Everyone loves free swag. Correction: everyone loves good free swag.

Swag bags are one of the best opportunities to surprise and delight your athletes, volunteers and lucky spectators. It’s a fantastic marketing opportunity and one that gives people lasting memories of your event.

But what makes a good swag bag? We believe that good swag bags are:

• About quality, not quantity
• Aligned with your event values
• Representative of your brand and sponsors
• Useful, thoughtful and meaningful

Here are some unique ideas for your swag bags:

Apparel

T-shirts are standard protocol for any competition, which can sometimes mean t-shirt boredom from your participants. This is a great opportunity get creative with your designs. Consider a slightly different design for athletes vs. volunteers. You can also get different colours for each group of volunteers (like what Rogue Invitational does – each shirt colour represents a different group, such as Media, Equipment Crew, Scoring, Judging, etc.).

Hats like baseball caps or toques/beanies are not only unexpected but useful too. It’s easy to customize your own hats with embroidery or a stick-on patch, and a high-quality, nicely-designed hat is sure to be worn both during and after your event.

Athletic socks are also super useful and appreciated. People love a pair of unique, comfy, no-slip socks, especially when they go back to their home gyms to tell about their experience at your event. There are a ton of different styles to choose and customize from here, at CustomLab.com.

Hip sacks and fanny packs are back in style, and we’re here for it. Not only are they fashionable, but they’re super handy too. Why not customize your own hip sack and give them away as part of your swag bag – or make it the actual swag bag itself?

Equipment

Lacrosse balls are a must for any athlete or volunteer. They’re easy to carry, and man do they ever get stubborn kinks and knots out.

Resistance bands are another super handy, easily transportable piece of equipment that most athletes or volunteers would love to have in their arsenal.

Event-based

A handwritten thank you note with your athletes’ signatures is a wonderful personal touch that volunteers would love to have.

An exclusive invite to your welcome reception or wrap party is also a great way to say thank you, and to get people mingling outside of the actual competition.

Subscriptions

App Subscriptions are unique, handy and can be activated pretty easily. Think about a training app that will help athletes and your event team with their fitness goals. We suggest Strongest Train for iOS, or a mobility app like Pliability or GoWOD.

Snacks

Competitions take a ton of energy from not only the athletes – but your event team as well. Keep their energy up by including some snacks in their swag bags.

Keep hydration up with electrolyte mixes. We love LMNT’s salty electrolyte drink mix; it’s perfect for people who may be on a keto, low-card, or paleo diet, and definitely kept us hydrated.

Other yummy ideas:

• Meat sticks – our team at the Rogue Invitational 2022 were quite literally chomping away at Chomps Meat Sticks
• Protein bars
• Nuts and trail mixes
• No-sugar gummy bears

Personal Care

Small personal care items are useful and sure to be appreciated. Think of adding items like sunscreen, lip balms, muscle relief ointments and hand sanitizer.

Make sure your swag bag is meaningful and thoughtful by adding some unique and useful items. Your lucky swag bag recipients will thank you!