National Pen Co., headquartered in San Diego, Calif., announced that it plans to create more than 250 jobs at its facility in Dundalk, Ireland, over the next five years as part of an expansion plan. This comes after National Pen Co. was acquired by Venlo, Netherlands-based Cimpress last year. “A year ago in December 2016,…
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The use of wearable technology in the form of watches that track things like heart rates and steps, clothing that monitors athletic activity and more, has been growing in popularity all over the world. According to Marketing Interactive, China’s wearable tech market will pass the U.S. by the end of this year, with more than…
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Smartphone integration is the way of the future. It’s not even a debate anymore. We see it with apparel, footwear, paper products and more. To try to ease one of the most stressful parts of airline travel—checking (and possibly…
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Two weeks ago, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin decided that the state was spending too much on what she called “swag,” and wanted to offset the $200 million budget deficit for this year and an anticipated $400 million for next year. To do that,…
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Arachnophobes of the world (myself included) might tell you they’re interested in any solution that involves avoiding spiders altogether. While that’s not entirely possible (or environmentally sound), companies using artificial spider-silk have been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in apparel without the use of our eight-legged friends (or enemies). Back in July, Bolt Threads,…
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NC Chocolate Manufacturing LLC (NCCM), parent company of Chocolate Inn/Taylor & Grant, acquired the assets of Lanco, Ronkonkoma, N.Y. The acquisition, which is NCCM’s sixth in the promotional products industry and its largest to date, was finalized on Dec. 8. “We are excited to announce the acquisition of Lanco,” Lance Stier, managing member of NCCM,…
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Starline Inc., Grand Island, N.Y., announced the addition of Brian Porter to its senior management team as senior vice president of sales and marketing. Porter brings with him more than 20 years of promotional products experience to the Starline family, and remains an active volunteer in the industry. He most recently served as vice president…
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Pantone has officially announced its Color of the Year for 2018: Ultra Violet. Every year, Pantone draws from the cultural zeitgeist to choose a specific hue that it feels embodies the state of the world going into a new year. For 2018, Pantone selected a color that “suggests the mysteries of the cosmos, the intrigue…
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Yesterday, Prime Line and alphabroder announced their plans to merge the two companies, creating options for distributors with both hard goods on the Prime Line side and soft goods on alphabroder’s.…
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E-sports competitions have grown in popularity immensely over recent years. As video game graphics and capabilities grow, reaching wider audiences all over the world due to online play, the activity as a spectator sport has taken off, too, with fans filling world-class venues like Madison Square Garden to watch e-sports competitions. And, like any professional…
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