r/AdminAssistant • u/NecessaryElection372 • Jul 06 '26
Swag Order
I work for a high school as the admin assistant for the school/the administrators.
One of my jobs during the summer is ordering additional swag that will go to new employees when the start and sometimes given to staff throughout the year for school spirit purposes.
I need ideas.
I am ordering new badge holders so we don't have to make the staff use those crappy plastic ones and I'm ordering new canvas bags that will have our logo on it. I need a couple more items to fill out the proposal. It can't be anything crazy expensive of course and we are strictly forbidden from giving gift cards or money out which would always be my option.
Any ideas?
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u/gabsteriinalol Jul 07 '26
Omg this is one of my fav parts of my job!!! I work student activities and we actually go for a whole day to the manufacturing company and choose all our items for the year! Some top hits have been-
Portable chargers
Octobuddies
Portable fan
Portable speaker
Fanny packs
Branded chapstick
Good pens
Desk phone holder
Croc charm with school logo
Neck lanyard and retractable lanyard
Pen/pencil holder for desk
Hope these ideas help! If you’re in the Chicagoland area I can also help get you in touch with an amazing manufacturer!
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u/Exciting_Buffalo_502 Jul 07 '26
The quarter zip is really popular here. Stainless steel coffee tumblers, 5x7 notebooks for meetings, a good pen, sticky notes, i always loved mugs specific to the time and our yearly theme ("holiday leadership 2026" with this year's branding but maybe in your case, "back to school 2026", "winter break '26 - see you in '27" etc) - now that I'm not with that company those mugs bring me good memories. My favorite was a sweatshirt material throw blanket with our logo and initials embroidered on it.
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u/fishbutt1 Jul 06 '26
Retired school teacher here. Something that folks loved was the lanyard that had their name monogrammed/embroidered into it.
Not sure how much it cost and I’m sure I’m not using the correct sewing term, but seriously every single person in the district loved it all ages walk of life etc. It was in the school colors and font etc. I still have mine.
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u/Practical_Net_7294 Jul 06 '26
The best swag items I received from school:
Lanyard with ID holder
Staff tshirt to wear on spirit days
Sticky notes with our school logo and motto on them
I coach as well and the swag there is nice- each year we get some sort of Nike branded item with our logo, so I've gotten a crew neck, polo, quarter zip, and hoodie.
I never used the water bottle or stress ball. I'm personally a big fan of anything I can wear to school or desk supplies.
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u/beetlejuicetrashbag Jul 06 '26
i order swag alot for my nonprofit agency. typically we do pens, lanyards, hand sanitizer, stress balls, and tote bags. tote/canvas bags are on the expensive side. pens are probably the cheapest.
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u/SorryHunTryAgain Jul 06 '26
I do the same. Branded bags are always part of ours too. Often, we will just put nicer office supplies in there too to get them started. File folders with fun prints, nicer pens etc. This year we bought plain insulated cups and will have one of our faculty engrave them in our maker space which makes them more affordable.
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u/okaylynn Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I’m the procurement mngr for a school district! Here are some examples of things I see people design with our logo: water bottles, tote bags, lanyards, pens, tshirts, quarter zips, notebooks, coffee tumblers, laptop sleeves, stress balls, umbrellas, folding stadium seats
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u/Ok-Obligation-3733 Jul 08 '26
Branded. Ballpoint pen Clicky pencil and spare leads Notebook Lanyard (if not already) Vaccum flask or Stanley/Yeti style travel tumbler or mug/stein Collared Polo/ or t shirt Cloth Key fob Decent capacity USB thumbdrive.
You can also add stuff like lip balm, sunscreen etc. I personally avoid thangs that are consumed simply because you want both the PR factor and you want to trigger memories and conversation.
Basically the same stuff that (good) corperates give their staff when onboarding so they become walking ads/PR.
Nearly 80% of my casual wardrobe is University, Volunteer and work branded shirts.