Built for the Navy Talent Acquisition Group and the stations under it — station branding, hand-to-hand handouts, school and Future Sailor gear, event kits for Fleet Week and the air show season, and the coins and awards that close out a tour.
Navy recruiting is two regions, twenty-six Navy Talent Acquisition Groups and more than a thousand stations, and the buying happens at every level of that. The fiscal year opens 1 October and the Navy has now met its goal ahead of schedule three years running — 45,000 in FY2026, hit roughly three months early. A recruiting organisation that is winning buys differently from one that is behind: more Future Sailor recognition, more community presence, more of the items that mark a tour rather than open a conversation. This catalog is laid out that way.
The fiscal year opens 1 October across twenty-six talent acquisition groups. Stations that have been running a faded banner through a full recruiting year replace it here, before the first month's goal closes.
NTAG Commanding Officer · Chief Recruiter · Recruiter in Charge
Station operating and advertising funds
Nothing in your booth or on your table may suggest the Navy sponsors or endorses a commercial vendor. Keep the branding yours.
The station is where the work happens — the mall table, the gym, the community college quad. These are the items a Navy Counselor hands over while the conversation is still starting.
Recruiter in Charge · NCR recruiters · Division LCPO
Appropriated recruiting funds
Keep a written record of what was bought, for whom and under which authority. It is the question that gets asked later.
Federal law gives recruiters the same access to secondary schools as any college, plus student directory information, under 20 U.S.C. § 7908. The counsellors and administrators who run that access are the relationship worth investing in.
Station Commander · education specialist · NTAG staff
Recruiting and advertising funds
No recruiting activity may be conducted during a student ASVAB session, and no service-related products may be given to students there (USMEPCOM Reg 601-4). That prohibition is absolute.
Future Sailors are in the pool for months between signing and shipping, and the Delayed Entry Program meeting is the anchor. What they wear to it and take home from it is the most-seen merchandise the Navy buys.
Recruiter in Charge · DEP coordinator
Recruiting support funds; recognition items under § 2261
Items go to Future Sailors and prospects. They are not a general-issue benefit for the office.
America's Navy has been the Official Title Partner of the All-American Bowl since the 2024 announcement — the high-school all-star game in San Antonio, with a nationwide jersey presentation tour ahead of it. National events like this hand a local station a reason to be somewhere with a table.
NTAG Public Affairs · event coordinator · Chief Recruiter
National and local event support funds
Paying a sports league for a patriotic tribute has been banned since the FY2016 NDAA. Voluntary recognition is fine; a purchased one is not.
Fleet Week and Navy Week put ships, aircraft and sailors in front of a city that has never seen them. The recruiting table is somewhere in that footprint, and it needs to hold its own against an air show.
NTAG Public Affairs · station event OIC
Local event and advertising funds
Every item at a public event should still be something you can explain as a recruiting expense. Traffic builders qualify; hospitality does not.
13 October is the Navy's birthday, and it sits in the same month the fiscal year opens. Chief pinning, frocking, change of command and retirement run through the rest of the year — the ceremonial calendar a recruiting command carries alongside the mission.
Command Master Chief · Chief's Mess · protocol
Unit and mess funds for mementos; § 2261 for formal recognition
Recognition items presented from appropriated funds must stay under $50 each and fall within the § 2261 item classes. Mess purchases are a different wallet with different rules.
10 U.S.C. § 2261 authorises commemorative coins, medals, trophies, badges, flags, posters and similar items under $50 each for recruiting and retention — presentable to members and to the family members who support their service.
The FAR micro-purchase threshold since 1 October 2025 (90 FR 41872). Cardholder single-purchase limits are set locally and are frequently lower than the FAR maximum.
FAR 13.003(b)(1) sets aside every acquisition above the micro-purchase threshold and at or below the simplified acquisition threshold for small business. That band is where most station and NTAG orders land.
Unlike the Army's $6/$12 rule, no public Navy Recruiting Command instruction states a per-item promotional ceiling. COMNAVCRUITCOMINST 1130.8Q is the governing manual — confirm its current provisions with your chain before ordering against an assumed number.
One rule applies everywhere and is easy to trip: appropriated funds may not buy goodwill giveaways absent a specific authority. GAO's decision in B-236763 disallowed pen sets and notebooks bought purely to create goodwill. Every line in this catalog should be able to name the authority it lives under — ask us and we will tell you which one we think applies, and say so plainly when we are not sure.
There is no publicly published Navy per-item ceiling equivalent to the Army's $6/$12 rule, and we will not invent one. What does apply: 10 U.S.C. § 2261 caps recognition items at under $50 each, the FAR micro-purchase threshold is $15,000 as of 1 October 2025, and your cardholder limit may be lower. COMNAVCRUITCOMINST 1130.8Q is the governing recruiting manual — check it, or ask your chain, before ordering against an assumed number.
We decorate from artwork you supply and are authorised to use. Every Service mark requires a licence for commercial use, and the Navy runs its licensing through the Navy Trademark Licensing Office. Reproducing decorations, service medals and ribbons on merchandise is prohibited outright. A command's own crest, supplied by the command, is the normal path.
Both, and we quote either. Stations buy small and often; NTAGs consolidate. Where a buy would cross the micro-purchase threshold, consolidating is usually the better deal — but FAR 13.003(c)(2) forbids splitting a requirement into smaller purchases to stay under a threshold, so consolidate for price, not to duck a rule.
Proofs are free and unlimited until you approve one. Screen printing and embroidery turn fastest; pewter casting and coin production take longest because both begin with a new die. Give us your in-hand date first and we build the production schedule around it.
Listed on each product page, and it varies by process. Pewter and coin minimums are higher than printed goods. If your quantity is below a minimum we will say so and point you to the nearest item that works.
Ask and we will answer in writing, current as of the day you ask. We do not put registration or schedule claims on a catalog page. What is worth knowing is that acquisitions from the micro-purchase threshold up to $350,000 are reserved for small business under FAR 13.003(b)(1).
Coins, pewter, apparel, drinkware, displays and awards, all made in house with free unlimited proofs. Give us your in-hand date and we build the schedule around it.
