Channel: Hold

Rocky Road

Staff Writer

Astronomical gas prices. Food shortages. Global warming. It’s feeling a little apocalyptic out here, no?
In case you happen to have missed the news, are evading the stock market or avoiding all human contact—there’s this economy thing going on right now and people are kind of freaking out.
The possible imminency of a recession is palpably affecting the retail sector, according to the Women’s Wear Daily Web site, WWD.com.
Obviously, the real question is how/if it will affect the wearables contingent of the ad specialties industry. I think we’re all fairly confident the T-shirt will remain a sound investment. However, does a slowdown

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Dress Me Up for the Ballgame

Staff Writer

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The work-life collision. I actually wrote this entire blog in my head at a baseball game. But let’s start from the beginning …

This past Friday, I went to see the Phillies play (they lost to the Mets, which was kind of a bummer, but it was the most perfect baseball-game weather ever, so I got over it pretty quickly).
Anyway. Before the game, I decided to peruse the store to get myself a new Phillies T-shirt. I’m really not picky, I just wanted something fitted and not ugly. As I made my way

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Media Manners

Staff Writer

I’ve shouted out to The Tercet Group before in this blog, but in light of recent revelations, I’ve decided to shill compliments one last time. As of May 31, 2008, the Chicago-based full-service marketing and communications agency will be closing its doors.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with these ladies for the past year, as they’ve represented industry supplier S&S Activewear. We say it all the time around here at PM—if every company in the industry dealt with the media the way this group did, we’d have a much easier time getting things done.
This industry has been blessed with

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Crimes and Misdemeanors

Staff Writer

So, Woody Allen is suing American Apparel. Huh.

It’s funny … give our industry one celeb and people go crazy. (And by crazy, I mean that in the entire history of our e-newsletter, that item had pretty much the highest click-through rate, well, ever).
I’m finding it increasingly hilarious that no one can seem to decide which of the involved parties is more distasteful: Woody Allen, for well-publicized reasons, or a company founded by a guy with, shall we say, a less-than-savory reputation.
My coworkers make fun of me because I have “views” about American Apparel. Yes, I cover the

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Fall Forward

Staff Writer

I plan ahead. For everything. So imagine my surprise at finding myself reporting on an industry that is routinely looking at, projecting on, and yes, planning for the future. Spring’s barely here and the apparel folks are hunkering down for fall? It felt like the mothership calling me home.
Besides, the current weather situation is making me supremely doubt the whole idea of spring, anyway. I’m still in my down coat, I don’t know what this “spring” is of which you speak. So I’m going to skip the disappointment at this deadbeat season and mosey on over to fall, where the fashion forecast looks

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Here Comes the Bridal Promotion

Staff Writer

Bridal showers are funny things. The invitees all hem and haw about going, but it’s really just like pulling off a Band-aid. It’s never quite as bad as you anticipate.
Just add a mimosa and you can up the fun quotient on pretty much anything.
So this weekend I headed back home to Long Island for my best friend’s shower. As a member of the wedding party, I was charged with creating the centerpieces and favors for the blessed event. And as an editor at Promo Marketing magazine, I, of course, began thinking of whether or not promotional products could somehow find a niche

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Can Accessories Make Bank?

Staff Writer

I was checking out the Women’s Wear Daily Web site http://www.wwd.com/monday today and something caught my eye. According to writer Caroline Tell’s assessmentx of the most recent rash of Fashion Weeks around the globe, “the runways from New York to Paris were as much about the handbags and other accessories as they were about the clothes.” Now, I’m not a WWD subscriber, so I can’t read the rest of the article (oh technology, must you mock me so?), but it did get me thinking.
A lot of the promotional wearables news I’ve reported on in the past year has pointed to our industry taking

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Things That Are Cool

Staff Writer

I’m not an expert on this whole Internet thing, but it seems to me that the archetypical blogging equation is:
funny anecdote + industry tie-in = increased pageviews

But nothing exciting or interesting happened to me this week. I was bored. What to do about this week’s post? Well, one thing I do know a little bit about is magazines. And, when magazines need content, they make lists.
So, here goes nothing.

Five Things That Are Cool:
1) S&S Activewear always sends me images, on discs, ahead of my editorial schedule. Big ups to Terri Scales from The Tercet Group.
2)

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Go On, Admit It

Staff Writer

If you don’t know what the CYA acronym means, or if you’ve never had to do it, this post is not for you.

Recently, I went to a screening of Jack Black’s new movie: Be Kind Rewind. If you’ve seen the previews, you’ll know it’s about two video-store workers (aw, how cute, videos!) who accidentally erase all the tapes and begin recreating such classics as “Ghostbusters” on their own. If you haven’t seen the previews, then I just ruined it. You’re welcome.
Between all the on-screen shenanigans, I started thinking about the crazy things people do to avoid accepting blame. When we

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Selective Memory

Staff Writer

Well, I’m back from ASI Dallas. Let the existential crisis begin.

In the week immediately following a trade show, I begin the process of reaching out to those I met over the course of the two-day event. Truth be told, the task is often fruitless.
Right now, you might be saying to yourself, “Fruitless? Surely you jest.” But no, unfortunately, I’m not. The sad fact is that, out of the hundred or so cards I gave and received, I’ll only hear from a few people. Which leaves me wondering, am I just not memorable?
In PM’s January issue, the subtitle of

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