Another year and another PPAI Expo conquered. Miss out on the show? Here are a couple things I learned from this year’s exhibitions:
1. Color is going to be big for 2013
I talked to a bunch of exhibiting suppliers, both at Vegas and Orlando, and I was surprised how many were focused on promoting new colors. Not sure I can figure out why this is a big trend besides the obvious “more colors equals more sales,” but it’s definitely a trend. Small companies, average companies, huge companies-just a ton of suppliers are focusing on offering more colors, mostly in brights but also a lot of neat stuff like crisp semi-pastels.
2. More stuff is made in the USA than I realized
For the last couple years, PPAI has done a “made in the USA” section in its new product pavilion in Vegas. Browsing through it this year, I was surprised to see a lot of items I didn’t realize could be purchased from American manufacturers. There were some quirkier items like nail polish, but also some standard stuff like apparel basics and uniforms from suppliers I had no idea manufactured stateside. Definitely interesting if USA-manufacturing is something you’re into.
3. Don’t eat salmon in Las Vegas
Two out of my last three trips to Vegas, I’ve gotten food poisoning from eating salmon. The first time was from a salmon steak from a “Chili’s Too” in the airport, so granted I probably deserved that one, but the second was from Burger Bar. Burger Bar! A place where people actually eat out of choice rather than sad, waiting-for-plane desperation. So, I vow next year I’m going full veggie in Vegas, and by “full veggie,” I mean “massive bags of candy and ice-cream where the closest thing to a nutrient is chocolate sauce.”
That’s it for this week guys! Thanks for reading, and see you all next week!
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MONDAY MIKE FACT: A cutting epiphany I had this weekend was realizing I suck at picking playoff football winners. Not only was I tremendously wrong at every bracket level, I never in 1,000 lifetimes would have picked the Ravens to go to the Super Bowl. I guess a lot of people are in the “crap pick” boat after this weekend, but still, the Ravens? Even after they won and made it in, it still seems like it’s impossible and we’re actually living in a shared dreamworld where a reasonably crap team is able to make the Super Bowl purely by throwing long bombs/having a defense whose solution to everything is “headbutt it till it dies.”
