Swag: Best, Worst, and Why

Swag: Best, Worst, and Why

Published: August 9, 2023

by: Maryanna Milton, Barry Glicklich, Katherine Lato

The word ‘swag’ has an interesting history which includes referring to loot, self-assurance or swaying. In the 1960s, swag took on the meaning we are using in this experience paper: “goods given to people who attend or participate in an event.” Many of us participate in the ‘swag economy,’ but have we stopped to ask some fundamental questions about it? That idea led us to survey our partners. Nine of them replied, telling us about their experiences with swag. Read on to find out what our Digital Inclusion organizations say about swag and hear their specific recommendations about the best, the worst and why to give out swag.  

First, thank you to these groups for giving their time and talent to answer our questions. Specifically:

BEST: CHOOSE USEFUL and unique

By far the most often mentioned word about the best swag was useful. As well, quality wins over quantity. As P2PU wrote, “It’s better to give one thing that’s meaningful rather than a lot of stuff that will end up in a landfill.” As Allison from PCs for People wrote, “Especially with our mission to reduce e-waste in landfills, we try to be very conscious of swag we give out and ensure it won’t end up in the landfills.”

Some specific examples of the best swag given by our partners:

CLC: Super high quality t-shirt and sleep pants.  I wore the sleep pants until the bottoms were shredded

ODLAN: Best swag I ever got at a conference was a USB bracelet that was rainbow colored. It was awesome because I could wear it and it was useful. 

PBDD: decent quality backpack (it was telecom in the 1990s). I still use it to carry electronics when I travel. Also, long-lasting bags that can be used for groceries.

RSVP: I would have to say that my favorite swag item is an insulated cup. I use it every day!

PCs for People: I always prefer swag that will serve a purpose, such as insulated grocery bags, umbrellas, etc. 

AZ StRUT: wooden cell phone stand. I’m using it as a model to create more as gifts. Also a bag of nuts with a business card reading, “We are nuts about…..”

PRC: I liked the NDIA waterproof stickers at Net Inclusion since I’m a sucker for stickers. Thinking of times I’ve stopped at business expos or other events, I always love when I get tote bags, nice clicky pens, stress balls, and can cozies. I try to minimize the clutter I bring home, so I appreciate when swag is useful.

C2K: USBs were successful, but with most things going to the cloud, we had to get creative. 20-ounce thermal mugs, magnets used to promote eRecycling, and bookmarks are very popular right now. 

What’s the number one best swag item you gave out? 

CLC: Good quality chip clips (to keep bags closed) can also have a magnet in case people want to put it on the refrigerator to hold notes/papers.

ODLAN: The best thing we have given out is our infographic sheets. People are huge fans of these because of how informative they are.

PBDD: decent quality pens with the website on them.

P2PU: Who doesn’t like a nice pen? A good pen and nice notebook are always in style.

PCs for People: The sunglasses at NDIA were well-received. The goal for these was to be knock-around sunglasses that people could keep in their car, bag, etc. for when they needed a quick pair.

AZ StRUT: repurposed small circuit boards as earrings. I give them out when people notice mine. Can also be made into keychain. 

PRC: We had a bouquet of mylar balloons in the classroom for our first in-person class since the pandemic, and the students were so excited about them that I encouraged each of them to take one home at the end of class. They were just plain balloons, no logo.

Here are some additional specific suggestions from P2PU that are helpful to consider. 

  • Hire a designer to help you find a nice expression of your brand rather than just printing your logo on stuff. I think that the circular skyline logos we’ve designed for our prior events (see boston here) were a nice example of this.
  •  It’s nice to commemorate a specific place in time – like those notebooks we made in KC that had the names of all your cities on it. We ordered the notebooks here but there are lots of places.
  • Stickermule is a great resource for consistent, high-quality stickers and things, and they’re constantly expanding their services to offer things beyond-stickers. (We got coasters from them for a dinner we had once which was fun). If you sign up for their mailing list they are always running deeply discounted promos like 50 holographic stickers for $19. It can be a lot more affordable to print stickers to put onto things like notebooks and water bottles than get them custom printed. I really like the Muji grid notebooks (which you can get very cheap) and have put stickers on them for events, rather than paying more for a custom notebook.
  • For clothing, there’s a tradeoff between using an on-demand print shop (like spreadshirt) versus buying inventory directly from a print shop. On-demand is lower risk, simpler logistics, but less quality control, way more expensive, and lower profit (if you’re trying to sell). These days, I’ve found a local print shop that I really like and whenever I need to screenprint things for an event I will use them rather than print online. (A lot of musician friends who make merch for tour agree.)

WORST: AVOID JUNKY

People don’t want bad quality swag. Plus it reflects poorly on the organization that hands it out. We also don’t like wasteful swag which includes note cards, flyers, and plastic things. Read on for more details about the world of bad swag. Who knew?!

CLC: I once received a stuffed animal. It went right into the garbage

ODLAN: The worst thing I have tried (not at ODLAN but other organizations) is t-shirts that don’t have good quality or sizes. Like the Small size would actually be an XS.

PBDD: Note cards with information about our organization. And water bottles that leak (gotten, not given).

RSVP: The worst thing we have given out I would say is a wooden ruler.  We have a whole box of them in our office and I am really not sure why we decided that these would be a great gift. 

AZ StRUT:  Anything not reusable – like smallish plastic bags stuffed with flyers. 

WHY: NAME REMINDER and CONNECT

We all agree that swag is a way to keep names and organizations in our audiences’ minds and give them an easy way to connect with us again. We may look for unique ways to show how something can be reused into swag, too (Ask Maryanna from AZ StRUT about her earrings and key chains). People in general like gifts and swag can be the start of a good conversation. 

Here’s what our partners said:

CLC: To keep our name in the public domain.

ODLAN: I give out swag or other promotional materials so people can remember us. We want to purchase laptop camera covers, which we think will be really useful to our target audience.

PBDD: to provide a useful tool that reminds people about our organization when they use it. I have replaced giving away Business cards with good quality PBDD pens because the important thing is that they can find our website and through that they can contact me

AZ StRUT: Remind person of organization and encourage them to seek more info about us. Website on item is key. Show how easy it is to reuse something (ear rings/keychains).

WRAP UP ON SWAG

Let’s be honest, who hasn’t eyed those NDIA notebooks at the Net Inclusion conferences hoping that it would be a swag gift? We Digital Equity folks like useful and free things as long as they are attractive and of a good quality, too. 

As a matter of fact, because of all this talk about swag, Barry Glicklich, founder of PBDD, has taken his swag game to another level. Maybe YOU will be a recipient of his new swag item. 

Can you guess what new swag he’s showing off in this photo?