What it takes to get swag made for a launch or event
A launch or a conference is a short window when people are paying attention to your company. Good merchandise stretches that window. A shirt someone actually wears or a sticker that ends up on a laptop keeps your name in front of them, and the people around them, long after the event ends.
Getting it made usually takes more work than it should. Someone has to turn your brand guidelines into artwork that prints well on fabric, pick items people will keep, find a printer, sort out sizes and quantities, and get everything delivered before the date. Traditional promotional-product vendors add minimum order sizes, which is how so many companies end up with a closet full of shirts in the wrong sizes.
Print-on-demand services such as Printify changed the economics. They print each item when it's ordered and ship it from a production partner, so you can order exactly what the event needs. That leaves the design, the product choices, and the ordering, which is exactly the kind of work an AI marketer with your brand on file and access to the right tools can do.
Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. Here's how it handles merchandise.
How Kite creates branded merchandise for a launch or event
Kite starts from what it already knows about your brand and the event. It designs artwork that fits your visual identity, recommends items that suit the audience and the occasion, and shares the designs with you. When they look right, it sets up the products in your connected Printify account and places the order. Because the merch is part of a larger launch, Kite can also connect it to the landing page, posts, and follow-up that go with the event.
- Design merch that matches your brand
- Choose items people will keep
- Refine the designs with Kite
- Set up the products and place the order
- Connect the merch to the rest of the launch
Design merch that matches your brand
Kite designs merchandise from the brand system it keeps in your team's knowledge base, so the artwork matches your logo, colors, typography, and voice from the first draft. During onboarding, Kite collects your brand assets and pulls your company's logo, colors, and fonts from Brandfetch. If you're a new company without a design system, Kite can create one first.
From there, Kite generates original artwork, edits images you already have, and removes backgrounds so a logo or illustration sits cleanly on a shirt or a tote. A launch might call for a design built around the product name and a short line from the announcement. A developer conference might call for a sticker with an inside joke your users will recognize. Kite writes those lines in your brand voice, using what it knows about your customers and your positioning.
You'll get the best print quality from your original logo files. Share them with Kite and it uses them in place of anything it would otherwise recreate.
Choose items people will keep
Kite picks items for the audience and the occasion, because the right merch for a conference booth is different from the right merch for twenty top customers. Printify's catalog covers t-shirts, hoodies, hats, tote bags, mugs, stickers, phone cases, and much more, and each item comes in its own colors, sizes, and printable areas.
For a booth where you'll meet hundreds of strangers, Kite might suggest stickers and a simple shirt in a few sizes. For a launch thank-you to your earliest customers, it might suggest a heavier hoodie with a design worth wearing outside the office. Kite fits each design to the item it's printed on and suggests quantities and size splits based on who's coming.
Refine the designs with Kite
Kite shares the designs along with its recommended items. You can ask for a different color, a bolder logo, or a different line of copy with a reply, and Kite revises the work.
Set up the products and place the order
With your Printify account connected, Kite sets up each design as a product and places the order once you approve it. Printify charges your account for production and shipping.
Print-on-demand also makes it easy to ship to individual people instead of one location. You might send a box to your booth, a shirt to each of your speakers, and a hoodie to each of your ten best customers. Give Kite the names and addresses, and it prepares an order for each.
Production and shipping take time, so tell Kite the event date when you start. It plans the work backward from that date and tells you when the order needs to go in.
Connect the merch to the rest of the launch
Merchandise works best as one piece of a launch, and Kite can build the other pieces too. It can write and publish the launch announcement and social posts, build a landing page for the event on a Kite-hosted site, and print that page's short web address on the shirt or sticker.
That web address also gives you a way to measure the merch. Kite's built-in analytics show how many people visited the event page and whether they signed up, so you can see whether the swag did more than look good. Kite adds what it learns to your knowledge base, which helps it plan merch for the next event.
What you get
Merch designs that match your brand
Artwork built from your logo, colors, fonts, and voice, sized for each item and shared with you for review.
A recommended set of items
The products, colors, quantities, and sizes Kite suggests for the event, with the reasoning behind each choice.
Products and orders in your Printify account
The finished designs set up as products, and orders placed to the addresses you gave Kite.
A plan that fits your event date
A schedule that works backward from your launch or event so the order goes in on time.
Launch materials that tie it together
Optional landing pages, announcements, and social posts, along with a report on how many people visited the event page.
How to get started
Start with Kite in your browser or in Slack, then describe the event and what you want. You might say, "We're sponsoring a conference on November 12. Design a shirt and stickers for our booth," or "Send a launch hoodie to our ten biggest customers."
Kite asks any questions it needs answered, such as the number of attendees, the shipping addresses, or your budget, then proposes the designs and items. You review them and ask for changes until they look right.
Connect your Printify account when you're ready for Kite to set up products and place the order. If you'd rather order yourself, Kite can deliver the finished artwork files instead.
Integrations used for branded merchandise
Kite's built-in tools handle the design work, and a connected print-on-demand account handles production and shipping.
Design the artwork
Produce and ship the merch
Connect your Printify account so Kite can set up your designs as products and place orders for printing and shipping. Printify bills your account for each order.
If your team already uses Printful, you can connect that account instead, and Kite works with your products and orders there.
Common questions
Is it free to design swag with AI?
Designing merch with Kite is part of Kite's regular work, and Kite has a free plan that includes usage. The items themselves aren't free. Printify charges for each item it prints and ships, and those charges go to your Printify account.
What are the best swag items for a launch or event?
The best swag items are the ones people use after the event: comfortable t-shirts and hoodies, hats, tote bags, water bottles, mugs, and stickers. The right choice depends on the audience. Stickers and shirts suit a crowded booth, while a better hoodie or bag makes a stronger thank-you to customers or speakers. Kite recommends items based on who will receive them and how you plan to hand them out.
Do I need a designer or vector files to get merch made?
No. Kite designs the artwork from your brand guidelines and the logo it already has on file. If you have original logo files, share them with Kite, because they give the cleanest print. Kite can also hand the finished artwork files to you or to a printer you already work with.
Can Kite send merch to customers or remote team members instead of one location?
Yes. Because print-on-demand produces each order separately, Kite can place an order for each person at their own address. That makes it practical to send a launch gift to your best customers, thank the speakers at your event, or get shirts to a remote team before an all-hands.
How far ahead should I order merch for an event?
Start as soon as you know the date. Printing and shipping usually take longer than designing and reviewing the artwork, especially for international addresses or large orders. Kite works backward from your event date and tells you when the order needs to go in.