while not directly involved with the project has explained why the site is using Joomla through HelloMerch.com:
The swag store at wpswagstore.com is built on WP. The store for this holiday season is, clearly, not. Typically, merchandise was kept at Pier 38 and mailed by the fine folks at Automattic. Because of Automattic staffing changes and the closing of Pier 38 (all current merchandise is in storage — this is all new stuff), there was a need to re-route orders to a fulfillment center. In order to get this live as quickly as possible, a third-party service was used. Right now, every available core/community developer is working on version 3.3. No one is available to develop (and rapidly develop, at that) the existing swag store to get it up to speed for the current (and who knows, possibly transient) fulfillment situation. This is all just temporary.
First off, a huge thank you to Andrew Nacin who is one of the few that understands a thing or two about communication. Secondly, definitely browse around through the store as a new Red colored hoodie has been added as well as a red, green, or blue Christmas ornament featuring the WordPress logo. While I prefer that the ornaments be priced around $5.00, I decided to purchase a blue one. The ordering experience wasn’t too bad. Shipping ended up being half the cost of the item but considering it’s a WordPress branded ornament, I’ll let it slide.
Bummer, but fair answer :)