This year, athletes are taking their merchandising into their own hands, and the results are intriguing. Just this week, Dwyane Wade launched a line of apparel called the “D. Wade World Tour” to celebrate his last year in the NBA, and Patrick Mahomes launched his own line of branded apparel through his personal website…
Read MorePromo Apparel Lessons From Justin Bieber’s Red-Hot Fashion Line
Justin Bieber is definitely having an interesting merchandise year. His hotel slippers sold out immediately, and kicked off a fashion line that has been making headlines. Bieber’s House of Drew merchandise line is not exactly the typical musician merch, but that seems to be what’s so successful about it…
Read MoreBleacher Report Is a Branded Apparel Company Now, Apparently
Since its 2007 inception, Bleacher Report has come to epitomize coverage of the sports and sports culture worlds. But noting which players find themselves on the trading block and who is the biggest prize in the free agent market, among other observations, is not all that the Turner Broadcasting System-owned website should receive praise for…
Read MoreHALO Branded Solutions Adds Heather Bridges as Chief Financial Officer
HALO Branded Solutions, Sterling, Ill., announced the hiring of Heather Bridges as the company’s new chief financial officer. Bridges will succeed Linda Janczkowski, who announced her intention in July to reduce her role within HALO. Bridges will report to HALO CEO Marc Simon. Bridges has had a distinguished career…
Read MoreHow Nutella Is Using Custom Merch to Drive People to Its Stores
We admit that we laughed a bit upon learning that today is National Shower With a Friend Day, apparently, but we confess that we revised our shopping lists when reading that it’s also World Nutella Day. We know there’s always room for Jell-O, but everyone who can should make ample space for the hazelnut spread,…
Read MoreBAMKO’s Phil Koosed on Creating Taco Bell’s ‘Instagrammable’ Branded Merch, Promo’s Unrivaled ROI, Private Equity Pros and Cons
Phil Koosed, president of BAMKO, joined the show to take us inside its immensely popular and successful branded merch campaigns for Taco Bell, including how the distributor created “Instagrammable” promotional products designed to reach younger demographics online. We also talked about promo’s powerful ROI, corporate social responsibility, private equity. Plus, Sean and Brendan finally discuss Weezer, and ask Phil for help getting Elon Musk on the show…
Read MoreBella+Canvas Launches ‘Fashion Apparel Masterclass’ Online Educational Program
Bella+Canvas, Los Angeles, launched a new online education course for promotional products industry professionals called the “Fashion Apparel Masterclass,” or “FAM” for short. Bella+Canvas set out to create a masterclass that addresses the challenges specific to the promotional products industry and provides solutions that will give members the tools to sell more premium apparel, and…
Read MoreMore Promo Companies Indicted, Fined in Price Fixing Schemes
A federal grand jury in Texas has indicted Taiwanese company G Nova Corp and its CEO over price fixing schemes relating to promotional products. A second company, NetBrands Media Corp. and two of its executives, have already agreed to plead guilty to similar, but unrelated, charges, per Reuters…
Read MoreTinder Has Its Own Branded T-shirt Collection Now
What would the world be without Tinder? For one thing, the global news cycle would be far less interesting or disturbing, depending on how one chooses to categorize some of the most recent stories involving the six-year-old dating application. With the ultimate commercialized observance, Valentine’s Day, a little more than a week away, the Tinder…
Read MoreWhat’s Your Excuse?
In sales, one of the biggest challenges in converting a prospect to a customer, or a customer to a client is getting more “face time” to continuously explain our value proposition. This is where most sales folks fail. Most sales folks, even seasoned professionals, don’t appreciate the importance of creating “excuses” to get back in…
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