Kohl’s, PopSugar Partnership Shows How Data Is Revolutionizing Apparel Design

We’ve got an interesting apparel partnership to spotlight this week. Retail brand Kohl’s announced earlier this week that it would be teaming up with digital media company PopSugar to create a data-driven clothing line for millennial women. And, if it succeeds, it could be a sign of things to come in apparel design. The collection…

Someone Dared to Host Commemorative Fyre Festival Merchandise Pop-Up

Almost one year ago, the ill-fated Fyre Festival took place on an island in the Bahamas. If you recall, tons of concert-goers were left stranded when the music festival was canceled at the last minute (after they paid top dollar for “exclusive” tickets). Ja Rule’s reputation hasn’t been the same since, and Billy McFarland, the…

IMAGEN Brands Hires Paul Lage as President

IMAGEN Brands, parent company of Crown Products and Vitronic, announced that it has hired Paul Lage as its new president, replacing former president Lori Kates. Lage was previously at Gill-Line, where he was CEO since 2010. Gill replaced Lage with Jamie Fain last week. “We are excited to have Paul join our team at IMAGEN…

Great (and Gross) Promo Ideas Inspired by USPS’ New Scratch-and-Sniff Stamps

With the USPS set to launch scratch-and-sniff stamps, we began to wonder which promotional products might benefit from a similar treatment and which should definitely resist the urge to be nosy about our noses’ inner workings. Just for fun, here are three examples of goods that would be more awesome and three that sound downright terrible in scratch-and-sniff form…

Branded Merchandise Is Selling Big for SoulCycle and Other Trendy Fitness Brands

Following in the footsteps of SoulCycle, which pioneered the move of fitness studio branding on a range of apparel options, other studios, gyms and classes are getting in on the game. Not only this, but they have found that they can make big money selling branded T-shirts, crop tops, yoga pants, sports bras, hats and more, often charging more per item than the price of a single class, or even a brief membership…

Fran Ford, President of Castelli North America, Passes Away

Fran Ford, CAS, president of Castelli North America, Sparks, Nev., passed away last night after a long-term illness. Ford spent 40 years in the promotional products industry, including two stints at Castelli from 1993 to 2002 and from 2012 to this year. In between, he served as vice president of J. Charles from 2009 to…

We Thought the Royal Wedding Gift Bag Would Be a Little More Extravagant

The royal family invited 2,000 commoners to the royal wedding, and these guests were given a gift bag to mark the occasion. Printed on the canvas bag itself was the date of the wedding, as well as the location (St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle) and the initials “H” and “M.”…

Why Promo Distributors Should Consider Selling Print (If They Aren’t Already)

You’ve probably heard someone spout on about how print is dying, right? That selling print is impossible? That news might have come from some nay-saying colleague, a morbid news article, or maybe even your academic advisers when you told them you were going to major in journalism. (That last one might have just been us.)…

Are You Having Fun?

Most distributor owners started their own business because they had a dream of making more money and having more fun than working for someone else. However, for many distributor owners, those dreams have turned into nightmares. All the responsibilities of business ownership can be very exhausting, distracting and no fun. Business owners not only have…