Damn, guess we did it wrong. My brothers wedding was last weekend. All the groomsmen actually chipped in and helped pay for lot of stuff, helped setup stuff, and all that. He was stressed enough already I'm glad he didn't stress over getting us gifts.
Destination wedding is the way to go, it knocks like 60-70% of the attendees right off the list. Gets rid of the old people too, at least the ones that aren't cool enough to travel for your wedding.
saw this on shark tank, the bottle breacher. cool as hell and neat looking. when i saw it on tv, i thought, those would make excellent groomsman gifts.
I did engraved skeletonized pocket watches for my guys, and my buddy just did a custom name plate he made for each of his guys. Bought some old wrenches from a few pawn shops, then cut and welded them until they formed our names, and then welded them to a sheet of steel and cleaned up the wrenches with acid. Turned out really cool and it's now hanging above my tools in the garage. Overall a really cool and unique idea if your guys are gear heads!