The AWS re:Invent 2024 swag review: The best of the best

It might surprise you to know that every year, the most popular article we write about re:Invent isn’t on some cutting edge feature or service, but actually on what swag there was to collect! It’s completely understandable—there’s something therapeutic about scrolling through a stream of pictures of the latest, glittery merch.

This year, after reviewing a whopping 400+ pieces of swag, here's a comprehensive list of what pieces really stood out. As usual, we’ve excluded ourselves from the running to give a fair and honest review.

If we somehow missed your company on the expo floor and you want your company swag added to this post, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and I’ll be happy to add it!

What was AWS’s official 2024 merchandise?

For those who’ve never attended a tech event, the company who runs it usually gives you swag for simply showing up! These items can be true quality—I’ve been travelling with my extra-comfy RSAC backpack all around the world since May—and AWS was no different in having merch on arrival.

The big ticket items in 2024 that you could collect from AWS were:

A hoodie (All attendees)
A drink bottle (All attendees)
Inclusion pins (All attendees)
An AWS-themed card builder game with GenAI and Resiliency expansions (If you find the hidden stall!)
A certification shirt (Need one AWS certification)
An AWS community jacket (Must have an AWS community profile)
A date-stamped re:Invent Lego piece (One is given out each year, but you can’t collect previous years).
A game sticker matching your highest certifications (From the community lounge, certified people only)
Socks, a pin, and bag (Must be a community speaker)
Certain giveaways for attending AWS-sponsored networking events, or the AWS Village (I got a beanie from going to an Australia & New Zealand networking event)

Here’s the goss on how good each item was (and if you should have FOMO this year or not).

The 2024 hoodie: Cool custom style, not good for wearing

I’ll admit, my expectations were sky-high for the re:Invent hoodie. Ever since I saw the 2021 “10 year anniversary” jacket, I know that AWS can deliver the goods. Just LOOK at this beautiful thing:

See? Now, I know that’s a special event jacket, but even if I hadn’t seen that, I still would have felt this year’s hoodie was a bit less colorful.

Now, I’ll start by saying there was one extremely cool thing about this year’s hoodie, and it’s that you could customize it with your own print. AWS had a handful of options you could put on either the black or white portions, and choose if you wanted it on the front or back.

Naturally, I went the lightning hands, because it was by far the geekiest option available and it DOES look fire:

However, I’m never going to wear this hoodie because of one trait that ruins literally any hoodie for me. There's no zip.

Sounds pedantic? Maybe at first, but here’s why that’s a big deal. At re:Invent, the session rooms get ice cold. Suddenly, you want to throw on an extra layer. The second you walk out into the crowded corridors? Burning hot. That hoodie’s got to come off again. On top of that, when you yank it over your head it messes up your hair, which can be annoying if you’re going to be talking to a lot of people.

As it stands, the hoodie is going into my closet as an admittedly neat memento of re:Invent ‘24, but not for actual wear. However, AWS made it up with another bit of swag a few days into the event (More on that further down.)

The official water bottle has a great non-profit angle, but also broke on me

The second piece of merch you get for showing up is a water bottle, which is near essential at re:Invent, because you need to keep constantly hydrated. Unfortunately, I only got one use out of my AWS drink bottle before the lid stuck so badly I had to return it (which hurt my pride like not being able to open a jar of pasta sauce.) Thankfully, the AWS staff also tried to open it and failed, making me feel vindicated.

That said, the water bottle is a solid aluminium, and if you scan the QR code on it, it gives you a $5 donation to spend on Fill it Forward, which is a nice feel-good initiative.

AWS’s inclusion pins are an amazing, unique conference add

For a few years now, AWS has had inclusion pins for free when you check in to get your tickets. I’ve attended a ton of tech events this year—RSA Conference, TechEx, World Summit AI, Web Summit—and none of them had anything like this on offer.

There were pins for your pronouns (Even neo-pronouns and a ‘just ask’ option!), as well as the most fire neurospicy pin I’ve ever seen. These were quality pins, too, made out of solid metal with a polished, shiny look.

There was also a networking pin with a spinning dial depending on how much you wanted to talk to people. However, AWS didn’t have strong signage around how this pin worked, so I accidentally had it set to Yellow (Which apparently means ‘I’ll talk, but reserve the right to walk off) when it should have been set to Green (Eager to talk). Given the lack of signage, nobody seemed to know the rules anyway.

There were also Ally pins, but I couldn’t see any LGBTQIA+ pins, which was extremely odd given they were on all the digital screens but not for pickup or worn by anyone. There were language pins as well, but these were nestled in an unusual corner of the Expo floor, so I actually had to give someone directions to find them.

The certification shirt: Absolutely killer retro game design

I love this shirt so much. I’m doing a chef’s kiss right now to whichever graphic designer came up with this one—you nailed it! It’s colorful, interesting, has a geeky theme that resonates a lot with attendees, and sums up the certification journey perfectly. I’d get three of these if I could.

The community jacket: A clear upgrade from the hoodie

This is where AWS finally answered my plea for something with a zip. This is a great jacket with a double-layered design, tons of pockets, and a cosy feel.

My only complaint is that re:Invent kicked off on the Sunday and ends on the Thursday, and this was given out on Wednesday morning, so I didn’t get a chance to use it in the chilly session rooms.

The AWS DeckBuilder Game (Plus GenAI and Resiliency Expansions)

I found this due to the kindly guidance of a Gold Jacket (Someone who's got every AWS Cert, often referred to by passers-by as "completely bonkers). They pointed me to a small unassuming stall in the connecting casino, where they handed me out not just the base game, but two expansions!

This seems like an amazing way to learn about AWS services and how they operate in a gamified way! That said, my only problem with it (I know, I know, I'm impossible to please---I've written a whole blog about it) is that it's two to four players, and it's hard to find any normal folks who want to play a game about AWS services. If there was a solo version, this would be an amazing learning device.

The obligatory re:Invent Lego brick

On the one hand, yay, Lego! On the other hand, I now have FOMO over not having all the bricks from previous years.

The more exclusive bits and pieces from AWS

Unlike me, our very own AWS Hero Faye Ellis was a speaker at the event, and so she got this gift kit which apparently includes some very soft socks, a special pin, and a bag for carrying your things.

Here’s a beanie I got from attending one of the AWS-sponsored networking events. There were apparently a lot more goodies that were given away on Monday evening (Unfortunately, a lot of the great networking events seemed to overlap with the opening keynote).

There were t-shirts, drink bottles, bits of Lego, and waterbottles if you answered some surveys on select services, like Amazon SageMaker or Amazon Connect.

And, last but not least, there were stickers on offer in the Certification Lounge depending on which exams you'd passed, which were simply awesome.

That’s all for the AWS swag, but if I find out about any more, I’ll be sure to add it to this post!

The best swag of AWS re:Invent 2024: Winners and stand-outs

Here’s the part you’ve likely been waiting for: Which company was giving out the best free merch? Just like with our other event rankings, we’ve broken it down into a few categories. Lets start with the best mascot!

AWS re:Invent’s best mascot giveaway

Every tech event, there’s that adorable mascot that just catches your attention. Because of that, we give them a whole section to themselves based primarily on cuteness and that “je ne sais quoi.” This section is reserved only for mascots you can take home and keep on your shelf.

Third place: Anjuna’s Anjunado squeezes out the charm

I reviewed Anjunado in our RSAC swag review earlier this year, and the squishy mascot whose belly bulges out is still as memorable as ever. Now they’ve upped the ante and have stickers and other mascot-themed merch, which is why Anjunado is firmly on the rankings for re:Invent this year.

Second place: SUSE's Geeko

5he name of the mascot and the way Geeko stares at me with their wide eyes and slightly addled smile make it an easy second place (It’s ugly-cute). Plus, the little AWS logo on Geeko’s side is very neat. Geeko will live on my desk and steal the few rays of sunshine that were meant to deliver Vitamin-D to my deficient self. I will happily make that sacrifice.

First place: TierPoint’s Electra and Hybrid Electra

Honestly, TierPont’s done an amazing job here. Not only do they have Electra, a fluffy cloud plushie, they’ve got a version for hybrid cloud split into two colors with an endearing backstory on a card. Just read this stuff!

AWS re:Invent’s best stickers

There’s enough stickers at re:Invent to cover your laptop twenty times over and then some. This section is dedicated to the ones that would be most likely to get that last patch of space.

Third place: Women in Cybersecurity (WiCys)

My wife works in cybersecurity, and I have often said that she is powerful like a dragon. Now she’s got a sticker to prove it, so this is absolutely going on the laptop.

Second place: GitHub’s Octocats

GitHub’s Octocat stickers are always amazing (Which is why they won Best Sticker for RSAC 2024). There’s so many varieties you can pick the ones that you can see yourself in, and they let you take as much as you want. The line for the GitHub booth stretched back as far as the eye could see.

First place: AWS’s 8-Bit Certification stickers

I love the Octocats on my laptop, but I would peel one off to put a badge on that signified the hard work I put into getting a certification. It’s a meaningful trophy to add to your laptop case that serves a double function—it broadcasts to anyone staring at your computer that you’ve got said certifications, which adds to your personal brand. These stickers are the easy winner.

AWS re:Invent’s best shirt

A lot of people I know wear the shirts they get from tech conferences all year round. Shirts are ranked based on how likely they would be to be worn frequently in public, not just when you’re in the garden or moving dirty furniture.

Third place: Kentik’s rockin’ TCP/IP shirt

Look, as an Australian, I love a bit of an AC/DC homage. That aside, the shirt is just really cool, and also makes you smile if you’re familiar with network communication protocols. I would definitely wear this around town and wait until I saw someone chuckle at it.

Second place: AWS’s certification shirt

I’ve already gushed about this shirt earlier in the article, so it’s no surprise that it made the list. I would wear this any day of the week.

First place: Crowdstrike’s customizable shirts

Crowdstrike are renowned for their amazing merch (They were our overall swag winner for RSAC 2024 for a reason). While AWS were doing steam-pressed hoodies, Crowdstrike went a step further with giving you an option of a white, grey, or black shirt, and then your choice of four stylish prints. The cyberpunk aesthetic paired with the very real message of stopping bad actors adds to the coolness of this shirt. There were massive lines to pick this one up at the Crowdstrike booth.

The best swag overall of AWS re:Invent 2024

At last, the main rankings! These are selected by how likely you would be to actually find room in your suitcase to take this item back, and actually use or display it once you got home. We exclude any item that requires you to enter a raffle to get, since only one person tends to get the merch.

Fourth place: The AWS community jacket

Good jackets are always worth having, and this one has the benefit of also being AWS branded. I would throw out another lesser jacket from my suitcase just to squeeze this one in, and I’ll certainly wear it in Melbourne (a city that can’t decide what weather to have, so it decides to go with all four on the same day.)

Third place: Crowdstrike’s collectable figurines

I love the Crowdstrike figurines, and that’s why these same figurines snagged first place with the RSA 2024 merch rankings. You do have to jump through three hoops to get them—watch a demo, listen to a talk, and then take a selfie with their statue—but that doesn’t take long, and the figurines are worth it.

My only bugbear is that I already had the two figurines from RSA—the Aquatic Panda and Scattered Spider—so I’m hoping they shake things up in 2025 with some new options.

Second place: GitHub’s store vouchers (which will go to an Octocat)

It’s a bit of an odd process, but GitHub had a plinko where you could drop a disk, and depending where it landed you might win a voucher. If you get one, you get a voucher to buy something from their GitHub merch store (with many of the items visible at their booth). I’m certainly going to get an Octocat to sit on my desk as my Git guardian (at least until my three actual cats rebel and knock it from its lofty perch.)

First place: FusionAuth’s mini Lego kits (and lightsaber, and stickers...)

While FusionAuth's booth was smaller and out of the way, perhaps the most unassuming bit of merch was also the best. While all the other booths had gigantic, flashy Lego kits with Millennium Falcons, Titantics, and Saturn V rockets—and these are all amazing, don’t get me wrong—FusionAuth had a simple booth on their booth, filled with small kits you can just take. And it’s well-established that people in tech, by and large, love their Lego (And you can read our article on the best gifts for tech lovers for exactly why that is.).

There were no demo requirements. No lucky draws. Just a scan, a painless question about your current Auth solution, and here’s a Lego kit. They were fun things too, like Mars Rovers or Star Wars vehicles, and it seemed to change every day. In the end, when I think about what people will go back home and have fun with—either building solo or with your loved ones—this was pretty much it.

As if that wasn't enough, they also had lightsabers! This one is is going to keep me going until I can afford a real custom lightsaber from Vader’s Vault. The Lego alone was enough to rank first, but the lightsaber is just a bonus.

Also, you know you're good when other companies are using your swag to do their own demos.

Other AWS re:Invent honorable swag mentions

Every year there’s so many great pieces of swag that deserve to be mentioned, along with the companies that were handing it out. This is the section for all those stand out pieces.

CAST AI's daily lightsaber and lego draw

ScyllaDB's squid mascot (Or ghost. It's cool either way)

Github's custom skateboard

It was lucky draw, and while I didn't get it, this guy did!

A TEKSystems robot drawing your portrait

Faye Ellis had a go---how do you think it did at capturing her likeness?

N2WS X-Wing and Guardians of the Galaxy Lego kits

Weaviate's self-made comic book and Steam deck

The art was AI-made, and I can only imagine the amount of work that went into it given the consistency of the art inside. I honestly would have been fooled into thinking this was a commercial comic book. Also, Steam decks are always worth their weight in gold, especially for non-US attendees who can't get them at home (Like me).

StrongDM's self-made Choose Your Own Adventure novel (Neat!) and cool stickers

StrongDM actually did this with the company that did the Choose Your Own Adventure novels as a kid, so if you flip it open, it's just a wave of nostalgia. They did an amazing job with this one! Their stickers were also strong contenders for the "best sticker" section this year.

A clean room, cotton candy, and quippy shirt from Commvault

Commvault had an awesome clean room experience set up. The rewards? A shirt with an edgy quote from Mike Tyson, a tide pen to erase your data corruption like it never happened, and candy floss because life is sweeter when your cloud workloads are resilient.

NTT Data's Lego and actual racing setup

I'll be honest, I came back to NTT Data's booth twice and had a really great time. They had a Lego McLaren Formula 1 racer you could win, but it wasn't that---you had to get the best time on a racing simulation for the day to win it, and it was so fun it was hard not to come back!

It was very well set up because you got roughly three laps, and only needed to get the best score for an individual lap, which added up to three tries. That meant even if you smashed into a wall in your first round, you could learn and try again two more times.

My gamer pride certainly kicked in, and while I didn't get the Lego, I did get some great memories and had a good time at their booth. The booth staff were also nice, so it was a comfortable place to hang around.

The AWS rhinestone car model

I don't even know where to start with this thing, other than I want it and I'd have no shelf room to have it. This was being raffled off by AWS in their Cloud Partner area.

nOps and ManagedEngine's UCS Millenium Falcon Lego sets

nOps and ManageEngine both had the drool-worthy Ultimate Collector Series Millenium Falcon. Thankfully, a lot of the places doing these would also ship it to your house, so you don't have to stress about carry-on limits.

A cuter, smaller Millenium Falcon by Codeium

This one is awesome because you can actually rebuild it if you want as an alternate build, shown below (Sorry, my Lego nerd is showing!)

Dremio's fairly adorable narwal, also in Lego form

Did I mention that tech folks like Lego? You might be sensing a theme by now. Anyway, it was a bit hard to say "nar" to this merch.

Firefly's super fly pin collection

You might also be sensing a Star Wars theme (or it might be a bit subtle?) These pins are great, especially "I whisper WTF to myself at least 20 times a day" and "Too many tabs."

Astronomer's Shuttle Adventure lego kit

It's always nice to see variety in the Lego Kits at an expo, and this was a bit different from the rest!

Fortra's llama mascot

I've got a soft spot for llamas because it always makes me think of a certain llama farmer I used to work with. That aside, Fortra's mascot was a strong contender for this year's best take-away mascot. Just look at that face!

Kong's PS5 giveaway

You can never have too many Playstation consoles. Why not have one in every room?

Your face as a cookie, courtesy of f5

Hmm, I taste a lot more sugar-filled than I expected.

Kentik's Meta Quest Pro draw

I mentioned Kentik before due to their awesome shirts, but what I didn't mention was they had this sweet Meta Quest Pro up for grabs, as well as a lot of neat stickers.

A red fedora from Red Hat

This feels incredibly on brand. I saw a lot of people wearing these!

SentinelOne's Cyber Station Lego kit

Another free one, but this one was a bit more bespoke! I'm certainly going to switch out the Minifig and have this one near the desk. Love the "Ages 35+ part."

Imply's koala plushies and Switch draw

I don't know how they got the koalas here, since whenever I try to sneak them to the US they always tell me no. There was also a "scan to win" Switch at the booth!

Automox's Otto robot figurine

"Do you have kids at home?" One of the booth staff asked me as I picked it up.

"No, just a wife who also really likes this stuff," I replied, also quietly planning to upload an AI into Otto to make myself a tiny embodied robot.

Feel you were missed? Reach out and let us know!

We're currently adding more photos and names to this post, but if you feel you were missed, reach out to me on LinkedIn and I'll be happy to add you to this article!