What's the best swag you've gotten from your job?

Started by Savonarola, August 19, 2025, 03:56:54 PM

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Savonarola

I just got a couple Knorr-Bremse beer steins today.  (They weren't actually intended for the peons, but were swag for the booth at a trade show.  They had some left over and left them out for us.)

I'm curious if anyone has ever gotten anything cool from their employer.

I've gotten things like cups or shirts from most of my employers.  The best I got from each was a birdhouse from Nextel (unfortunately I was living in an apartment at the time and had no use for it.)  A backpack from AT&T with the AT&T Death Star on it, which I still have.  I got a coffee cup from GE with the drawings of their patent for locomotive wheels.  I got a portable charger from Alstom (they didn't give out much.  I did get an Alstom hard hat after begging.)
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Sheilbh

I regret to say that the best I've ever got is a company branded snood.
Let's bomb Russia!

Admiral Yi

Not swag per se, but I think my Bretton Woods country club golf hat is pretty badass.

Zanza

I got some shirts, hoodies, random merch like drinking bottles or cups etc. from my employer. I also got stuff like a driving safety training.

I guess the best thing I got on top of my normal remuneration was that I could keep my airline miles from my golden Lufthansa card and use them for private trips. I flew backpacking to South America in business.

Grey Fox

Never got any interesting swag. It's all water bottles, cups and shirts.

When I worked for Sears I got 300$ vacuum for 20$. That was cool.
Getting ready to make IEDs against American Occupation Forces.

"But I didn't vote for him"; they cried.

HVC

Mostly mugs and water bottles. Last place gave away hats, sweaters, and tshirts. While they were good quality I'd feel weird wearing them outside. Did get a cool insulated lunch bag that was combo-ed with a padded gym bag. Technically it wasn't for the office stuff, but the techs. It's was Marketing's idea.  Branding baby. But the techs liked me so I was the only office staff that got one :D

While not in the spirit of the question, I have won cool stuff at Christmas and golf events. Top of my head I  won a fancy drone I regifted to my little cousin. Worth a few hundred. Also won Lenovo smart bedroom clock, and while not expensive I still use it to this day.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

crazy canuck

Some great swag I received at conferences I spoke at was a painting, a blanket made by a local indigenous community and a sculpture.
Awarded 17 Zoupa points

In several surveys, the overwhelming first choice for what makes Canada unique is multiculturalism. This, in a world collapsing into stupid, impoverishing hatreds, is the distinctly Canadian national project.

Savonarola

Quote from: HVC on August 19, 2025, 05:13:16 PMMostly mugs and water bottles. Last place gave away hats, sweaters, and tshirts. While they were good quality I'd feel weird wearing them outside. Did get a cool insulated lunch bag that was combo-ed with a padded gym bag. Technically it wasn't for the office stuff, but the techs. It's was Marketing's idea.  Branding baby. But the techs liked me so I was the only office staff that got one :D

Yeah, brandings the name of the game for this stuff; which is why I was surprised that it was so hard to get an Alstom hard hat.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

The funniest swag I got was from Alstom, now that I think about it, at the beginning of our Toronto project the entire team got luggage tags, and I thought "That's subtle..."

 :lol:  Oh well, at least I love to travel, even for work.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

Quote from: crazy canuck on August 19, 2025, 05:14:32 PMSome great swag I received at conferences I spoke at was a painting, a blanket made by a local indigenous community and a sculpture.

That's really nice.

At one rail conference I went to, one of the suppliers was raffling off an enormous wooden whistle that sounded like a train whistle.  The base was about a meter square and had to be operated by bellows; when they sounded it you could hear it throughout the conference hall.  I didn't even enter the raffle; I had no idea what I would have done with that.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

crazy canuck

One of the benefits of my speaking engagements is I am often speaking with a member of the judiciary, and they can't accept gifts, so Mrs. CC gets something too  :D
Awarded 17 Zoupa points

In several surveys, the overwhelming first choice for what makes Canada unique is multiculturalism. This, in a world collapsing into stupid, impoverishing hatreds, is the distinctly Canadian national project.

HVC

Quote from: Savonarola on August 19, 2025, 05:51:36 PM
Quote from: HVC on August 19, 2025, 05:13:16 PMMostly mugs and water bottles. Last place gave away hats, sweaters, and tshirts. While they were good quality I'd feel weird wearing them outside. Did get a cool insulated lunch bag that was combo-ed with a padded gym bag. Technically it wasn't for the office stuff, but the techs. It's was Marketing's idea.  Branding baby. But the techs liked me so I was the only office staff that got one :D

Yeah, brandings the name of the game for this stuff; which is why I was surprised that it was so hard to get an Alstom hard hat.

Yeah, it's why the customer dancing guys got all the cool stuff. Which I agree is surprising you yourself didn't get more.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

celedhring

#12
I always try to get some fun prop from the shows I work on, although the art department/directing team/actors will get first dibs on the coolest stuff.

My favorite piece is a bunch of fake vynil covers from a fictional band that the protagonist of my very first show played drums for. Also a couple of background muppets (as in, not fully articulated) from the muppet show I did, and assorted murder weapons (pity the blood has come off from most of them by now) since I worked on a couple murder shows. I barely missed on a Royal Medal presented by HRH Queen Elizabeth II, but the actor (an Irishman, no less) finally got that one.

celedhring

#13
Also, when I reviewed movies for a TV show we used to get loads of movie swag, which we raffled off among all who worked in the show. As a result I have a collection of (very old by now) t-shirts from absolutely random movies from the 2000s: Blair Witch Project 2, Flinstones 2, a Dusk Till Dawn sequel, several Spanish movies. Also art books and such. Honestly it's all stashed at my parents house, I don't really remember what else might be there. We used to get tons of that shit.

Sophie Scholl

A ton of shirts, hoodies, bottle openers, posters, random swag, and lots of beer when I worked for a brewery doing tours, tastings, and promotional work.  :cheers:
"Everything that brought you here -- all the things that made you a prisoner of past sins -- they are gone. Forever and for good. So let the past go... and live."

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."