Remember when Patagonia decided to put a pause on all direct embroidery on its products due to sustainability concerns? In April 2021, it felt co-branding garments would lead to forgotten items, a shortened lifespan, and ultimately textile waste. However, the company has recently decided to change course on this decision after finding a more responsible…
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December was a real bear for the U.S. Postal Service, with businesses and gift-givers nervous that high volume, combined with existing issues within the USPS as a result of the pandemic, would spoil the holiday season. However, the USPS just announced that 96.9% of its shipments were on time. UPS and FedEx announced similar successes…
Read MoreOne thing is for sure: Whether distributors have been eyeing center stage or center field, now is an ideal time to jump into the entertainment space. Allowing fans back into venues nationwide should also provide a much-needed spike in promotional product sales…
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The latest installment of our ongoing Promotional Products Industry Recovery Research found a number of reasons for optimism. It also captured some revealing product demand trends—almost all of them positive. Let’s take a look at four of those trends and dig a little deeper into what each means…
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As part of our 2021 State of the Industry report, we reached out to experts in five major product categories. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Pat Noonan, chief product officer for SanMar, Issaquah, Wash., who gave us an inside look at the state of promotional apparel…
Read MoreIncorporating data from NAPCO Research, insight from government affairs analysts and reporting from our editors, the 2021 State of the Industry report is a comprehensive look at the challenges of the past year and the opportunities available to industry businesses as the year progresses. The report features four subsections and five Q&As with industry experts…
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The U.S. is still 8.4 million jobs short of where it was pre-pandemic, but March brought unexpectedly good news. According to the Labor Department’s most recent report, the U.S. economy added 916,000 jobs over the last month, far more than the 675,000 economists had projected. Some industries saw significant job growth…
Read MoreLast week, a number of prominent promo industry companies released earnings reports. While some of those companies are faring better than others as they navigate the pandemic, the news overall was encouraging. Here’s how a few of these promo businesses performed…
Read MoreSports aren’t yet totally back to normal. That has hurt promotional products businesses that rely on sporting events from the pros down to the high school or youth level. As we wait for sports to fully return, we asked three industry pros for insights on what’s selling in this market, what they expect the recovery to look like and what comes next for sports promos…
Read MoreWelcome to Market Tracker. This is an updating resource compiling the latest news on coronavirus impacts and economic recovery for top vertical markets promotional products distributors sell into. The Promo Marketing team will update this post regularly with new information from each market as it becomes available. Here are this week’s updates…
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