From afar *(do not know all details) Wikimedia Foundation is spending funds on both producing and globally distributing swag.
I appreciate the idea (and love swag) but if it is local-regional and not if WMF adds to globalization, economic and climate crisis acceleration. If you want to establish regional productions or distribution centers I am happy to help with advice for my region.
@Zblace Great question and thought! So based on what I gathered from folks, there seem to be no initiatives ongoing to accelerate local swag distribution, and I see no plans as such to address this complex problem in the future. Besides WMF, Wikimedia Deutschland also has a program to share swags, and they can consider areas in and around Germany. In several event guides, organizers are encouraged to handle swag creation and distribution themselves. Typically, affiliates use WMF's grant funding to create swag and share it with community members: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Requesting_swag.
@SSethi (WMF) thank you for follow-up on this. I will consider and think about it as potential capacity to develop in the initiatives I am a part of (primarily it seems relevant to CEE-Hub)
