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shop swag...thoughts?

tay2daizzo8

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 8, 2013
Location
north of Bean town
Hey Everyone,

Just wanted your opinion on shop "swag" ie: shirts hats jackets..that sort of thing.
For those who have this for their employees, do you think you see any return on it? Im pretty sure it would be a rare occasion you would make a sale from someone seeing your logo out in the public, but maybe it does provide a marketing opportunity. Maybe its a team building thing?

For those who have decided against this what was your reasoning?

I see guys around here that we poached from a big aerospace place all wearing their logo and images...kinda want to see our logo instead.

Thoughts?

Thanks again
 
I do something similar here. I'm not looking to drum up business, but have a few other reasons being:

1. I'd like the shop to be a little more well known in town. Consider it advertising. I'm not looking for business though, I'm usually looking for employees.
2. Trying to give them something to wear around the shop. Especially in the summer when it's hot. Which helps with....
3. Trying to wean us off of the uniform company. I'm not trying to short change the employees, but I'd rather provide a clothing voucher than pay the uniform company.

I've been giving each employee two shirts each of the past two years at Christmas. The shirts have something pertaining to products we make. There's a logo on the front chest, a graphic on the rear, and the plant name and city, state. Hope to continue the tradition each year. It's becoming sort of a thing as the shirt is different each year. And nobody works on it but me, so the shirt is a surprise each Christmas.

I'm more of a cap guy myself, but a good cap is the same cost as a tshirt. And more people wear tshirts than ball caps. The etched insulated mugs are popular, but perhaps on their way out. A popular (and stupid) thing right now is the little devices to push buttons and pull door handles in this COVID world. Cut a ton of them with your logo out of some nice plate, and you've got instant key ring swag. Easy peasy for a laser shop.

I'd recommend finding a friend that is good at graphics. Good, attractive shirts only cost a little more than a cheap, thin shirt with poor graphics.
 
We do T shirts, long sleeves, & hats for everyone. Embroidered polos for office people. T shirts are a way better look than uniforms. If we want young machinists to feel like this is becoming a trade to be proud of we shouldn't dress them like oil changers.
 
As an employee, I think it says something about your employer for such a relatively small* gesture of giving out a shirt/hat/jacket etc. I have shirts from several past employers.

* not in a bad way :)
 
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I see guys around here that we poached from a big aerospace place all wearing their logo and images...kinda want to see our logo instead.

Thoughts?

Thanks again

Note: I'm answering this from an outside perspective.

If you already see them in swag from past employers, then you know which items they are likely to wear. The items you don't see? Those are the items they don't wear/use.

When I worked at a place that required polo shirts they were nice. Now that I work at a t-shirt sort of place t-shirts are nice. You can guess which sort I tend to wear outside of work (hint, I don't lounge around the house or work on my car in a polo shirt).

Jackets and water bottles/mugs are nice only if they serve a purpose.

The first coffee mug/bottle is nice as I can use it at work. My last employer gave us all coffee mugs every year. Those who wore out/broke last year's mug as well as the new employees all enjoyed it. Those of us who just kept it at our desk had 4 or 5 company mugs on our desk after a few years. We aren't going to use more than one at once, and I don't need more of those at home (moral of the story, you can't please everyone, but this might be a better every 2-3 year item). I did get a Yeti branded one which I use quite a bit simply because it keeps things hot/cold a lot better than anything I already have, but note, only one. It's not wearing out and I don't want another (I would if my wife took it all the time, but she has her own preferred mug).

As above, spend the couple extra $ to make it a nice t-shirt/whatever. The biggest argument for "Don't do it!" is when it's something that costs you money and effort, but they don't want. HR at a previous employer wanted to "have something for everyone since people want different things". The result was a large bag of really cheap stuff nobody wanted each year. A T-shirt too thin to wear more than once, a custom roll up picnic blanket (nobody does picnics in Texas in the summer, the velcro gets in the way of actual blanket use, plus it was see-through thin). We all felt guilty throwing the stuff out, and the local Salvation Army doesn't want 300 cheap company branded key rings and refrigerator magnets. Eventually they went to just one item, but a bit nicer. Saved them money and then the items actually got used.

On a similar theme, but not accomplishing your stated goals, gift cards for carry-out at a local restaurant might be welcome. I know my spouse is getting pretty tired of cooking all the time since we haven't gone out since March and the local restaurants could use the help. Obviously this may go from nice to problematic if it's a place that's dine-in only/a movie theater, etc.
 
I have a collection of t-shirts, caps, and coffee mugs from 50 years of employers. I still wear them. Reminds me of a time many years ago when a group of us would happy hour after work at the local strip clubs. One day at work management put out a memo to employees to please refrain from wearing company attire in afore mentioned strip clubs. I guess that was the kind of advertising they didn't want.
 
I like nice pens that work and keep them around because they are useful.

My favourite two are bright lemon yellow and High viz orange because I can see them and they always work.

I've got plenty of company clothing that I didn't wear because of gaudy logos and such.
 
I have a collection of t-shirts, caps, and coffee mugs from 50 years of employers. I still wear them. Reminds me of a time many years ago when a group of us would happy hour after work at the local strip clubs. One day at work management put out a memo to employees to please refrain from wearing company attire in afore mentioned strip clubs. I guess that was the kind of advertising they didn't want.

Lol,

Last place I worked the shop owner talked the bar down the street into putting up a sign that said "employees from (company name) must leave by 12:30"
 
I like nice pens that work and keep them around because they are useful.

I've got plenty of company clothing that I didn't wear because of gaudy logos and such.

I second the NICE pen! I personally prefer gel pens, but really something above a 10 cent bic would be good. Maybe even a desk set with pen/pencil/notepad. And you can't go wrong with a gift card.

OT a bit, but when this covid go into full swing, the owner here bought us lunch every Friday from an Italian place he really liked for about 2 months. Then to top it off, we all got $100 giftcards to said restaurant after the lunches ended. :)

Good pen/flash lights are good too. Not only do they come in handy at work, you can't have too many flashlights around the house/garage.

edit: not for advertising really as mentioned, but I have received 2 shirts in the past that got some notice. One had our company name and logo on the front, and on the back it said "relax, I'm a professional". That actually got a few questions when I was out and about and I would briefly explain I was a machinist and we made "tools" at my job.

Second was a company shirt that had logo on front and back, plus the back had something about our new location overseas. People sometimes ask if I had been there, which I say yes, but I am at a different job, which doesn't help my current employer... :leaving:
 
You can purchase smocks/lab coats for everybody and have them embroidered with the company logo. It saves their clothes from getting ruined by coolant. However, so as not to simply saddle your employees with an extra item to launder at home, it helps to have an apartment-size washer-dryer in the shop. And of course give everybody two smocks so they always have a clean one.

Some of the former vendors being out of business, over the years we have gone from light blue to light green and now royal blue—depends on what you can find. So they're no longer uniform. Also the welder is always issued black. FWIW, to supply ten people will run around $1000 plus embroidery.
 
Cheap swag is crap, clothing a notch up, but in the end it is lawn sale crap.

Give nice shirts with company logo to your employees it's a tax write off for heavens sake

Buy a real silver dollar like the Morgan, $25 to $30 each. Now you got something. Even if you bought a 2021 set of coins in a plastic case, it's always gonna be nice. If you want to be cheap at the trade shows, tell them to put their business card in the fish bowl for a drawing to get a silver dollar, later go through and pick the companies you want to get business from and send them with your line card, or whatever

One place I worked gave every employee bonus money in Eisenhower dollars. Never forgotten by employees and I bet some still have them.

For trade shows pass out really good stuff like an anker battery pack with your company logo on it.
 
Thirty years ago the local gold mine paid all employees in two dollar bills one Friday. This brought attention in the newspaper about how much they contributed to the local economy and maybe we should overlook any environmental issues.
Cost them nothing but a bit of extra time counting out the pay envelopes. I bet they had to special order the cash from the bank.

Bill D
 
Uniforms were mentioned as a bad (or not great) idea, but what if you did a uniform and laundry service? Not a machining job (at the time) but my first job issued 11 sets of uniforms, you brought in the dirty end of the week, had 6 for the next week (one spare to wear while in laundry, or for a Saturday), rinse and repeat. No oily dirty chip laden clothes to ruin the wife's washer, everyone wins. :)

ALso, love the idea of getting paid, at least a portion in silver coins, $2 bills, etc.

For some reason I could not add a picture yesterday.

20210113_143415.jpg
 
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I have a collection of t-shirts, caps, and coffee mugs from 50 years of employers. I still wear them. Reminds me of a time many years ago when a group of us would happy hour after work at the local strip clubs. One day at work management put out a memo to employees to please refrain from wearing company attire in afore mentioned strip clubs. I guess that was the kind of advertising they didn't want.


It would be interesting to know how management became aware that you were frequenting said strip club. Did management pop in for a cold one in their company polo shirts?
 
I try to give my guys enough per year for cold weather clothing, and boots and jeans. I did the name thing for a while but everyones tastes are different. I dont like my help coming in in ripped out jeans and ratty tennis shoes makes me looks like I'm not paying enough wages. I give them enough for boots and jeans and let them go get them. all my help has got the hint, without being told. plus welding 6010 5p+ with a blown crotch is a one time lesson. I have wanted to put a washing machine and dryer in the shop just haven't got it done that would make their wives happy.
just remember the swag is for you, not them and that's how they will look at it, they will be using that shirt you paid extra for to clean up a floor mess.
 
I have an expensive product that I install in the field. Travel all over the country doing it. I bring with about 20 t-shirts to each job. Everybody wants a t-shirt and I make sure the people who are going to help me or potentially get in the way get a t-shirt *before the job starts*. Left over t-shirts at the end get given to foreman to distribute among his other guys. I costs me about $120 in t-shirts but can easily save me hours and hours of waiting.

So we have bins and bins of t-shirts, hats, mugs, sharpies, etc. I tell my employees to take whatever they need whenever they need it. Result is that at least a portion of the crew has something with company name and logo and color on on most days. And if they ruin it, no big deal they can grab another.

I also allow all employees to buy whatever steel toe boots they want and I reimburse them. I try to convince them to get something decent so their feet don't hurt. And they get prescription safety glasses whenever needed. The people doing electronics assembly usually use that as an opportunity to get minimal safety glasses that they can wear as normal glasses. The people like myself get more industrial safety glasses and I replace as needed. I burn through prescription safety glasses every 6 months or so myself.

People that work in the field or shop I tell them to buy some work pants of their choice on the company credit card. Get a jacket too, when needed.

Total cost of all that is maybe $300 or $400 per employee per year. Each employee accounts for about $500k in revenue. So not a big deal. Internally we charge the t-shirts to advertising and the rest is just shop supplies. It's kind of like flap discs and grinding wheels. Just another type of consumable.
 
A coworker I had at the old job told me that his previous employer wanted him to buy his polo shirts with the company logo on them. Thankfully he told the boss if he wanted him to wear it he had to give it to him. My friend then came up with a personal policy that he wouldn't buy clothes with other peoples logos on them, why pay to advertise for someone else? I started paying more attention to this myself and have mostly stopped buying any clothes with others' logos etc. It is very hard to do that these days, even alot of the nicer stuff has the makers branding front and back. Of course most people these days see it as a status symbol or club membership.

I have bought a few shirts from a couple small entities that I did want to support, I wanted to help them out a little and it is not the same to me as buying Nike or Under Armor etc. Those companies are so big it makes me anti establishment thinking about buying their merch.

I listened to a podcast where a fab shop owner was asked about his T shirts and he said he had seen nothing but good come from having T shirts with his shop logo on them. He noticed that it would start conversations about his business which led to sales for him and even a couple new hires.
 








 
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