Corporate swag / logo wear

[k3am]

I honestly have never in my life wanted to wear any corporate swag or logo wear from one of my employers, but I'm curious.. 

Do you need to purchase your corporate logo wear? Or is it given to you?

[mommyatty]

We purchase ours, which is really galling since I go to a ton of conferences where they expect me to be in logo wear.

[186momx]

No swag or corporate gear here. My brother doesn't and he works for Valvoline and it is uniform based even as a manager. My teacher friends have to buy their own school spirit shirts and are required to wear them at all school events and on Fridays. I always feel bad that they have to buy the expensive school crap. $50 sweatshirts and $25 t-shirts and they are only sold once a year.

[twinmomma]

We provide a ton throughout the year to people for free. Mainly t-shirts, but sweatshirts and long sleeve quarter zip shirts too. But we will also run orders where employees can purchase it on their own. For example, we did a group order for nice jackets that people purchased themselves. My team just helped facilitate the group ordering for that one item.

ETA: usually people spending their own money are actually cashing in points that we give out. So instead of cashing in for a gift card or a gift item, they get the special branded clothing.

[mae0111]

I've never, ever purchased corporate swag. And I've had a LOT of swag over the years.

In fact, I spent my morning getting a new batch of swag embroidered at the printers. It's really nice stuff. I'll definitely wear it.

DH also gets swag for his employees and families. It never occurred to either of us to make the employees purchase it.

[rere]

We used to have to purchase which I never did, but in the last several years, we have been given $100 clothing allowance annually. This has been nice since after Covid, out dress code has gotten more casual dependingon the situation. It's nice to pull out a logo pollo shirt or sweater with khakis and not have to put in a lot of thought to your outfit.

[acr]

Shirts upon hire, and then we accumulate store points for birthdays & work anniversaries that can be used to buy swag. Thankfully we can also convert those store points into donation $$ to a charity of our choice too.

[waverly]

We buy shirts/ fleeces for employees. There isn't a super regular schedule. In the past it was up to the whim of the director. Then we were doing it annually, and I think this year we are wearing the same shirts as last year.

[sdlaura]

It has also never occurred to me that someone would have to purchase company swag. We don’t have anything fancy but any branded stuff is given to us.

[supertrooper1]

I used to have a uniform allowance, but I would never wear anything in public. Even if I stopped by a store on my way home in uniform, I always wore a cover jacket. In my new position, we don't wear uniforms, so no allowance. We have the option to buy polo shirts with our own money, but I never would wear it. I think the target purchaser would be a man from my division working in HQ.

I was given a water bottle with our agency logo and I would never use it in public.  My agency is not well liked by the public.   

[sandandsea]

It varies. We get some swag (t shits, backpack, water bottles, little crap, a hydra flask)but have to buy other swag (Nike/north face jackets/polos/other apparel/etc).

[sdlaura]

Is it a tech company thing, that people would use their own money to wear the company logo?

I've been with my firm for 15 years and I'm a partner/shareholder, but I would never actually want to wear my company logo!

[k3am]

sdlaura, I am not in a tech company and would never wear anything with a logo on it. But our marketing person used to sit outside my office, and I was always shocked at how many people WANTED logo wear. They just opened a swag shop - DNW to buy a shirt for $30 or jacket for $150. Each employee gets a free water bottle and coffee mug when they start - to be used in the office, since we don't offer paper products in the kitchen. I've used both of those at least.

DH *is* at a tech company, and AT LEAST half of his tops and jackets are logo wear. He recently got a pair of pants sent to him. (And Frisbees, a blender, an iron, and most recently, an engraved brick, all of which is very "WTF are we supposed to do with this?!?!" on my end). But he's never had to pay anything.

[sdlaura]

k3am , an IRON? Like a golf iron, right?

[k3am]

sdlaura, No. A legitimate iron. You know, because all the tech workers that wear their free t-shirts are spending so much time ironing. No idea.

[sdlaura]

k3am that's amazing!

[macmars45]

I bought a t-shirt with my school logo. I also have a high school logo shirt. There's only one high school in my district and I attended it 20+ years ago. :-p My coworkers wear our school shirts & sweatshirts as well as the high school logo ones. The kids at our school wear both as well. *shrug*

H has always been given corporate swag. He has one shirt from his current employer. We still use the coffee cups and he still wears the shirt & scarf etc from a company he's no longer employed by. They gave the best swag; it's really nice stuff. 

[erbear]

I do but it’s different — I work at a school. My husband got a backpack and shirt from his new firm and he never wears or uses it.

[twinmomma]

As the marketing person who orders it, I can confirm that many, many people desperately want logo swag to wear! It is kind of wild to me. We give out a ton of free stuff already, so it always blows my mind when employees ask me to set up an order for specific items that they'll pay for out of pocket. For a long time, our dress code was business casual unless you were wearing a logo-ed item. So that made sense, people wanted to stock up on tshirts and hoodies to get around the dress code. But now we're full blown casual and no one cares what we wear, but people still want the swag!

[macmars45]

Jan 26, 2024 15:33:30 GMT -5 sdlaura said:

It has also never occurred to me that someone would have to purchase company swag. We don’t have anything fancy but any branded stuff is given to us.

Public school employee here. The public fight us tooth and nail against needed levies/tax increases etc so we can work in safe buildings without asbestos and hire the necessary staff to teach the local kids. They'd laugh hysterically if we asked them to pay for clothes with the school logo on it.

[sdlaura]

macmars45  What I meant/what I should have written is that I would never want logo wear from my corporate employer, not that all employers should give out logo wear for free  I would never pay for it because I would never want to actually wear it! So if my employer wants me to wear their logo, they better be giving it to me for free, or it's not happening.