Denver’s Bored Rebel Lands Products in the 2026 Oscar Awards Swag Bags

Each year around Oscar season, one of Hollywood’s most enduring curiosities resurfaces: What’s inside the famously extravagant nominee gift bags?

“Over the years, and I know I’m not the only one, when the Oscars rolled around, I’d look into what was in the iconic Oscar swag bag,” says Stacy Flax, founder of Denver-based apparel company Bored Rebel. “I would always look at what was in the swag bag and maybe fantasize a little bit about getting it. It’s epic.”

Now, for the fourth year in a row, Flax’s own products are among the items going out to some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

The “Everyone Wins” nominee gift bags, assembled by Los Angeles–based marketing company Distinctive Assets, have become a pop-culture spectacle in their own right. This year’s bag is reportedly worth about $350,000 and includes luxury travel experiences, beauty treatments, gourmet snacks and wellness products for the 25 nominees in the major acting and directing categories.

Tucked among those offerings are several pieces from Bored Rebel, including custom T-shirts, a sweatshirt and a cashmere beanie designed specifically for each recipient, including nominees like Emma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. For Flax, the opportunity still feels “totally surreal.”

The possibility of Bored Rebel’s products being in the bag began with something far less glamorous than Hollywood connections: a cold email.

“When we first launched about five years ago, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if our stuff was included in the swag bag for Oscar nominees?'” Flax says. “It’s actually extremely easy to look up who’s in charge. Distinctive Assets and Lash Fary, the creator, is very public. So I emailed them.”

They responded with an application. “I filled it out; I gave it my best,” she says. “My product line was much smaller when I started, but I was just absolutely floored when they got back to me and they said yes. So they sent me a contract, and there you go. I got into the bag through a cold email.”

This year’s nominee bags go to just 25 people: the actors nominated in the major categories, along with the directing nominees. Unlike many brands in the bag, Bored Rebel customizes what each recipient receives.

“We look at the personalities of each nominee every year. We do research. It’s so fun,” Flax says. “I can’t believe we got to do Leonardo DiCaprio this year. He loves dogs, and whenever I can find someone who has a dog, I know they’ll love our ‘My Dog Thinks I’m Awesome’ shirt.”

Other choices are tailored more directly to the nominees’ public personas. Timothée Chalamet received one of the brand’s edgier designs. “I gave him an ‘I Fucking Sparkle’ shirt,” Flax says with a laugh. “Bored Rebel is that. I fucking sparkle and not ‘fuck you.’ We’re good-natured rebels.”

Kate Hudson and Rose Byrne received a shirt reading “Champagne Will Fix It.” Actor and activist Sean Penn was given one that says “Get In Good Trouble.” For Benicio del Toro, whom Flax describes as having “mellow, quiet confidence,” the brand chose a shirt reading “Unleash Your Inner Superhero.”

Every nominee also receives a new design this year: a shirt reading “ICE IN COCKTAILS. NOT IN STREETS,” a political jab referencing immigration enforcement. “It’s really important,” Flax says. “We’re a little company, and we get to have this big platform, and I could think of nothing better to do than make a statement like that.”

The customization process comes with logistical challenges. Once nominations are announced, companies have little time to design and produce their contributions before shipping them to Distinctive Assets in Los Angeles.

“They have very strict deadlines,” Flax says. “Once the announcements are made, we probably take eight or nine days to come up with our plan.”

Since nominees’ sizes aren’t provided, her team does its own research.

“They don’t tell us sizes,” Flax says. “Sometimes I’m looking up people’s heights. I’ve kind of learned how to do it. I think I’m pretty good at it.”

Flax launched Bored Rebel after leaving a career in corporate strategy and business development, a pivot sparked by severe burnout and a desire to build something more creative. During the pandemic, she taught herself graphic design and created the brand’s signature vertical-text concept, which allows graphic tees to be worn under button-downs without the print showing through the front. The idea proved distinctive enough that Flax now holds multiple patents tied to the design.

The company relocated from the Washington, D.C., area to Denver last year and now operates out of a studio in Congress Park, where the small team prints garments in-house. The brand’s irreverent slogans have resonated with customers looking for statement apparel made with higher-quality fabrics than typical graphic tees. Beyond the Oscar bags, Bored Rebel has expanded its product line into sweatshirts, cashmere beanies and other apparel, and its designs are now sold in Nordstrom stores nationwide.

“That was a dream come true,” Flax says. “What we’ve done with the Oscar nominees helped make that happen.”

Still, the founder is realistic about how the swag bag actually works. The brands don’t attend the ceremony, and their products are simply shipped to Los Angeles for distribution.

“I wish it were me going,” she says. “But it doesn’t work that way. It’s always a little less glamorous than it sounds.”

Flax does intend to watch the broadcast, however, both as a movie fan and in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her work on the red carpet.

“There is a tiny, tiny chance someone will wear it,” she says. “It is not impossible.”

The 2026 Academy Awards air on Sunday, March 15, at 5 p.m. Learn more about Bored Rebel at boredrebel.com.