The Irresponsibility of #SwagStyle - A Corona Virus Tale
On the 16th of March, the UK was asked to start working from home and by the end of that week, we were in full “Stay at Home” mode. I was looking for something that could become routine and a bit of fun to take my mind off the chaos, no matter how briefly each day. As I got dressed on the morning of the 18th, I opened my t-shirt drawer and an idea was born.
I pulled out an #EmailGeek t-shirt from speaking at an Action Rocket meet-up last summer. I checked Instagram for an appropriate hashtag, found #SwagStyle and the idea gelled into a plan. I would post a selfie in a different swag t-shirt every workday until I had gone through them all.
The first week was kind of fun but I discovered that I have sixteen swag t-shirts and because of the lockdown, I was quickly running out of selfie spots. I was also thrown a curve when I had to wear something smarter than a t-shirt, but #SwagStyle comes in many forms –“oh look, swag SOCKS!” Also, sixteen swag t-shirts seemed like a lot; maybe I spend too much time at trade shows?
I do and over the years I have probably gotten rid of three times as many swag t-shirts as are in my drawer. I got them for free and the companies probably paid no more than £6 each, but I wondered about the total cost of these shirts.
I already knew the cotton trade is quite problematic. It has a reputation for a lack of workers’ rights, much of the global crop is genetically modified and while it takes up only 2.5% of the world’s agricultural land, it consumes 16% of all insecticides. I remembered an episode of Jeremy Waite’s The Ten Words Podcast on Vivienne Westwood where he went on a bit of a rant about the environmental impact of fast fashion and cotton.
Jeremy’s statistics are mind blowing. It takes 2,700 litres of water to produce a t-shirt from crop to shop. It didn’t take much research to confirm that my sixteen swag t-shirts had consumed over 43,000 litres of water by the time I brought them home. I was struggling to conceptualise how much water that is.
Because of some cosmic constant, 1,000 litres of water is one cubic meter. As we are currently home schooling, I turned this into a lesson. My daughter and I measured our two story three-bedroom house and calculated that it is about 43 cubic meters, so the t-shirts that take up less than a quarter of my drawer used enough water to fill my house.
As marketers, we are responsible to a lot of stakeholders – businesses, shareholders and customers. We also have to be responsible to ourselves and our communities. I am not saying that we should stop giving out swag t-shirts. They are a brilliant way to show off your brand and build community! Before buying those shirts however, think about whether you can accomplish the same thing with a different promotional product. If not, spend the time to think about if your audience will wear your shirt. Put your best designer on the brief to make your shirt cool for your audience (not just cool for your staff). Buy the best quality shirt from a reputable company that can tell you how they source the most environmental and ethical cotton possible.
The next time you get offered a t-shirt ask yourself, “will I wear this, really?” If that t-shirt is likely to get consigned to dusting or living a life of obscurity at the back of your drawer hoping for the day it gets taken to the charity shop, smile politely and pass. Yes, I still have sixteen swag t-shirts and I will admit a couple of them are dodgy, but I took them, so I am going to wear them.
Some of my best #SwagStyle.
Photos by Skip Fidura