There are a variety of mid-level T-shirt brands (such as BELLA+CANVAS) that feel so much softer against the skin, no irritating seams, stand up to repeated washings, and are lighter-weight, meaning you can wear them as-is in the summer months, or under something else in the winter months, and it feels comfortable either way.
At the time, I thought BELLA+CANVAS only sold wholesale, but I now see a retail section on their website!
I really like the comfort colors heavyweight ones personally - this seems to be the one in my order history. They are plenty soft once you wash them especially if you run a few cycles with some fabric softener. The price isn't amazing right now (my history says $6.50-8 is more typical) but the site ships fast and doesn't care if you're commercial or don't want logos etc.
https://www.jiffyshirts.com/comfortcolors-C1717.html?ac=Whit...
I used to get others but most of them are too scratchy or bad in some other way. I used to still get them "because they're free" but what's the point if I never wear them? I do have some extra large but scratchy shirts that are tolerable to wear.
I have a really good Datadog shirt that's not Bella+Canvas.
My favorite t-shirt to this day is a Chef t-shirt I got at a conference.
On the other hand, in a sense many of them are, except instead of gunpoint it's economics that mean their clothing choices have a hard dollar limit on them - and at the end of the day, it's better to have a subpar t-shirt than no t-shirt at all.
So I don't think anyone is being hurt here. At worst, the person you're replying to could have done better by donating the shirts to a charity that doesn't sell the clothing, but gives it away.
Anyway, I hope you made yourself feel good with your comment, even if you didn't do any good.
1. other people may not feel the same way about the material
2. somebody else one or two sizes smaller might be able to make routine use of it with some other garment underneath
3. somebody else might feel it's fine for emergency use or painting and decorating or whatever
4. could come in handy for use with an animal
(Or "One man's trash is another man's treasure").
Branded Lego is probably the most durable chotchki you’re going to find.
(Now it's kind of boring because they sell them online, before those were exceptionally rare as they were basically only sold directly to Maersk.)
Nike? No, iPad? No, Lego? No, Not sure what the other things are.
2) Some of us in fact do avoid wearing logos. Nicer (and not even that nice, necessarily) clothes, bags, shoes, et c. tend not to have them, or at least make them very small. Logos for something other than the company that made the item would be even worse. Large logos and legible clothing more generally signal things I’d prefer not to signal, so… I don’t. Freebies in that category get worn around the house or as a base layer.
That's me
Streetwear is weird
Years later, I was working as a nurse on a medical floor. I had a realization that I was filling out an IV med label for Avelox with an Avelox-branded pen.
On top of that, some children's shows are clearly tailored to push toys and all kinds of things, hoping to create a feedback loop of demand for swag-adjacent gear.
Those slogans are now going to be stuck in my brain forever, so I've got to hand it to them (no one realised it did this before they got it).
Naturally, being who I am, I took it upon myself to swap the circuit boards around among the magnets. Apparently this caused some distress a couple days later when my nephew discovered that the frog now made horse noises.
We did not give our wedding guests the opportunity to object to our union.
TL;DR: it sounds like you have an opportunity on your hands!
We're all digital serfs anyway, enslaved by subscriptions and work for hire - might as well get something back for it.
I've also brought home so much garbage, that was fun to play with for a couple minutes but either broke or had no lasting interest. If you're in charge of choosing swag, please think about whether it has any lasting value. It does say something about your company's values and follow-through.
American Express had brought a limited supply of fidget spinners, and they were in extremely high demand. I was unable to secure one of my own.
PayPal had the best cache of stuff. They had this earphone holder that was designed like a fishbone. You were supposed to wrap the cord around the "ribs". Then I also picked up a shirt that said on the back "report phishing attempts to [email protected]".
I wore the shirt in public and a woman accosted me at a bus stop. She asked me if I worked for PayPal, which I denied. Then she told me anyway about some dispute she had. I decided to stop wearing the shirt and other swag that wasn't directly related to me.
I got a Datadog t-shirt in 2016. Amazing quality. I have never worn it; it is my wife's favorite pajama shirt. She says the dog is cute.
...Dang maybe this is actually the master plan, though. I've seen datadog's logo like 50% of nights for the last 8 years.
I did get some funny looks asking for a (women's) small instead of large, but gotta bring home the goods.
more on topic though. You know the there are branded children's book right?
Example: https://www.amazon.com/Ms-Brand-Counting-Book/dp/0881068543
I get that others like them, it's just not for me.
I don't know the story behind this or how many were actually printed, but Microsoft seems to have tried it:
But perhaps the swag that has had the most staying power is stuff I could bring home for my kids to play with. I've gotten company-branded balls, puzzles, figurines, and other toys, and not only do they make a good "Guess what I brought home for you" surprise, but they sit around the house for ages, so you get a lot of exposure to their logos.
One thing I've never gotten as swag, but could see being a good ROI, would be a children's picture book, with a "Compliments of [Brand Name]" on it. With my kids, they would request that I read the same book to them 50+ times, so that's 50+ exposures to the brand.