Do you like Padres giveaways that you can use or you can display?

When it comes to Padres giveaways do you prefer useful items or display items? I have a butt load of Padres give aways and my favorites by far are the items I can actually use.

My favorite item is probably the beach towel because they are consistently the best giveaway and really they are hard to mess up. Even an ugly design isn't going to stop you from using it. I use my Padres beach towels a few times a week during the summer and mostly use my hideously ugly Orangeriffic towel. I love how the towels are so thin that you never have to throw them out they just disintegrate one day and disappear in the dryer's lint collector.

My second favorite item is the Padres Floppy Hat. Although as I mention in that link, the Padres floppy hats have been real hit and miss. If they could just give me a simple design that is actually wearable I'd get one every year. I've had far too many with huge ass flower prints on them or little dancing friar patterns. Don't get me started again on the Orangeriffic one from 2003. Seriously, the reversible light tan and blue, with small Friar Logo and interlocking SD on the opposite sides was the best. I think it was from 2000.

Some of the give away caps are okay and even though I'm not a real big cap person I'll occasionally wear some of the giveaway caps to the beach or to paint in or something. Still it's always nice getting a cap even if I don't wear it all the time. I've got about 30 give away Padres hats in my closet that have been worn once. My favorite cap isn't a cap at all it's the Tony Gwnn throwback visor. It's brown and yellow with Gwynn's signature embroidered on it.

I used to wear Padres giveaway shirts a lot in the 90's. I think I wore the Caminiti Jersey shirt the most. I remember wearing that Padres 2000 shirt a lot too because I had like 6 of them. Shirts are always nice to get but you have to fit in an XL and the design has to be somewhat decent.

As far as the display items go, I'm not too big of a fan. In general I don't like the clutter of little figurines and stuff. Again, I lean towards the display items that have a use. The Padres wall clocks, magnet schedules, the Friar piggy bank, the Nacho Libre Mask, etc.

The ticket holders, figurines, bobble heads and models are my least favorite. I have mini magnet bobble heads of Khalil, Peavy and Bochy on my window sill though and I had that Khalil Green figurine (with perky butt) on my desk for years. The display item that has no real use but is just so weird that I also keep it on my desk is the Tony Gwynn Russian Nesting Dolls.

In General I think the Padres do a good job of giving fans a mix of items for display and use and they always seem to come up with some real quirky items that rarely disappoint. It is funny though to go to a season ticket holder event at the beginning of the season when they have all the left over giveaway items that nobody wants.

I'm going to try and make a list of giveaway items from memory:

Keychains
Beach Towels / Rally Towels
Bags/Coolers
Figurines
Bobbleheads
Caps/Floppy Hats/Helmets/Visors
Radios
T-Shirts
School Supplies
Gloves
Clocks
Calendars
Magnets
Pins
Pennants
Masks
Toys
Piggy Bank