MerchButler Resources — guides, calculators, and playbooks for buying merch in bulk
Fun Run Giveaways: A Decision Tree, Not a Listicle
Somewhere around week six of planning a fun-run, someone suggests adding a photo booth prop, a branded koozie, and a custom trucker hat to the swag bag. That suggestion usually comes from a well-meaning sponsor or a volunteer who found a…
Race & Walk Organizer5K Shirt Size Calculator: How Many of Each Size to Order (Free Tool)
Most race directors order shirts by gut feel or a generic online calculator, then either run out of mediums on race morning or haul a bin of unworn XLs back to their garage. Neither feels great. Here is the math that actually accounts for…
People Ops SwagCustom Moleskine GO Pen for New-hire onboarding kits: A Buyer's Take
Moleskine notebooks make sense for onboarding kits, but only if you have enough budget runway and enough calendar runway to pull them off. Get either of those wrong and you're either overspending or scrambling to find a substitute the week…
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…
Tech Tee vs. Cotton Race Shirt: A Decision Guide by Event Type
Picking the wrong race shirt is a very specific kind of waste. You spend three weeks choosing colors, two rounds approving artwork, and a not-small chunk of your budget, then half your finishers leave the shirt on a chair at the post-race…
Custom Moleskine Passion Journal - Wellness for New-hire onboarding kits: A Buyer's Take
The Moleskine Passion Journal - Wellness looks like the perfect new-hire gift until you run the math against your timeline and decoration budget. The cover is gorgeous, the wellness angle feels thoughtful rather than corporate, and the…
Charity Walk T-Shirts: An Organizer's Guide to Bulk Orders
Ordering shirts for a charity walk on a nonprofit budget means making deliberate trade-offs between cost, timeline, and the actual number of people who'll show up. Get one of those three wrong and you're either turning away day-of walkers…
Custom Moleskine GO Pen for New-hire onboarding kits: A Buyer's Take
The Moleskine GO Pen works for onboarding kits if your timeline is loose and your budget sits comfortably above $24 per unit, but the math breaks fast once decoration fees and rush deadlines enter the picture. There's a version of an…
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