Silicon Valley Swag Stores
Where to score swag and more
“Most of Silicon Valley is intangible clouds of electrons tunneling down circuits. That’s why we’re suckers for physical artifacts.”
Story and photos by David Laws (except where noted)
Swag, once free merchandise emblazoned with a company’s logo or slogan distributed to promote a product or idea, is now big business. You can buy it online or at mall outlets around the world. However, purchasing the item on a pilgrimage to the home office gives the owner a sense of belonging to the tribe or even joining the team.
Most technology companies restrict entry to their premises with Pentagon-grade security measures to protect their trade secrets and product development plans. So, some Silicon Valley swag stores are only accessible to visitors accompanied by a company employee. Others are designed to sell high-end electronic gizmos in spaces created to give the illusion that the customer is slipping inside the corporate veil, even if only for a fleeting glimpse.
Following are some of the best places to shop for swag, from hoodies and T-shirts to the latest high-tech hardware.
Apple
One of the first such outlets, The Company Store at the former Apple headquarters building in Cupertino, opened in 1993 primarily to sell mugs, notebooks, and T-shirts to employees but quickly became one of the stations of the cross for pilgrims to the mother ship docked at Infinite Loop. The store closed and the merchandise moved to the new Apple Park Visitor Center in 2023. Acoltytes still mourn the demise of Clarus the Dogcow “Moof!” figures planted in the lawn and logo-branded T-shirts.
The Apple Park Visitor Center is an architectural extension of the Norman Foster-designed, glass and steel donut-shaped headquarters just across the street. The center includes an Apple store, cafe, exhibit space with a scale model of the shimmering spaceship, and an opportunity to gaze into the private campus from an elevated viewing platform.
“It’s as if Jonathan Ive, in a moment of madness, had unscrewed all the polished parts of his iPhones, iMacs and Macbook Pros and refashioned them in a great big circle.” — The Guardian (2013)
Apple Park Visitor Center, 10600 North Tantau Avenue, Cupertino, CA
Facebook/Meta
The sign at the entrance to Facebook’s Menlo Park campus and access to the employee store has carried a succession of corporate identities. The logo of the first tenant, Sun Microsystems, a darling of the dotcom era now owned by Oracle, was succeeded by the Facebook “Like” thumb in the early 2000s and today by the Meta continuous loop symbolizing “infinite horizons in the metaverse.” If you want a logo T-shirt from the physical store of either company (Oracle is in Redwood City), you'll have to be an invited guest or the friend of an employee.
The Meta Store, the company’s first physical public retail space, opened in 2023 to showcase its hardware offerings. Located close to Meta’s Reality Labs headquarters, near SFO in Burlingame, the facility allows hands-on experience with Ray Ban smart glasses and Meta’s other virtual and augmented reality products.
Meta Store, 322 Airport Boulevard, Burlingame, CA.
The Gradient Canopy, the first campus built directly by Google, opened in 2024. It combines acres of flexible employee offices together with the Google Visitor Experience to create a community destination with an event space, café, sculptural installations, and a Google Store open to all.
Walking trails and bike paths lined with California native plant landscaping provide access to six interactive artworks facilitated by the Burning Man Project. You can spin the heavy Rockspinner boulder with the touch of a finger, play with life-sized Go game discs, and count the number of pennies on Curious the Bear. Or photograph the Halo and Quantum Meditation II sculptures and the Orb ultra-thin, self-supporting aluminum globe assembled by hand with over 200,000 rivets.
Google Visitor Experience, 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA.
Hewlett Packard
The Customer Welcome Center on the campus of HP’s corporate headquarters in Palo Alto sells swag and displays innovative computer products and future ideas that continue to emerge from one of the valley’s most fabled companies. Access to the center is for employees and their guests only or by application to attend an executive briefing.
A bonus of this location is the opportunity to peek into the offices of founders Hewlett and Packard preserved in their sleek, mid-century modern, oak-paneled 1950s décor. Mary Henry, who worked at Hewlett-Packard during World War II producing engineering drawings, designed and installed the mosaic tile mural on the wall outside the front entrance.
Customer Welcome Center, 1501 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA
NASA Ames Research Center
Official NASA swag, including apparel, patches, and pins, is available at the NASA Gift Shop outside the gates of Ames Research Center in Moutain View. The big tent, just off exit 398 from Highway 101, also houses a Mercury Redstone capsule, images of Mars and its family of rovers, and displays of Pioneer and other satellite models.
The Ames Research Center beyond the entrance to Moffet Field is an active research laboratory and currently does not host public tours, but you can access over 80 years of space exploration history and look into current and future projects at the Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland.
NASA Gift Shop, Moffett Blvd/NASA Parkway, Mountain View
Intel Corporation
Adjacent to the lobby of the Robert B. Noyce headquarters building at 2200 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, the Intel Museum presents a primer on chip making, microprocessor operation, and company history. Docent-led tours, educational programs, and more than 30 interactive exhibits offer both information and entertainment.
Adjacent to the museum, the RNB Santa Clara Intel Store carries a full range of branded apparel, pins, gifts, and accessories.
Intel Museum and Store, 2200 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara
Computer History Museum
If you have time for only one stop on your Silicon Valley swag safari, the Computer History Museum will satisfy both your intellectual and shopping needs. The museum is the world’s largest institution devoted to preserving the history of the information revolution. Serving interests from the curious public to die-hard nerds with permanent and changing exhibits, Silicon Valley-related displays include the first commercial disk drive, monolithic integrated circuit (IC), and successful microprocessor chip, an Apple 1 computer, Atari’s prototype Pong video game, and Google’s original production server.
The CHM gift store carries computer-themed apparel, souvenirs, games, and books, as well as unique curated items like the Silicon Valley Napkin — perfect for jotting down ideas for your start-up business plan while enjoying a brewski.
Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View
More
Most tech-oriented institutions and companies also sell swag online, but you may need to be an employee to access some of them. Here are a few examples:
AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)
Applied Materials
Cisco
Santa Clara University
Stanford University Bookstore
The Tech Interactive
The author, a Silicon Valley veteran and former resident, is semiconductor curator at the Computer History Museum. He now lives and writes about Gardens, Nature, Travel, and the history of Silicon Valley from his home on the Monterey Peninsula.
