Client gifts: 12 ideas your clients will actually keep

Client gifts: 12 ideas your clients will actually keep

The personalised client gift that sticks is the one still in use in March: an organic cotton cap, a heavy canvas tote bag, a tone-on-tone embroidered sweatshirt, an engraved insulated bottle. Here are 12 ideas from our catalogue: eight textile items from 8 to 60 euros excluding VAT, all under France's 73-euro tax threshold, and four objects on quote.

The essentials in 4 points:

• A client keeps a gift that is useful and beautiful, and forgets one that looks like an ad: the logo stays discreet, embroidered tone on tone.
• You don't know your clients' sizes: start with what has none (cap, beanie, tote bag, towel, objects).
• In France, the VAT on a client gift can be recovered up to 73 euros including VAT, per year and per recipient.
• All our prices include the marking: the garment and its chest embroidery, taken from our product pages on 30 September 2026, for 25 items, excluding VAT and shipping.

In December, a client often receives several gifts from their suppliers. They eat some, put others away, and by January they no longer remember who sent what. Except for one thing: the object they found nice enough to use.

That is the whole point of a business gift. Not a thank-you for form's sake, but a quiet place in the person's life for months. A well-chosen garment or object gets there. A food hamper never lasts beyond the holidays. (For your employees, the logic flips and the logo can show: our guide for employees covers it.)

12 client gift ideas, sorted by how safe they are

A personalised, embroidered client gift costs from 8 to 60 euros excluding VAT per item in the TKNP catalogue, marking included, for an order of 25. The first eight ideas are textile garments and accessories, with their price taken from tknp.io on 30 September 2026: unit price excluding VAT and shipping, for 25 items, 8 × 10 cm chest embroidery, most affordable colour, standard lead time. The last four are objects, priced on quote.

No size needed: the risk-free choice

1. The organic cotton cap: Beechfield's Earthaware Organic Cotton Studio Cap, about 8.35 euros. Adjustable, it fits everyone, and a small embroidery on the front is all it needs.
2. The heavy canvas tote bag: Westford Mill's Gallery Canvas Tote, in 407 g/m² canvas, about 9.22 euros. Sturdy enough for the weekly shop, understated enough for the office.
3. The ribbed organic cotton beanie: Stanley/Stella's Rib Beanie 2.0, about 12.99 euros. Given in December, it gets worn the next day.
4. The organic cotton bath towel: The One Towelling's Organic Bath Towel, 550 g/m², about 17.72 euros. The gift nobody expects from a supplier, and it ends up in the bathroom rather than in a drawer.

Sized garments: for the clients you know well

5. The heavy crewneck sweatshirt: Stanley/Stella's Radder 2.0, 350 g/m², 100% organic cotton, about 31.12 euros. Dense and understated, it goes from the office to the weekend.
6. The denim shirt: the Stanley Denim Shirt, in organic cotton, about 32.74 euros. A garment nobody associates with a supplier, especially with a logo embroidered in the colour of the fabric.
7. The zip hoodie: Stanley/Stella's Cultivator 2.0, 350 g/m², visible metal zip, about 37.67 euros. Smarter than a classic hoodie, it works in a client meeting.
8. The puffer gilet: Stanley/Stella's Puffer Gilet 2.0, in recycled nylon, about 60.42 euros. The most upscale gift on the list, for your very best clients.

Objects: when a garment doesn't suit the relationship

9. The insulated stainless steel bottle, laser engraved: see the mugs and bottles family.
10. The scented candle, in its glass holder: see the home and wellbeing family.
11. The umbrella, for clients who walk between meetings: see the umbrellas family.
12. The notebook, for those who still write by hand in meetings: see the office and writing family.

Object or garment: how to choose

Choose a garment when you know the client well enough to know what they will wear, and an object when the relationship is newer or more formal. A useful object raises no question of size or personal style, which makes it the most neutral choice.

The objects section of tknp.io lists 2,358 products across 13 families, marked by pad printing, laser engraving or printing depending on the material. Unlike the garments, they have no listed price: they are priced on quote.

What budget for a client gift: France's 73-euro rule

In France, the VAT on a client gift can only be recovered if its price does not exceed 73 euros including VAT per year and per recipient, according to the French Ministry of the Economy's guidance updated on 27 November 2025. Above that, the gift is still allowed, but the VAT is no longer deductible.

The ministry sets two other markers. A business gift is deductible from profits as long as its value is not excessive for the size of the company and the customs of the trade: the law sets no ceiling. And if all your gifts together exceed 3,000 euros over the year, they must be declared on the overheads statement (form 2065-SD for a company subject to corporate tax, 2031-SD for income tax). Micro-entrepreneurs are exempt. For your specific case, your accountant has the final word.

Converted to prices including VAT, our eight textile ideas all stay under 73 euros:

A word of honesty about the gilet: at 72.50 euros including VAT before shipping, it only just clears the threshold, and the ceiling covers every gift made to the same person in the year. If recovering the VAT matters to you, keep it for a client who receives nothing else.

Where to put the logo on a client gift

On a client gift, the logo is embroidered small, on the chest, ideally tone on tone: a thread the same colour as the fabric, visible up close and invisible from a distance. That is the difference between a garment your client wears and an advertising item they put away.

The reason is simple. Your client has no reason to wear your colours: it isn't their company, nor their team's merch. They will wear a beautiful sweatshirt where your name can be made out, not one that announces your brand in the street. Our photos of this discreet finish show how it looks on different fabric colours.

Online, the marking goes on the chest or the back. For a client gift, forget the back: a large design turns any garment into team wear. Other positions are available on quote.

The size problem when you give to clients

You don't know your clients' sizes, and you can't ask without spoiling the surprise. That is why the no-size ideas (adjustable cap, beanie, tote bag, towel, objects) are the safest choice for a broad client list.

Sized garments still have their place, but for a handful of close clients: the ones you see often, whose build you know, or whom you can simply ask. For them, a sweatshirt or a shirt says far more than an accessory. A mix works very well: the accessory for everyone, the garment for the ten clients who matter most.

How many to order, and when

Each textile garment or accessory can be ordered from 10 items, with mixed sizes and colours. For a client gift, that's the right format: a few dozen chosen people, not a mass handout.

At the standard lead time, production and delivery take about two weeks, on top of picking the products and approving the artwork. For a handout before the holidays, decide in early November: the detailed backward plan applies to clients too. Planning ahead even has a measurable benefit: on product pages such as the Cultivator 2.0's, the 4-week lead time lowers the price by 5%, while the 1-week express option raises it by 10%.

The end of the year isn't the only moment, either. A gift sent when a contract is signed, on the anniversary of a partnership or after a big project surprises more, precisely because it doesn't arrive alongside all the others.

Compare two versions of your gift before ordering

The safest way to choose between a beanie and a sweatshirt, or between a tone-on-tone logo and a contrasting one, is to see them side by side. In the online designer, prepare both versions of the same gift, show them to whoever knows your clients best, and keep the one that looks least like an ad. The tool is free, and it suggests the marking according to your logo and order size; it is walked through step by step here.

For a client gift, the winning version is often the most understated: a single thread colour, close to that of the fabric. The reasons, for the look as well as the budget, are explained in our article on the clothing brand logo.

Key takeaways

• A successful client gift is useful and beautiful, with a discreet embroidered logo: it is still in use come spring.
• Without knowing sizes, start with the cap, beanie, tote bag, towel or an object; keep sized garments for your close clients.
• In the catalogue, allow 8 to 60 euros excluding VAT, marking included, for 25 embroidered items, and stay under 73 euros including VAT per client per year if you want to recover the VAT in France.