How to Choose the Right Tote Bag for Your Brand

Your tote bag has competition. It’s the one already hanging by the front door.

When you give someone a branded bag, you’ve put your name in their hands. Whether they choose it again depends on a few very ordinary things: how much it holds, how it feels on their shoulder and whether they like being seen with it.

That’s a useful place to start when choosing a tote for your brand. Think about what would make it someone’s preferred bag, then work back to the specification.

Plan for the second outing

The first use is usually easy to picture. Your tote carries brochures around a conference, purchases out of a shop or the contents of a welcome pack. Give some thought to its next outing, too.

An event bag might become useful for the journey to work. A bookshop tote might accompany its owner on Saturday errands. A welcome-pack bag might earn a regular place in someone’s gym locker.

This helps you make specific choices. If you want the bag to carry shopping later, consider depth and comfortable handles. If it needs to fold into a coat pocket, lightness and simplicity become more useful.

It also affects the artwork. A prominent event date might make the tote a souvenir worth keeping. For another audience, a design with a life beyond that date may have more appeal. Decide which you’re aiming for.

Fit the life it’s going into

Lay out everything the bag needs to hold. Check the largest item, then allow space for the rest and enough room to take things out without a struggle. Dimensions on a product page become much more meaningful when you have the contents in front of you.

A flat tote can suit books, documents and other slim items. A gusset, an extra panel or fold that adds depth, can make room for bulkier contents such as a boxed gift or a bottle alongside a notebook.

Then think about carrying it. Longer handles can make shoulder carrying easier, especially when someone needs their hands free. Check the handle drop with the bag filled, and consider whether it will sit comfortably over a coat.

If possible, try a sample with the actual contents. Walk around with it. A handle that digs in or a box that makes the bag awkward to carry is worth discovering before you order several hundred.

Choose the right kind of quality

“Premium” is easy to put in a description. The person using the bag will experience it through the fabric, the seams, the print and the handles.

A heavier fabric can give a tote a more substantial feel, which may suit retail merchandise or a particular brand aesthetic. A lighter fabric can make it easier to fold and keep close to hand. Either can be a sensible choice for the right purpose.

Fabric weight, often shown in ounces or “oz”, is a useful guide. Look at it alongside the weave and construction, and ask whether the finished bag is suitable for the intended load.

For a bag you plan to sell, consider the price a customer will pay and the quality they will expect when they pick it up. For a giveaway, choose the features that will make it useful after the handover. Both deserve care, even if the specifications differ.

Give people a reason to be seen with it

A branded tote is quite a personal piece of advertising: someone has to agree to wear it.

That makes the design worth thinking about from their side. What might carrying your bag say about them? It could suggest a favourite bookshop, support for a cause, a sense of humour or simply an appreciation for a good-looking object.

For a brand with an enthusiastic following, a prominent logo may be the attraction. Elsewhere, an illustration, an interesting colour combination or a well-judged line of copy may give people a reason to choose the bag.

Look at the artwork at its actual print size and against the intended fabric colour. If you’re printing both sides, consider how they work together. One might carry the main design while the other holds a smaller brand detail.

The useful question is whether someone in your audience would choose to carry it on a day when they had other bags available.

Spend where people will notice the difference

A fixed budget forces choices. Start with the details that affect how the bag will be used: its size, construction, handles and design. Then consider which extras add enough value to justify their cost.

For retail merchandise, that might be a particular fabric or finish. For an event, a simpler print could leave more room in the budget for the bag itself.

Repeated use belongs in this discussion, even though you won’t know the exact number of outings in advance. The purchase price is only part of the value: a bag that becomes a regular companion gives your brand more opportunities to be seen.

Compare quotes on the same basis, including print, setup charges, delivery and VAT. Ask what you could change within your budget and what that change would mean for the finished bag.

Match the route to your brief

Your deadline will help determine how much you can customise. Work from the date the bags need to arrive, allowing time for packing or onward delivery.

At The Tote Works, Express offers a quicker route with a defined set of choices. Studio gives you more scope to customise, while fully bespoke projects can accommodate requirements such as particular sizes and finishes.

Come with a clear idea of who the bag is for, what it needs to carry, your quantity, budget and delivery date. That gives us a useful starting point for helping you choose.

The aim is a tote that earns its place by the front door. Your brand gets to come along when it leaves.

Ready to get started? Create your tote with The Tote Works, or talk to us about your project.