Race day swag

LOL!!!! Nice!

x2.

All I will say is don't over hype it.

I did a race this year that hyped the swag ... let me see if I can find it... here it is from the "why choose us" section:

8. The premium items. Your race pack will be filled with high quality items (and hopefully some surprises)

The bag had a key chain, and a tube of aquafor, and a bunch of ads.  The T shirt had a nice patern, but was a cotton blend.  The nicest thing was the bag itself, recycled material with a Swim/Bike/Run recyclling logo... but not big enough to be useful for much.

A fellow racers Husband said "You took out all the good stuff" she hadn't taken anything.

I didn't do the race because of the swag, I didn't really care about the swag, but I was disapointed because it was promised and I was curious about what was going to be there.

I enter for the race, not the goodies. Not that I don't want to look in the bag and see what's there! But at this point I'm in shirt overload. Personally I like when Clif Bar or Dole has something in my goodie bag. Food is always welcome, except for those rock-hard bagels.

I don't know what the best thing is, but I know my favorite. I did a charity run for prostate cancer and they gave out boxer shorts. They have checkered flags on them and the logo "Undy 5000." It was a 5k and I thought that was clever.

x2 I love a women's specific cut shirt and pint glasses or coffee mugs. 
I do appreciate ads when they are attached to coupons or discount codes, those are nice.

Samples are nice sometimes, but only if they are relevant (BioFreeze, for example, gets used often after races... nutrition stuff like GU can usually be used by athletes). In my IM goodie bag there were eye drops and Wheaties (that's it). The Wheaties could possibly have an athlete connection but the eye drops made me laugh

regardless of the feedback you get, there are going to be many there that are still "collecting" shirts, hats, etc. and want something, especially if it's a race that is geared toward all techinical levels.

make it memorable, preferably by the race and/or the production and people will come back. don't overpromise swag as one poster mentioned. keep expectations where you want them.

x3 for women's specific shirts/sizing.  I have two tech shirts like this from races last year and they are in my regular training wear rotation.  Cotton t's or over-sized 'unisex' shirts?  Not so much.

I also received one of those drawstring nylon bags from a race last year where it was printed with a beautiful painting done by an artist local to the race area.  I use it all the time.  It was handy at the expo on race weekend and it is still handy for carrying gear.

And I agree about giving me a 'goody bag' filled with nothing but ads.  Don't waste the bag!

While I don't do a race for the swag, getting useful or creative/relevant/thoughtful swag certainly makes me feel like the racers are appreciated and that the RD's want my business in the future.

It depends on the person.  If it's their first race they've ever done they REALLY want a shirt and a finishers medal.  If it's their 300th race, they could give two hoots.

For me personally, I like running hats/visors, and still don't have a large enough collection of tech T-shirts.  

A tech t-shirt and some gels or shot blocks and I'm happy.  I can never have too many of either.  But I agree with others that it doesn't factor into my decision on whether or not to do a race.

One race I did gave out long-sleeve tech shirts--that was nice.  I wear it on the way to just about all my races as it is the perfect weight for 4:30 am.

x2 on the coffee mugs or pint glasses. Especially the coffee mugs.

If it's random stuff i.e. ads, wristbands etc. it goes straight in the trash.

For a sprint or shorter races I would say don't include much if anything and keep the cost down. For longer races depending on the cost of the race I expect some decent items but I would much rather pay less and not get anything in my packet. A finishers shirt at the end of the race is always cool.

Also, if you're going to include a shirt make sure it's a tech shirt.

It is very important for your first race - you never forget your first.   But then the novelty quickly fades. After 6 years and 60+ tris, dus, running and bike races I've a collection of about 10 tee shirts I like but I've given away about 50 to local charities.

Most bags have the same stuff. A T-shirt, some powerbar or gel, maybe a snack or ointment, loads of coupons, maybe a hat (usually given as a finishers memento at longer races).

The swag I STILL GET EXCITED about is: socks (you can never have enough clean, dry socks), tuque (useful things to have in Canada), Towel (read Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for reason why this is a good item to have)

I think most of us have plenty of shirts. My favorite swag so far has been a good running cap, a visor would be nice too. I would give up everything else for something like that and it would have an impact on whether I did the race again.