Before its annual release each summer, the Counselor State of the Industry report takes months to prepare, starting with surveys of hundreds of suppliers and distributors. For the ASI Research and editorial teams, there’s always a sense of the unknown, especially in a complicated year like 2025 when industry sales lagged and tariffs were the dominant story.
“I was really curious to see where the numbers were going to fall for this year’s report, because in years past when there’s been very difficult economic conditions like the Great Recession and COVID, it was very straightforward. We knew just about all the metrics were going to fall,” says Counselor Editor-in-Chief C.J. Mittica. “Industry sales went down in those years, and we knew that would be reflected in the charts. With this year’s report, the 2025 data, it was sort of an unknown how things were going to be impacted.”
In this episode of Counselor Promo Insiders, Mittica is joined by ASI Research Director Nate Kucsma to analyze the surprises and highlights from this year’s report. They discuss the big shift they saw in promo’s top markets, the impact on key distributor KPIs such as margins and order values, how tariffs have shaped the way suppliers do business and how the promo industry as a whole views private equity.
Podcast Chapters
8:54: Why this year’s top market data was surprising
14:42: Biggest takeaway from the top product categories
18:05: Distributor KPIs and what they reveal
28:10: The many ways tariffs impacted suppliers
35:43: Labor concerns, even in an employers’ market
38:15: Why most of the industry views private equity negatively
Key Takeaways
• Apparel’s dominance among top products continues to grow, while drinkware may be approaching saturation.
• Higher prices helped lift average order value, but inflation and supplier increases absorbed much of that gain.
• Distributor margins remain healthy, even though they declined last year.
• Tariffs are reshaping supply chains and squeezing profitability as suppliers source more broadly.
• Orders requiring turnaround of five days or less increased for the third consecutive year.
• Skilled labor is becoming a sharper supplier concern, even while the job market has swung in favor of employers.
• The industry remains skeptical of private equity. Only about one in five distributors and suppliers believe its involvement is good for promo.
