Shortly after launching the fund in December, Barstool sold 10,000 shirts in a single day, which translates to $280,000 if each was priced at $28. Since then, the fund has raised $27.5 million overall through donations and merchandise sales, supporting 155 small businesses…
Read MoreAuthor: Brendan Menapace
S&S Activewear Acquired by Private Equity Firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice
S&S Activewear, Bolingbrook, Ill., announced today that it has been acquired by private investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Following the closure of the transaction, expected to take place during the first quarter of 2021, S&S president Jim Shannon will take on the role of CEO, with CD&R operating partner John Compton taking over as chairman of the board…
Read MoreA Michigan Dispensary Is Giving Branded Joints to Anyone Who Gets COVID Vaccine
A Michigan dispensary is taking cannabis-related promos to new levels by giving free cannabis to anyone who gets their COVID-19 vaccine. Any Michigan resident who brings proof of vaccination to Greenhouse of Walled Lake in Walled Lake, Mich., will receive a pre-rolled joint in “Pots for Shots” packaging…
Read MoreOffice Depot Rejects Staples Acquisition Offer, Proposes Merger of Retail Operations Only
ODP, parent company of Office Depot, has rejected Staples’ most recent acquisition proposal, coming back with a counter-offer to merge the two companies’ direct-to-consumer retail operations without including Office Depot’s business-to-business operations…
Read MoreStaples Is Trying to Buy Office Depot Again (and Thanks to Amazon, It Might Work)
Five years after the Federal Trade Commission put a stop to it, Staples Inc. is once again trying to buy its old competitor, Office Depot. Staples has reportedly put up an offer of $2.1 billion for Office Depot’s parent company, ODB Corp. Part of the plan involves working directly with the ODP board to tailor a merger plan that fits within FTC confines…
Read MoreBiden-Harris Inauguration Merchandise: Streetwear Designs, ‘Party Boxes’ and Friendship Bracelets
With just under a week until President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, the first batch of official inauguration merchandise is starting to trickle out. The Biden-Harris camp put fashion first with their products, consulting designers to make streetwear-inspired apparel items. The most interesting item, though, might be the friendship bracelet…
Read More‘Warning Label’: U.S. Officially Bans All Cotton Imports From China’s Xinjiang Province, Citing Forced Labor
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced yesterday that it would seize all cotton products produced in China’s Xinjiang province due to the Chinese government’s oppression of the region’s Uighur Muslim minority. The vast majority of China’s cotton exports originate in Xinjiang…
Read MoreAmazon Removes All QAnon Merchandise From Marketplace
On Monday, Amazon announced that third-party listings for QAnon merchandise would no longer be allowed on its platform, citing its terms of service, which prohibit selling products that “promote, incite, or glorify hate or violence toward any person or group”…
Read MoreTraditional Promotional Product Categories Bounce Back (and Other Product Demand Trends)
Our third look at the pandemic’s impact on the promotional products industry showed that sales are continuing to decline in the industry overall, but for the first time since the spring, the decline is starting to level out. More encouraging is that several product categories are now performing well compared to their pandemic lows—and some of them may be surprising…
Read MoreApparel Startup Launches T-shirt Made With Cinnamon to Limit Odor (and It Folds Up Smaller Than Rolled Socks)
An apparel company is using ancient Egyptian technology to keep shirts smelling fresh for longer. That ancient Egyptian secret? Cinnamon. Koup, a company founded by Brian Chuang, will debut a T-shirt made from recycled bottles and infused with cinnamon extract at CES 2021 in Taiwan…
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