Mark your calendars, folks – Employee Appreciation Day 2024 is on Friday, March 1st!
While it’s always a good idea to express your appreciation year-round, this holiday is a great time to make your team feel extra special by sending thoughtful swag.
Curated company swag not only shows your team how much you care, but it also enhances company culture and boosts employee engagement – it’s a win-win!
Here are our top swag tips and tricks, plus inspiration to help you on your gifting journey.
Jump ahead to:
Swag Gifting Dos and Don’ts
Gifting swag isn’t as simple as slapping a logo on a t-shirt (though, wouldn’t it be great if it was that easy?!). You want your swag to stand out and resonate with your employees.
After helping awesome companies like Zendesk, Vendr, and Evernote send employee gifts, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to give awesome company swag.
Here are our top swag dos and don’ts 👇
Do:
✅ Make a statement with creative ideas: The best swag is unexpected — sure, you can send custom t-shirts or branded water bottles. But this Employee Appreciation Day, consider unique options like custom headphones or reusable tote bags.
✅ Use branded packaging: Send swag in style with custom branded packaging. This way, you’ll make an impact from the moment your employees receive their packages!
✅ Add a personal touch: Employee swag shouldn’t feel stuffy and soulless. Adding a handwritten note or video message (delivered via QR code) can make all the difference in telling your team how awesome they are!
✅ Showcase your brand: Make sure to use your brand colors, fonts, and more so your swag represents your company.
For more advice, check out our CEO’s top five tips on giving meaningful gifts. 💡
Now it’s time to talk about common swag mistakes that you should avoid.
Don’t:
❌ Send bland or blah swag: It can be tempting to put a logo on a gray t-shirt and call it a day, but there are better options! Come up with creative gift ideas and designs to wow your employees.
❌ Go overboard with your logo: No one wants to be a walking billboard for your company. Use your logo with discretion.
❌ Give cheap or flimsy items: Higher-quality swag is more expensive, but it’s worth it! Cheap or low-quality swag is likely to end up in the trash.
Be sure to check out the video below for even more swag tips!
If you need help choosing, customizing, and sending swag in bulk, let’s chat!
The Best Swag to Gift Employees in 2024
Custom logo blankets
Keep your team cozy with a fun custom logo blanket! Add tasteful branding details so your team will feel proud to display it around their home.
Want to send something else with the blanket? Consider gifting a custom logo candle (like these beautiful candles from Gold + Ivy) with some custom matchboxes. Talk about cozy!
Branded speakers
With tech gadgets and accessories being one of the most popular gifting trends of 2024, you’ll really WOW your employees if you surprise them with branded speakers for Employee Appreciation Day!
Stylish, practical, and unexpected — this gift will really stand out in a sea of swag. Employees likely have a million branded pens, but it’s unlikely they have high-quality Bluetooth speakers! This is a great gift that they can keep and use for years to come.
Branded luggage
Add a touch of luxury to your gifting efforts with high-quality branded luggage. Luggage is a great option if you’re looking for an unexpected, but practical gift.
Choosing a high-value item, like luggage, also shows your team how much you appreciate their hard work.
Check out this Away suitcase and custom luggage tag the team at IAS sent their employees. Also, note the tasteful branding efforts!
Logo backpacks
Keeping with the trend of traveling in style, consider showing your appreciation with a custom logo backpack.
Choose a high-quality and well-designed backpack so your employees will use it on all of their adventures!
Custom tote bags
Custom tote bags are one of the best swag gifts. After all, there’s no such thing as owning too many tote bags. They’re great for grocery shopping, hitting the farmer’s market, and everyday errands!
Another great idea? Use a tote bag to store other swag items like a branded water bottle or branded hat!
Guild Education sent this reusable swag bag along with other goodies to their team for their company wide retreat in the great outdoors. Practical and stylish, don’t you think?
Branded hats
Speaking of branded hats… Consider this practical gift for your whole team! It’s a great way to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day.
When choosing a design, be sure to go for a sleek look so your employees will actually want to rep your brand!
Remember, you want to ensure your employees feel like the swag you send them isn’t just a bunch of promotional items. Get them excited to rock your company swag by keeping up with popular gifting trends and choosing high-quality brands for your branded apparel and accessories.
Custom sweatshirts
Employee swag, but make it cozy! Send your employees a sweatshirt or branded pullover this year.
There are so many brands to choose from, and the customization options are endless. We’ve helped companies like Zendesk, Gong, and Capital One send tons of branded apparel, like custom t-shirts and custom sweatshirts. We’ll make sure your company swag looks exactly how you want it to!
Branded notebooks
One of our most popular requests for employee swag is branded notebooks. This comes as no surprise — after all, they’re super practical!
To make this feel like a special employee appreciation day gift, choose a high-quality notebook, like these ones from Appointed (bonus points for supporting small businesses!). This year, your team will be able to keep track of important notes and to-do lists in style!
Vendr Keeps Employees Happy with Custom Swag
Sending individual swag items is a great option, or you can combine multiple products in an employee gift box.
The team at Vendr has worked with us to send multiple gifts to their employees. They’ve also come up with some creative gift themes. When they reached a $1B valuation, they celebrated by sending their team a whimsical unicorn-themed gift box.
Their fun swag boxes have included items such as:
We had a blast seeing the Vendr team share their awesome swag experiences all over social media. Some even called it the best swag ever!
Give Your Employees Options
If you’re feeling overwhelmed deciding which gifts to send, let your employees choose!
Using a company swag store, like our Gifting Portals, you can let your team pick their favorite gifts, so everyone is happy! This is also a great option if you have remote employees that are working from home, and don’t have all of your employees’ current addresses on hand.
Here’s how it works:
Offer Multiple Gifts
Collect Employee Addresses
Track Orders
For a more in-depth explanation, check out our Gifting Portal demo. Whether you’re looking to order swag for your employees or set up a great company swag store, we’ve got you covered!
Written by Torrance Hart. Updated Jan. 2024.