MerchButler Resources — guides, calculators, and playbooks for buying merch in bulk
Sponsor Logo Placement on Race Shirts
Most race directors figure out sponsor logo placement the same way: by getting it badly wrong on their first shirt run, watching the title sponsor call to complain about font size, and quietly vowing to have a real system in place before…
First-Time OrganizerIs Your Merch Quote Fair? How to Tell If You're Overpaying (Before You Sign Off)
That pit in your stomach when you open a merch quote is information. It might mean the vendor is great at their job and you just didn't expect the number. It might mean you're being charged like a tourist. Either way, the feeling is worth…
People Ops SwagNew Hire Welcome Kit Essentials That Earn Day-One Trust
The best welcome kit we've ever heard described had four items in it. The worst had seventeen, including a branded stress ball shaped like the company logo and a travel umbrella sized for a child. The difference between the two wasn't…
Fall Charity Gala Favors + Donor Pieces: Lead Times That Hold
Charity galas carry a specific kind of pressure that 5K walks and golf tournaments don't: the people in the room gave real money, dressed up to do it, and will compare notes with other donors afterward. The favor they carry out the door is…
Swag That Actually Drives Lead Capture
Nobody ships 400 stress balls home on a Thursday afternoon because their booth strategy was working. The coordinators who do are the ones who optimized for giveaway volume instead of qualified leads, and they paid for it twice: once at…
Decoding Sustainable Swag Certifications
Procurement season has a way of turning a simple hoodie order into a small audit. Someone on the finance or legal side asks what "eco-friendly" means on the invoice line, and suddenly the people-ops lead who ordered 200 branded tees is…
Trade-Show Swag Distribution: Where to Put What at the Booth
Most coordinators spend weeks picking the right swag and about twenty minutes deciding where to put it. That twenty minutes is usually where the pipeline lives or dies. Where an item sits determines whether you get a scan before or after…
100 vs. 500 Custom Shirts: Where the Cost Math Actually Bends
The difference between a 100-shirt run and a 500-shirt run isn't just the unit cost. It's whether your setup fees get buried quietly in the per-piece price, or whether they show up loud and alone on a quote that suddenly makes 100 shirts…
Is Your Merch Quote Fair? How to Tell If You're Overpaying Before You Sign Off
You got a quote for a few hundred custom shirts, and something about the number sits wrong. You cannot say exactly why. You just have the quiet feeling that you are the least-informed person in this transaction, and the person who sent the…
Setting a Realistic Swag Budget for Your Event
Most organizers either starve their swag budget or bloat it with invisible waste. The real number doesn't come from a gut check or a competitor's blog post. It comes from tracking three cost categories that most vendors will never break…
What to Ask a Swag Vendor on Your First Call
Vendors have a term for buyers who call without a plan: easy. Not mean-spirited, just accurate. And the first-time volunteer organizer, running a charity 5K or a school fundraiser on a borrowed Saturday afternoon, is statistically that…
Want to
try it out?
Just want to kick the tires? Click below to get started. Trying it out is free, and it’s pretty fun to see what The Butler suggests.
Get Started