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 the person assigning it to them 😖

It’s a recipe for lame, boring merch: logos slapped on unisex tees, cheap pocket umbrellas, and faulty phone chargers.

In this post by Ronak Shah, he highlights what goes wrong when you don’t
micromanage the development of swag.

But here’s the good news, you don’t need to micromanage your company’s swag.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 **𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞** 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐰𝐚𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧.

Think about your company values and what’s trendy in the fashion world, marry the two and you’ll be off and running. If you have a design team they can work on this for you. (Or even better, hire us Go To Market – Custom Print-On-Demand Branded Merchandise — we will design your goodies and you’ll be set for years.)

But don’t wait until the last minute and then ask an admin to handle your swag. That will set them — 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘨 — up for failure.

Have you ever been tasked with making swag? Did you panic? How did you handle it??