What Every Gym Swag Bag Should Absolutely Have

People love free stuff. As a response to this, brands giveaway different assets to attract leads and drive brand awareness. However, this promotion campaign isn’t a one size fits all solution to every business. Each industry and niche have swag bag items that work best for them in particular. 

Starting a gym business is exciting, but it takes a lot of mindful planning. This includes marketing your brand for various campaigns. Today, we’re going to talk about the promotional merchandise items that work amazing for fitness clubs. 

Think about brand swag like functional ads or business cards. They’re a casual way to promote your brand and giving it away to people will let you spread the word about your goods or services out there. This is a good source of repeated exposure that can last for a year on average. 

In order to create a strategy that will hit your objectives, we will discuss the following topics to make you a confident swag bag giver:

The thing about promotional products is that they can serve more than just one purpose. These materials help with brand campaigns, sales, customer acquisition and retention, and a whole lot more. 

Be in the know

Every year, trends come and go to change the way the market moves. This applies to promos, too. Manufacturers come out with intriguing innovations every year that are attuned to what people like and will like. If you consider yourself a trendy brand, you may want to incorporate these items into your strategy.

The promo product trends of 2020 include:

Sustainability 

Eco-friendliness rings a louder name in the industry. Today, 88% of consumers prefer businesses that help them achieve a sustainable lifestyle. Popular sustainable products include metal straws, reusable grocery bags, and other items with a low carbon footprint.

Boxy or Oversized Shirts

People are letting loose with their fashion choices. The current trend is wearing baggy fitted shirts just a la Billie Eilish. This silhouette is extremely popular as the growth of street style spurs.

This is a very actionable trend because you don’t need fancy equipment to do this. You just need to find a supplier of oversized tees and coordinate with a designer who knows exactly how to work with this style. 

Unsure which freelance designer you want to work with? Try hosting a t-shirt design contest and be floored by the options submitted to you by more than just one artist. Know what to expect by taking a look at this t-shirt design gallery.

Phone grips 

These adhesive accessories save phones from being dropped and having the screen cracked up. People stick this onto the back of your handheld device, making it easier for you to maintain a strong grip. 

They often come in a round shape which is a perfect vessel for your gym company logo. Some grips also come in a stip form. The shape gives you more space to even add your company tagline or call-to-action.

Identify your audience

Before you opened up your workout facility, you’ve probably already had a target audience in mind. Going back to the persona guides you have used will help you have a better understanding of what your swag item should be.

Do their interests in fitness belong to a particular niche? If they like yoga, an exercise mat is a good choice. If they like CrossFit, headbands will definitely be much appreciated. You should look for items that will complement their lifestyle and what they will like. 

Additionally, you can create a survey and see what they want to receive.

The gym swag basics

A study by the not-for-profit trade association called Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) found that the categories of top-selling promotion materials are as follows:

• Apparel
• Drinkware
• Writing materials
• Travel
• Technology

Established brands say that using the right products help them attain campaign objectives. Now, you might think that this is fluff, but numbers back this up. 

9 out of 10 consumers recall a company’s branding after having received a freebie. This also urges 79% of recipients to research a brand further. 

Three traits come into play for people to decide on keeping a promotional product. To be kept for a long time, the item has to be fun, functional, and trendy. Let’s take a look at these examples that are relevant to your business:

Stickers

These adhesive assets are highly compatible to be put on any surface. Recipients can put your gym stickers on their laptops, reusable water bottles, planners, power banks, and more items that they use daily. 

Tote bag

Tote bags are thin canvas shoulder bags that are often used as grocery bags. Most brands package their giveaway kits in these receptacles, too. It has a very reusable nature which prolongs your brand’s constant exposure to the public when used by your recipient. 

Duffel bag

Gym goers carry a lot of stuff with them, especially the ones with a 9 to 5 job. Their gym survival kits are hard to fit in small bags, making duffel or gym bags a good idea. As durable as they may be, gym bags are pricier when compared to tote bags.

Water bottle

Hydration is important for everyone, but especially for those who live active lifestyles. 

Experts recommend drinking 10 ounces of water every 10 minutes of exercise. Your gymgoers will need a trusty container and you can use this opportunity to provide a bottle with your brand on it for them to use even outside the gym. Water tumblers or canteens are also recommended because other drinkware such as mugs aren’t the most portable water vessels. 

T-shirt

Ah, yes. One of 2020’s trendiest brand swag. 

Brand T-shirts are like walking ads. Tees never go out of style and you can always experiment in terms of design. Branded threads can be fun, functional, and trendy, which are the best traits of effective promo materials.

Headbands

This accessory gets the hair out of the way and keeps the sweat from getting into the eyes during a workout. It is considered a must-have for gym bags. Your brand can get a lot of exposure when your gym logo is sprawled onto a piece of headwear like this one. 

Membership gift cards

Coupons or gift cards can help gather more people into your fitness club. It’ll surely build hype and if they like your facility, they may even end up committing to a full membership. 

Phone holders

It’s hard to keep a close eye on your belongings when you’re busy concentrating on your workout routine. Armband phone holders will allow your gym members to have a convenient method of staying entertained on their phones while exercising. 

It’s plain convenient and easily seen in public when they use this for a job outside.

Pro tip: Don’t forget about your website

Just because brand swags are print assets, doesn’t mean your digital presence will not benefit from them, too. Include a call-to-action copy on your design to encourage people to check out your website. You can generate more awareness of your brand website as well. 

83% of consumers can recall the advertiser of a promotional item compared to 7% of the people who recall a brand name after seeing a TV ad. Those are good odds for both your gym and website.

Great examples

Peep these well-designed gym branded items to inspire your project:

Vic Aguilar Running Coach by The Artful Union

J-Fit Training by Tash Page

Body Building / Gym T-shirt design by Golam Rabbani

Opening a bag of opportunities

Your gym can create the best first impression with a remarkable swag bag, too. 

Lock in the effectiveness of promo products with effective design. The DesignCrowd community specializes in a wide range of freelance graphic design services that will make it easier for you to source the right design for your brand. 

We have more in the bag for you:

Written by DesignCrowd on Wednesday, May 27, 2020

DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.