We lost count of the number of brands that teamed up with shoe companies this year for limited-edition collections, licensed offerings and custom designs. Whataburger did cowboy boots. Dunkin’ had running shoes. Heck, Post Malone released his own Crocs. As sneaker culture moves more mainstream, we fully expect the trend to continue well into 2020 and beyond. Sock 101 thinks so, too...
Sean Norris
Amazon launched Merch Collab, its latest on-demand merchandise service, in 2018. What is it? And what does it tell us about Amazon’s future plans for promotional products?
Of the many notable statistics in PPAI’s 2019 Consumer Study, here’s one that really stands out: The percentage of consumers who value sustainability consistently rises with each successive generation. Just 8 percent of boomers and 10 percent of Gen Xers said they care about sustainable promotional products, but the…
Popeyes' chicken sandwich launched over the summer, promptly sold out nationwide, and relaunched again in November to impossibly long drive-thru lines and the occasional parking lot brawl. Demand has since returned to normal. But, considering its enormous popularity, there was a baffling lack of chicken sandwich merch. Until now...
Vistaprint left calls, chats and emails from customer service interactions in an unencrypted online database. The database stored some 51,000 customer service interactions and included customer names, phone numbers, email addresses and more...
Carol Hudson, former vice president of sports marketing for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau in Florida, allegedly purchased promo items from her own side company, Saints Enterprises, without telling Broward County officials it was her company. As you might guess, that's against the rules...
Christie's, the world's preeminent auction house based in London and New York City, is well aware the perception that auctions are for old rich people, and is get more young folks into the auction game. It plans to do so by, what else, auctioning off an enormous collection of Supreme merch...
We've all wanted to take out our frustrations on a vending machine at some point, and Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds franchise, is looking to turn that shared experience into promotional gold. The company's "Venting Machine" will dispense Angry Birds branded merch to anyone who beats it up...
Much has been written and said about why distributors need to be marketing partners for their clients, rather than order takers. But what can you do when so many customers want to buy on price? We got some answers on what to do about price-buyers and how to win more long-term business...
ePromos Promotional Products, the promo distributor based in St. Cloud, Minn., announced that Steve Paradiso has been promoted to CEO and president. Jason Robbins, founder of ePromos, will move into a reduced day-to-day role but will remain involved with the company...
While your average uniform-buyer might not have the budget or cultural cachet of a Delta Air Lines or Golden State Warriors, there’s enormous opportunity in this product category. For every NBA franchise, there’s a thousand local sports leagues. For every Starbucks, there’s a hundred small coffee shops. You get the idea...
LAist was part of Gothamist LLC, a collection of eight sites specific to different cities, before the entire network was unceremoniously shut down in 2017. This is how KPCC, the LA radio station that bought LAist, helped relaunch it through branded merchandise with distinctly local flavor...
Lisa Bascom has a secret identity. By day, she’s president and owner of Brooklyn Products International Inc., parent company of AmeriFoam - The House of Foam, the promotional products supplier based in Brooklyn, Mich. But by night, she’s a superhero, a real-life Doctor Strange with the ability to stop and manipulate time. That’s the only possible explanation for Bascom’s remarkable and diverse list of professional and personal accomplishments, anyway...
EMT just wanted to drive some traffic to its trade show booth. The supplier, based in Indianapolis, was looking to highlight its product line and get people talking—with any luck, maybe generate a little buzz on social media. It had no idea it was about to start a movement. But that’s exactly what PROMO AF…
The Koozie brand, especially in the promo industry, is about as iconic as it gets. It’s one of those brand names, like Velcro and Kleenex, that’s so synonymous with a specific product that it often gets used to describe similar products, regardless of the brand. It doesn’t get much bigger than that. But even the best-known brands can use a refresh from time to time, and that's the situation BIC Graphic found itself in...
