

Ask HN: What is good swag in Hackathons? - mickaelkel

As I go more and more in hackathons, I see very often bas swag, stuff that I will never use after, or completely useless. Sponsors are throwing their money.
I&#x27;m organizing a hackathon in the next weeks , I wonder if HN knows some specific swag that are good for developers. (not the classic &quot;stress ball&quot; or &quot;branded pen&quot;, you see what I mean)that I could share with my sponsors to provide the best for hackers that will attend. Any ideas?
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mcarrano
My favorite swag to get at hackathons have always been the credits to use a
service. I also enjoy t-shirts, especially if they are quality and a
service/company that I like as I actually wear the shirt.

Example: Last hackathon I was at, Amazon was giving away $100 credits for AWS.
I never used Amazon but I am more inclined to keep my projects up there after
the credit runs out.

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ohashi
Favorites:

Credits (AWS)

T-Shirts

Water bottles (this one surprised me, but I got a couple from Palantir and I
use them every day)

Maybe it's a geographical thing but I've never seen a stressball at a
hackathon as swag (based in DC)

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throwaway1979
1) Gift cards for AWS (top of the list ...by far)

2) Ebook Coupons (e.g. OReilly)

3) Mugs (have dozens of MongoDB cups but can always use more :) )

4) People love laptop stickers ... I don't get it but anyways

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aorshan
I'd definitely say a t-shirt if you can afford them. I have t-shirts from
multiple hackathons and wear them all the time. They get far more mileage than
any sticker or pen I've received.

~~~
ig1
They need to be good t-shirts though, which means a decent design, good
fabric, light-on-dark, well fitting (hint: female attendees have different
body shapes to male attendees).

All of which can push the expense up quite a bit.

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nadiac
Toothbrush and mouthpaste for the 2nd day morning

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callmeed
I have an idea I've been kicking around for printed cards ... drop me an email
and I can give you details

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lifeguard
little moleskin notebooks?

[http://www.moleskineus.com/mbxs717-moleskine-extra-small-
pla...](http://www.moleskineus.com/mbxs717-moleskine-extra-small-plain-
notebook.html)

iTunes gift cards?

~~~
callmeed
I agree notebooks are cool. Twilio gave them away at their conference. Very
cool.

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scodger
NFC programmable stickers

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swah
Linode/AWS coupouns

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entelarust
Bottle opener keychains

