Swag confers status only if it's hard to get and everyone knows it. I have no clue if Facebook backpacks and Twitter hoodies are hard to come by, so they don't mean much to me. To me personally, swag usually indicates one's status as one or a combination of three things:

• You're a recent grad and collected the swag in school.
• You're a fanboy/girl.
• You're an employee of the company.

Picking up most swag is generally not difficult: company events, company store, or some other channel. So it's not as if it shows you have money to burn, unlike the designer jeans and hoodies I keep hearing about.

To punctuate the point, here's the corporate swag I own:

• Apple shirts: worn for recruiting events or general use. They aren't sold in the company store anymore, so I guess they’re worth something.
• Google and Microsoft t-shirts. Never worn outside the home, as I currently work at Apple.
• NVIDIA t-shirt: I just retired this, but I used to wear this, as do some co-workers that also used to work at NVIDIA.
• a16z pullover: a little flimsy, but quite nice. I wear it during fall. They gave these away during a startup job fair; I was recruiting for my last startup.
• Intel key chains, bought via their store a long time ago. The "bunny people" ones are popular with the kids. My youngest chews on them.
• The only things I have any real pride in? My Quora Top Writer 2016 bag and 2017 jacket. Definitely not easy to get. Thanks Quora!