Tri - goodie Bags

teevanke

I've just finished my first triathlon season and I really enjoyed all the tri's I did. One of the things I noticed was a lot of people talk about the goodie bags you receive on registration, in particular the Tee Shirt.

With this in mind I thought it would be good to get other peoples views on the good, the bad and the sometimes missing/received late - then wrong size etc (you know the one !!).

For example the Tee shirt in Carlingford's triathlon was very nice, the goodie bag didn't have much in it, but considering registration was only about €35 I thought that was one of better goodie bags of the season. Any thoughts?

brazil325

I thought the cycling jerseys that were given out for Athy and the Dublin Sprint Series were a nice change also the Solomon tee at Dublin.

They are much more practical than the cotton tee's that are sometimes given out. Another goodie bag i liked was Fingal. It was full to the brim with samplers.

I wonder if people would prefer cheaper entry to races and no goodie bags????

potsy11

Beast of the East - Good blue t-shirt
Hell of the West - Black T- very nice
Athy - Although a few months late is a good cycle top

mjth2004

I agree with brazil325....

Most of us competing will have all our own gear, & in the two years of racing the best thing i have recieved in a goodie bag was a piranha mug at DCT 08! So i would be in favour of doing away with t-shirts, water bottles, etc for a cheaper entrance fee!

potsy11

As far as I know most of what comes in a goody bag is supplied free.

Its called direct marketing. All of the sponsors would pony up and the tees are purchased with this money.

tunney

potsy11 wrote: »

As far as I know most of what comes in a goody bag is supplied free.

Its called direct marketing. All of the sponsors would pony up and the tees are purchased with this money.

Not true.

jonnyfingers

potsy11 wrote: »

As far as I know most of what comes in a goody bag is supplied free.

Its called direct marketing. All of the sponsors would pony up and the tees are purchased with this money.

As one of the race organisers of the Carrick Tri this year I can tell you this is not the case. Sponsorship is becoming increasingly difficult to get in the current economic climate. In previous years Coca Cola gave us some Powerade, Flahavans gave us some flapjacks and local businesses sponsored fruit and other things. This year we bought our own water, bananas and other small goodies that went in our goody bags. And instead of t-shirts we gave everyone a swimming hat and towel for a change.

I think a change from the normal t-shirt is good. I have about 10 of them that I only use for cleaning the house!

urban cowboy

As a student, I would have said in favour of cheaper entries, except all I seem to wear are tri-shirts. Go on direct marketing..

jonnyfingers

Just a quick observation about cheaper entry fees. With sponsorship harder to come, by a triathlon may be a club's only source of income for the year. There are a lot of costs in running a race and few races will return a massive profit. I do agree that some of the bigger races with excessive entry fees probably don't have this problem. But for smaller clubs around the country they couldn't afford to lower their entry fees that much.

tunney

For every person that wants a lower entry and will live without a t-shirt/towel/mug there are probably two or three that are willing to pay for it.

I think people need to start thinking about value for money in races and looking beyond goodie bags, some races are shocking value for money, some fantastic.

Things I've gotten in goodie bags that rocked:
* Ballyronan a few years ago gave towels and nice L/S t-shirts
* A kenmare t-shirt (with collar) from a few years ago
* A kenmare beanie hat
* An ireman beanie hat
* An ireman mug
* A Carrick tshirt (with collar)
* Nice lisbon HIM t-shirt
* A UK 70.30 t-shirt and bag
* T-shirts for any races I've won


Still waiting on my kilcock t-shirt

NWM

The Kerryhead in Ballyheigue had a goodie bag with a banana, a caprisun and a tiny bag of high energy jelly beans, plus some fliers for various things. The bright yellow enable Ireland t-shirt came in the post.

jonnyfingers

Some good things I've gotten in Goody Bags have been:

Great Ireland Run training top (much better than cotton t-shirt)
Beanie hat, inner tubes, water bottle, water bottle holder (Spokes duathlon and triathlon)
Towel (Carrick Triathlon - Dark colour so great for using in transition to dry your feet)

HardyEustace

jonnyfingers wrote: »

I think a change from the normal t-shirt is good. I have about 10 of them that I only use for cleaning the house!

I think if it's a decent technical t-shirt people will use it.

We're nice shirts for the Carna/Galway tri this year. They were technical and were also in proper sizes (rather than when a small has armpits down to your hips). Rather than be left with a carful of t-shirts that you were lugging around for the next year, all the t-shirts were gone by the end of the day. People were very complimentary about them.

I love when you get mugs. Have one from Kilkee and one from a bhaa RTE race as well. Rather nice.