Category: Uncategorized

Let’s Hear About Those New Hires

Staff Writer

Don’t be shy folks. We want to hear all about! Whose new? Whose hot (as in selling well, etc…)? And who just landed the well-deserved promotion. It’s a small industry after all, so drop me a line and get the word out there.
Jones Joins Fame Fabrics
Woodstock, Georgia-based Fame Fabrics, a manufacturer of uniform apparel, announced the addition of Dean Jones as regional sales manager for the Southeast covering Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Jones brings 22 years of apparel and textile sales and service experience with him to Fame Fabrics. Jones is an experienced industry veteran with vast

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Good Look

Staff Writer

I just need to take a moment to call everyone’s attention to the new Women’s Vineyard Jacket from Charles River. It’s on page 10 in the catalog, and here’s the link:
www.charlesriverapparel.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L6F83209B4A8137004C3C016+A01+ENG).

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might be one of the cutest, most stylish promotional jackets I’ve ever seen.
Hopefully, this is a harbinger of what 2009 will bring to the industry. For one thing, forget the six-month lag. This piece is right in line with current retail trends.
Plus, a defined waistline makes for a really flattering, classic look (see any

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Joffrey’s Coffee Brews Java For Bloggers

Staff Writer

Here’s some news that will surely keep bloggers up at night:
Tampa, Florida-based Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company announced it is launching a new blend, Coffee 2.0, as the perfect complement to the java-fueled techie. The blend is inspired by the more than 1,500 bloggers who participated in a recent java beta test coordinated by Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company, where they sampled its Jamaican Me Crazy flavored coffee.
Bloggers participating in the java beta test sampling program also filled out a survey about their coffee preferences. Survey results showed 93 percent of bloggers prefer regular coffee, while a mere seven percent prefer decaf.

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Magna-Tel Inc. Grows Community Garden

Staff Writer

Cape Girardeau, Missouri-based Magna-Tel Inc. announced it has implemented several initiatives to help make its business location more environmentally friendly in 2008.
In May of this year, Magna-Tel and its employees started the Magna-Tel community garden. Magna-Tel provided dirt, seeds, plants and other necessary supplies. Magna-Tel employees donated their time tilling the land, planting, weeding, watering and picking. Magna-Tel hopes to add fruit trees near the garden later this year. To protect the plants from insects, a homemade organic insecticidal soap spray, which is 100 percent environmentally friendly, is used when needed.
In addition, Magna-Tel has an energy task force that continually works on

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Guilt Trip

Staff Writer

We travel a lot as an industry, I’ve come to learn. And being that I just finished my first-ever promotional products trade-show cycle, I feel a little trepidation at the thought of starting all over come January. I just booked my flights for ASI Orlando and I’m tired already.
I realize making face-to-face connections is invaluable, particularly with you party animals, and maybe that alone is worth the price of admission (flights, booths/accoutrement, shipping, client dinners, etc.). But in terms of ROI, at what point do they stop being valuable and start becoming “same old, same old”? How many times a year do

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Selco Introduces True North Compass Collection

Staff Writer

The Selco Companies, based in Tulsa, Okla., announced the introduction of its True North Compass Collection. The collection contains a variety of wooden, boxed desk compasses that have proven popular for a variety of promotional programs. Mentioned programs include corporate training, mergers and acquisitions, travel incentives, and new product launches. The compasses come with imprinting and engraving options.
About the Selco Companies:
As a manufacturer and supplier of custom imprinted and die-struck medallion watches, clocks, compasses and high-tech products, Selco products are available internationally through promotional products distributors. The company was established in 1935.
For more information on The Selco Companies, visit www.selcocompanies.com

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Fastbadge Comes Fighting Back

Staff Writer

Slidell, Louisiana-based Fastbadge announced it has reopened its doors after Hurricane Gustav forced mandatory closures and evacuations. While the company is still experiencing limited pick-up services from FedEx and the United Parcel Service, the company stressed the limitations would be short-lived and further that it is currently shipping some orders. Fastbadge thanks customers for showing further patience as the final few employees return to town and the company returns to a full workforce.
For more information on Fastbadge, visit www.fastbadge.com
Greater China Holds Steady
Greater China Industries, based in Bellvue, Wash., announced it will honor 2008 prices for distributors on the next price quote

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Editorial Notes

Aaa Manufacturing

All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul. —Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi

It is true, we are all guilty. Industrialized nations on the whole have enjoyed an expansive (and ultimately, expensive) period of self-centeredness. Famed Victorian-era psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud would have diagnosed mankind as being severely orally fixated. Trapped in the earliest stages of child development, we’re stuffing ourselves with as much as our mouths can handle—we have been needy, fiscally greedy and most seriously focused on our own self-gratification, regardless of

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Alienated Yet?

Staff Writer

Okay, I know. I’ve been bad. Really, really bad—especially considering the fact that if you want a blog to work, you should post several times a day to keep readers coming back for more.
Um, let’s not get crazy with our expectations, though.
BUT, at the very least, I should be able to get a piping-hot post on the table once a week. I fell off the blogging wagon. Sorry. I realize it’s going to take awhile to regain your trust … prove I’m not just going to cut and run when the going gets tough.
So, to start on the road

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A Room of Her own

Staff Writer

“A woman must have money and a room of her own.” – VIRGINIA WOOLF
Now it’s time to get creative, economically speaking. When living inside a sliding economy, one where the media delivers more bad news with every passing day, it is impossible not to feel a responsibility to tighten up on spending.
So one day in the not-so-distant past, while I was driving home from work in my gas-guzzling SUV, I was challenged by an economic strategist on the radio. He explained that we care for our bodies through exercise, so why wouldn’t we do the same for our wallets. I decided

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