Here’s why most swag sucks: The people who 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠 are separate and distinct from the people who 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠. For the people tasked with ordering the swag: 1) Swag is an annoying part of their work 🙄2) They don’t have a design or fashion background 👚3) They aren’t given specific direction by […]

Gift boxes are the salads of corporate gifting. In your salad, you’ve got:🥗 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧: your protein or fancy add-on🥗 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺: iceberg lettuce or skinny carrot slices🥗 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴: in my case, raisins or a spicy seed In the case of a gift box, you’ve […]

The benefits of employees and fans wearing your merch are so huge that 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 💰𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞💰 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡. This is radical because most people’s first thought with branded merchandise is cost and whether they’ll see any profit. Let’s flip this around; here are two of the more obvious […]

Is anyone else completely in the thrall of Love is Blind this season?? 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐝) 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐫𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯: I find myself washing dishes as slowly as possible and folding laundry with precision as I watch the drama unfold […]

One of my biggest fears in running this business is that merch is trivial and I’m wasting everyone’s time. 🫣 I probably have this thought once a month. Anyone else here ever feel the same about their field? I don’t want to BS you with some girl-power speech about how merch is actually super important. […]

The Stanley 1913 brand — famous for their indestructible, trendy mugs — just launched a line of merch and 👏 it’s 👏 freakin’ 👏 fabulous. I want to hate it because of how egregiously obsessed people are with the mugs, but 𝐈’𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡 5 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐧𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 😮 The new line has […]

“You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” – 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘨 When you’re printing many copies of the same gift for a team — even if it’s high quality — at least half of the people aren’t getting a gift at all. They’re getting something they’ll give away, donate, shove […]

👊 LET’S END UGLY MERCH 👊 Close your eyes and imagine the ugliest piece of merch you’ve ever seen. For me, it’s a reusable soft lunch box with a big-🍑 pharma logo in bright white letters. Now imagine that there are — literally — THOUSANDS of that item being “gifted” to people at a company or […]

A friend called me yesterday to bemoan that her client wants to print 1500 stress balls for an upcoming conference 🚫👎🙈 She knew it was a bad idea but didn’t know what to suggest instead. Because a lot of people face this problem, let’s talk about what I recommend! If you have a trade show or […]