There is some truth in this

Study reveals average tech worker’s wardrobe is 85% free tech t-shirts:

A team of UC Berkeley researchers has discovered that the 85% of the average tech worker’s clothes are free tech t-shirts, hoodies, and other assorted clothing.

The study of this prevalent free clothing, known by tech workers as “swag,” has come at the same time as a massive tech boom that has swept the Bay Area. On a normal weekday in San Francisco, you’re liable to see dozens of young hipsters walking down the street wearing t-shirts, jackets, hats, and even socks emblazoned with the names and logos of companies ranging from tech titans to ten-person startups. Tech companies hand out free logo-festooned paraphernalia at career fairs, company events, and almost any opportunity available.

It’s a joke article but there is a lot of truth in it.

Most of my casual shirts and some of the shirts I wear to work have some gun reference to them. But probably 10% of my shirts are Microsoft branded. MS gave out a lot of shirts, hats, coats, sweatshirts, etc. and I still have most of them. There are other tech companies represented as well but it’s far from 85%.

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7 thoughts on “There is some truth in this

  1. I think it was Jimmy Breslin who said that humor has to have a germ of truth in it in order to be funny. His examples were the Irish liking a drink or two and Jews being good with a dollar, but the principle applies everywhere, which is why the best humor comes from within the group, since they’re the ones who know where the “bodies are buried”, where the humor is.

    I recall a Tank MacNamara cartoon (the football player turned sportscaster) interviewing someone about how one could afford to take children to football or baseball games, and the interviewee explained that, in addition to “Cap Day” and “Jersey Day”, there were “Sock Day”, “Shoe Day”, and even “Underwear Day.”

  2. Yeah, I sorted through my closet last year and discovered that 90% of my casual shirts were “match shirts” .. for which I had paid a bunch of money. I gave a bunch of them to my grandchildren, just to make room in my closet for “real shirts”. Turns out, they kids use them for sleeper shirts and the parents used them for washing the car.

    I quite giving my shirt away. At least I’ll have clean shirts for a couple of months before I have to do laundry.

    Except for my boomershoot Shirt, of course. That goes into The Will for when I die.

    Question: Why do I never wear it any more?

  3. I received a fair amount of gun swag over the years and we gave out a fair amount at trade shows.

    We gave out ball caps that had “scramble eggs” on the brim one year. They went over big with junior Navy and Coasties, who suddenly got a promotion in rank.

    • I have the NRA ball cap with the scrambled eggs on the brim. I was wearing it one evening in the local park and some older guy walking the other way called out, “Commander!” So I laughed and thanked him for the promotion.

  4. I had tons of (and designed tons of) Microsoft swag. We kept joking about all the shirts, jackets and hoodies, but no pants…. Hard to get everyone sized properly for those.

    • Yeah, at one of the trade expos I went to I tried to convince the MS reps to offer pants. Said if they did so the only clothing I would have to buy was underwear and sock, and oh-by-the-way once you design up some pants could you look into socks and underwear?

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