If you're anything like me you have amassed countless company t-shirts throughout your career. Some you might have been given, and some you actually purchased on your own (think special shirts available for company milestones, special events, or ERGs).
It can add up quickly. Truth be told, company apparel does come in handy, especially during the pandemic. Barely anyone wanted to get dressed, it wasn't necessary. Loungewear became a thing. So putting on a company branded t-shirt, was easy, comfortable, and no one would question why are you wearing a t-shirt during a video conference call (little did they know you most likely had no pants on, or better yet, just your pajama bottoms). No judgement there!
But if all you're giving your employees and/or clients is company swag, surveys have shown you may want to limit it.
So here are a FIVE reasons why one should limit company swag apparel as gift items.
- T-shirts generally never fit well. To many times the options are S, M, L, XL for example. But then the question becomes, it is a woman's Medium? Do they run small or big? So to be on the safe side, most size up. Which leads us to reason #2.
- 9x out of 10, company branded t-shirts end up as pajama wear. Once your oversized, too small, company swag t-shirt arrives, it is highly likely it will end up as something you wear to bed (or your kids, if it was to small). Listen, it does save on buying pajamas, but if you sent the t-shirts because you wanted your employees/clients to wear it out, you may have missed the mark. Speaking of wearing your company swag outside, let's move to #3.
- Sometimes company swag gives unwanted attention. Last thing you want is someone approaching you while you're eating and asking about their cell phone plan because they see you have a telecom company on your shirt, or worse Theranos swag and well, you know the rest.
- Great for company events, but not necessarily outside of them. Most people want to separate work from their personal life and walking around with company branded apparel outside of work does not help with. For some it does, but for most, they prefer not.
- Properly disposing of company swag apparel. How do you do that anyway? Can you donate company swag apparel to Goodwill? I don't donate company apparel I own. I tear up the logo and then recycle the remaining fabric at my local H&M. I just feel like, I would hate for someone to misrepresent the company I worked for. Especially jackets. Imagine if a PSE&G employee throws away their company jacket and someone uses it to misrepresent themselves? Most companies have no protocol on how to properly discard company apparel. If you are such a company, you might want to have one.
We recently conducted a poll on Instagram asking if our community thought that company apparel was more for marketing than for a gifts. 86% agreed and 14% disagreed. Thoughts? #marketing #work #career #apparel #corporateswag
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