Custom Swag Boxes
Made to Be Seen
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Curated Per Audience
Built around who is opening it
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Branded Packaging
Printed boxes, tape, cards, and inserts
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Assembled In House
Kitted here, not drop shipped from a catalogue
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One Address or Hundreds
Bulk delivery or direct to each recipient
Branded Boxes Built and Shipped From Vancouver BC
A swag box is a logistics job wearing a gift’s clothing. Choosing the items is the easy half. The half that goes wrong is the box that costs more to ship than what is inside it, the hoodies that arrive in the wrong sizes, and the three hundred home addresses that have to come out of a spreadsheet and onto shipping labels without a mistake.
Firebird Prints sources, decorates, assembles, and ships branded kits from our East Vancouver shop. Everything is packed here, so the contents are checked as a finished kit rather than arriving at your office in six separate cartons for someone on your team to sort. If you are still deciding which items belong inside, start with the promotional products range and come back once you have a shortlist.
What Goes in the Box, and in What Order
Boxes that land well are not the ones with the most items in them. They follow a structure, and the structure is what makes the box feel curated instead of assembled from whatever was in stock.
One hero item. The single piece carrying most of the budget and most of the impression. It is the thing the recipient photographs and keeps. Usually apparel, a quality bag, or insulated drinkware.
Two or three supporting items. Useful, lower cost, and chosen so they do not compete with the hero for attention. A notebook, a pen, a keychain, a set of stickers.
Something consumable. Coffee, chocolate, a snack from a local maker. It gets used immediately, which is what makes the box feel generous rather than promotional.
One printed piece. A note card, a welcome letter, a QR card pointing somewhere. This is what turns a parcel of objects into a message from a person.
The mistake we see most often is five items of equal value. Nothing stands out, the box costs more than it needs to, and the recipient remembers none of it.
Apparel Sizing Is What Breaks Most Kits
This is the single biggest reason kit projects slip, and it is worth deciding early.
Putting a t-shirt or hoodie in a box means you either collect every recipient’s size first, which adds a round of chasing people before production can begin, or you guess a size spread and accept that a share of recipients get something they will not wear. Neither is free.
There are three ways out. Collect sizes properly through a form before production starts, which we can run for you. Choose a size-agnostic hero item instead, such as a tote, a beanie, a blanket, or a tumbler, which sidesteps the problem entirely. Or send a redemption link that lets each recipient pick their own item and size, then ship on demand.
If apparel is going in the box, the custom apparel range covers what is available and how each blank fits.
Mailer Box, Rigid Box, or Kraft Shipper
The container is a real decision and it changes both the cost per kit and what the recipient feels when it arrives.
Printed Mailer Box
A corrugated box with a folding lift top, printed inside and out. Strong enough to go through the post without an outer carton, which means the branded box is also the shipper.
This is the standard for most kits and the best balance of presentation and cost.
Rigid Box with Magnetic Closure
Heavier construction with a wrapped finish and a lid that snaps shut. It reads as premium the moment it is picked up.
It costs more, it weighs more to ship, and it usually needs an outer shipping carton, so it suits executive gifts and small counts rather than company-wide sends.
Plain Kraft With Branded Tape
An unprinted natural box sealed with custom printed tape and finished with a label. Far cheaper than a printed box, and still clearly branded when it arrives.
The sensible choice for high volume sends and for anyone testing a kit programme before committing to printed packaging.
E-Flute or B-Flute Corrugated
Corrugated board is graded by the size of the wave running between the two liners, and it decides both how well the box prints and how much abuse it takes.
E-flute is roughly one sixteenth of an inch thick. The finer wave gives a smoother surface, so printing sits crisper and fine detail holds. It folds down more compactly. This is what most branded mailer boxes use.
B-flute is roughly one eighth of an inch. Thicker, more rigid, better at absorbing impact. Worth stepping up to when the kit is heavy, when there is glassware or a ceramic mug inside, or when boxes are shipping individually to residential addresses where handling is rougher.
Picking a Box Size Without Overpaying to Ship
Couriers bill on dimensional weight, meaning they compare the physical weight of the parcel against the space it occupies and charge on whichever is greater. For a swag box, which is mostly light items surrounded by air, the size almost always wins.
The practical effect is that one extra inch of box depth can raise the shipping cost of every single kit in the run. On three hundred kits that is not a rounding error.
Useful ranges to work from. A kit of apparel and other foldables sits comfortably around 9 by 6 by 2 inches. A kit with boxed or rigid items needs roughly 8 by 8 by 3 up to 10 by 8 by 4. Larger multi-item kits run around 12 by 9 by 2 through 14 by 10 by 4. Remember that a listed box size is usually the usable interior, and the outer footprint is slightly larger.
The method that works: fold the apparel exactly the way you want it to look when the lid comes off, lay the rest of the contents beside it, measure that, and size the box to it. We do this with a physical sample before committing a full run.
Crinkle Paper, Notecards, and Branded Tape
The interior is where the budget goes furthest, because it costs very little and it is the first thing seen.
Crinkle-cut shred or tissue in a brand colour fills the space, stops items sliding around in transit, and gives the box depth when it opens. A printed note card sits on top of the fill and carries the actual message. Custom packing tape brands a plain box for a fraction of what printed corrugated costs. A large printed box sticker does similar work on a kraft shipper. Ribbon, hang tags, and individual poly bagging are available where the kit is going to be handed over rather than posted.
Corrugated board and paper fill are accepted in most curbside recycling programmes in BC, which is worth knowing if your organisation reports on packaging.
Box Artwork and Dielines
A printed box is not designed like a flat page. Artwork is laid out on a dieline, which is the flattened template showing every panel, fold, and glue tab before the box is assembled.
We supply the dieline for whichever box style you choose. Artwork needs to be vector where possible, with anything that runs to the edge extended past the trim so folding does not expose a white line. Keep important elements away from fold creases, because a logo landing on a crease will crack.
Interior printing is worth considering. The inside of the lid is the first surface a recipient sees, and it is the cheapest piece of real estate in the whole kit.
One Office or Individual Addresses
Bulk delivery to a single location is cheap per kit. Individual shipping turns every kit into its own parcel with its own courier charge, which costs more but is the only thing that works for a distributed team. Many clients split it, bulk to the office and individual parcels only for remote staff.
Most well known swag platforms fulfil from warehouses in the United States, so every Canadian parcel crosses a border and picks up customs processing, possible duty, and a delivery estimate rather than a date. We assemble in Vancouver and ship domestically, so a kit going to Toronto or Halifax is a domestic parcel.
Produce Once, Release Over Time
You do not know when your next twelve hires start, but the per unit cost drops sharply if all twelve are produced at once.
We can hold the finished kits and release them one at a time as people start, so you get volume pricing with on-demand timing. Tell us the expected volume and the window.
Reviews That Say It All
Custom Swag Boxes FAQ
How many kits is a realistic starting point?
Small runs are workable. What changes with volume is the cost per kit, because decorating and packaging setups are spread across more units, and because individual courier rates improve. Tell us the count you have in mind and we will show you where the practical breaks fall.
Do I have to collect apparel sizes before ordering?
Only if apparel is going in the box. You can collect sizes yourself, have us send a collection form to your recipients, or choose a size-agnostic hero item such as a tote, beanie, or tumbler and skip the problem entirely.
What box size will my kit need?
It depends on the contents, not the item count. Apparel and foldables sit around 9 by 6 by 2 inches, kits with rigid items around 8 by 8 by 3 to 10 by 8 by 4, and larger multi-item kits from 12 by 9 by 2 upward. We size the box against a physical sample of your actual contents before running it.
Why does box size affect shipping cost so much?
Couriers charge on dimensional weight, comparing the space a parcel occupies against its actual weight and billing the greater of the two. Swag boxes are light and bulky, so the dimensions almost always set the price. An inch of unnecessary depth is a cost on every kit in the run.
Can you ship to each recipient individually?
Yes. We can ship in bulk to one location, individually to home or business addresses, or split the run between both. Individual shipping costs more per kit, so it is worth pricing both before deciding.
Can you hold finished kits and send them as we need them?
Yes, and it is the usual approach for onboarding. Produce the full run at volume pricing, then release kits one at a time as new people start. Confirm the volume and the holding window with us at quote stage.
Do kits shipped within Canada get held at customs?
No. Everything is decorated and assembled in Vancouver and ships as a domestic parcel, so there is no customs processing, duty, or brokerage fee on Canadian deliveries. This is the main practical difference from platforms fulfilling out of the United States.
Do you print the box itself?
Yes. Options run from a plain kraft box sealed with custom printed tape through to a fully printed mailer with interior printing on the lid. We supply the dieline for whichever style you choose so your designer can lay artwork out correctly.
Can you include items we already have?
Yes. If you already hold stock or have items coming from another supplier, send them to us and we will fold them into the kitting run. Give us a count and an arrival date so the assembly schedule holds.
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info@firebirdprints.com
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Custom Swag Boxes That Represent Your Brand
A well-executed swag box does more than promote your logo. It communicates value, attention to detail, and brand identity.
At Firebird Prints, we help Vancouver businesses create custom swag boxes that people actually want to keep and use.
