Custom Promotional Bags & Totes

What the bag is actually for

Bags are the highest-visibility promotional item we carry, because they are used in public rather than at a desk. A tote carried through a supermarket or a station is advertising in a way a pen on a desk is not. That makes the choice of bag less about cost per unit and more about whether it will be carried at all.

The range splits by that logic. Non-woven totes — the Big Thunder, North Park and Julian — are the volume option: cheap, light and ideal for conference bags and event handouts where you need hundreds. Cotton and jute totes, including the Mimi jute cotton and the natural cotton tote with colour straps, cost more and look it; these are the ones people keep and reuse for shopping. Drawstring packs suit sports clubs, schools and gym giveaways. Backpacks and briefcases — the All Day computer backpack, the Homestretch 600D, the polyester briefcase with a padded laptop compartment — are a different purchase entirely: fewer units, far longer retention, and appropriate as a genuine gift.

Material, and what it says about you

Non-woven polypropylene is inexpensive and functional but it is visibly a giveaway bag. Cotton and jute read as something worth keeping, which is the point if your brand sells on quality. Clear PVC exists for a specific reason — stadium and venue bag policies often require transparent bags — so if you are sponsoring or attending events at large venues, that is a practical rather than aesthetic choice.

Weight matters more than people expect. A flimsy tote handed out at a conference gets left in the hotel room. If the bag is meant to carry a laptop, a delegate pack or a shop of groceries, buy for that load rather than for the unit price.

Designing for a large print area

A tote gives you the biggest imprint area of anything in our catalogue, which is a genuine opportunity and a common mistake. The temptation is to fill it. The bags that actually get carried tend to carry a clean logo or a single short line, not a full advert — people are more willing to be seen with something that looks designed than with something that looks like signage.

Consider the bag's colour against your logo before anything else, and remember that a fabric surface will not hold fine detail as crisply as a pen barrel or a metal tumbler.

Related ranges

See our cotton totes, non-woven totes and backpacks for the deeper selections. If you are building an event pack rather than ordering bags alone, tell us the budget per attendee — the bag and its contents are usually better chosen together.