Apparel has been battered since the start of the pandemic, with various sources reporting that overall apparel shipments have fallen dramatically compared to 2019. But there are some signs of life. Apparel was the third best performing promotional products category for the June-July period…
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Image Solutions has been in business since 1997 as a uniform provider to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies, like AT&T, Albertsons and Walgreens. It has evolved to offer decoration, e-commerce and more. While embroidery remains its top decoration method, adding heat transfer has further developed the business…
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Each year, we dig through the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. to see which promo companies made the list. Here are the ones we found. While there are many traditional promo businesses on this list, not all of the companies we included fit the standard supplier/distributor profile…
Read MoreIn a Merkle survey of industries such as health care, retail, finance, tech and nonprofit, 52 percent of respondents overall said they’ve increased their marketing spend over the last few months. For promotional distributors, this may be an indicator of the verticals that are able to spend some money again…
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There has been little debate among public health professionals that widespread mask use is crucial to slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Where there has been some debate, though, is over the most effective face mask types outside of the approved medical-grade varieties. Which of the many available face coverings protects most against transmission of the virus? We finally have some data…
Read MoreThe FDA’s constantly-updating list of potentially harmful hand sanitizers has now risen to more than 135 products. Another U.S.-based manufacturer has now joined the list, too, with Dallas’s Santa Cruz Biotechnology initiating a voluntary recall. Georgia-based SG24 LLC also had to recall its SkinGuard24 All-Day Hand Sanitizer after it was labeled to contain methanol…
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The National Museum of American Jewish History hit the jackpot when President Trump accidentally pronounced “Yosemite” as “Yo Semite.” The museum had been selling a shirt with that text on it since 2011, and sold thousands immediately after the president’s mistake went viral, generating $30,000 in a little over a day…
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While sales are still trending down for a majority of promotional products businesses, fewer are reporting a downward sales trend now than in May. Our research also indicates that while the promotional products industry continues to contract, more companies now report that activity is picking up compared to the first survey period…
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With the current state of the global economy making every transaction even more crucial than usual, it’s a critical time to review what’s working and what’s changed in sales. To explore some sales tactics and advice for the new normal and beyond, we connected with a trio of distributors and a sales manager at a major supplier…
Read MoreCollege sports took a huge hit yesterday when the Big 10 conference announced that it would not be playing a single down of football this upcoming season. It’s not the first conference to do so, but with schools like Penn State, Michigan and Purdue, it’s a huge move for college sports and, by extension, the companies who depend on selling merchandise…
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