Tapping Into Top Promo Products Categories

For Phase 3 Marketing and Communications, expanding into promotional products was a no-brainer.

The Atlanta, Georgia-headquartered wide-format producer and marketing agency incorporated branded merch into its services about seven years ago through acquisition, and it’s been a lucrative addition, says Meredith Schwarz, vice president of sales.

“I think branded merchandise has grown so significantly for us because usually the things you need wide-format printers for, you’re going to need branded merch for as well,” Schwarz adds.

Schwarz explains that when working with a client on a product launch, for example, the process begins by building a creative strategy and then moves into the physical pieces that need to be fabricated and printed.

“It’s always the big pieces – like building a pop-up shop – that come first,” she says. “The idea of giving something away is almost always at the very end of the thought path.”

Bringing promo into the conversation earlier on helps to offer clients “a more complete thought” and makes a wide-format company even more of an expert in physical production, Schwarz says.

Consider opportunities in these top product categories as you delve deeper into the promo world.

T-shirts, Polos & Other Apparel

Apparel is, by far, the largest product category, making up more than 36% of promo distributor sales, according to the 2024 Counselor State of the Industry report. T-shirts alone accounted for about $4.5 billion in 2023 – amounting to 17.3% of overall sales. Coming in at third on the list were polo shirts, with nearly $2.5 billion in sales and 9.5% of market share.

Fortuitously, apparel is also probably the “best and easiest transition” for wide-format producers – particularly those who’ve invested in flatbed printing technology – to enter into the promotional industry, according to Kevin Walsh, president of Counselor Top 40 supplier Showdown Displays in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, and a member of the Counselor Power 50 list of the most influential people in promo. “When I look at the size of the prize in terms of promotional products, there’s more than $10 billion in apparel,” he adds. “If you can get a small piece of that using your equipment, doing this relevant print process in a category that’s very significant, you can probably carve off some space and be very effective doing it.”

Dye-sublimation, and the capacity for easily printing variable data, has been a boon for team sports. Using the digital decoration process, “Every uniform can have the personalized name and number as part of the garment,” Walsh says. “There doesn’t have to be a secondary element, like heat transfer or tackle twill appliqué, added on.”

Apparel is also a top seller for Phase 3’s corporate clients, many of whom are looking to outfit their internal teams. “When clients are moving into a new office or hiring, there’ a lot of print work associated with that,” Schwarz says. “But they’re also going to want quality corporate apparel. … We have a lot of clients that give their employees monthly budgets for corporate apparel, particularly if they’re in sales.”

Polos, quarter-zip pullovers and other corporate apparel typically call for decoration methods like embroidery, heat transfers or three-dimensional emblems.

Drinkware

Drinkware has seen rapid growth in promo over the last few years. In 2017, drinkware accounted for 7.5% of promo sales. In 2023, that percentage had jumped up to 10.7% – accounting for $2.8 billion in promo distributor sales – making it the second-largest product category, after T-shirts, according to ASI Research. And in 2024, water bottles (#2), tumblers (#5) and mugs (#6) were all among the Top 10 most-searched-for terms on ESP, ASI’s product sourcing tool, according to ASI Research.

Schwarz notes that drinkware is probably the most popular giveaway requested for client events.

And many end-buyers are very specific about what they want. “Before, you could get away with a generic bottle or a no-name brand,” says
Tommy Gomez, account director at promo distributor Brilliant. “Now, clients are coming and saying, ‘We want the Yeti, we want the Stanley, we want the Nalgene.’ They know the brands by name.”

The Stanley mania that took over popular culture in recent years also made its way into promo – so much so that ASI named the 40-ounce Quencher bottle the 2023 Product of the Year. But as some of the shine has worn off Stanley, other brands are quickly gaining steam: Owala saw the biggest growth from 2023 to 2024 among leading search terms on ESP, shooting up 437%, ASI Research found.

UV inkjet printing “can cost-effectively deliver vibrant full-color graphics in volumes as low as one” for drinkware and other promo categories, says Benjamin Adner, founder and chief innovation officer for Inkcups, a printing equipment supplier. “In addition to the tremendous design possibilities that enables, it also opens up possibilities for personalization and on-demand production.”

Bags

Bags are another lucrative promo category, coming in fifth on ASI’s most recent list of top products, with 7.9% of market share and nearly $2.1 billion in 2023 promo distributor sales. Tote bags were the third most-searched-for item on ESP last year. Of course, the bag category encompasses much more than just totes: Backpacks, crossbodies, slings, duffels, lunch bags and even fanny packs are all in the mix. (“Lunch cooler bag” was actually the fastest-growing search term in ESP for Q2 of 2024, jumping nearly 984%, according to ASI Research.)

“Rounder, softer silhouettes that definitely lean more comfortable [are trending],” says Caroline Wilkins, brand director of Uinta Design, a custom bag supplier out of Logan, UT. “That includes puff … reinventing the basic silhouettes with neoprene, terry cloth, a lot of recycled material.”

There are a variety of methods available for customizing bags, often depending on their size, shape and substrate. But the important thing to remember when it comes to bags – and other promo categories as well – is that printers don’t have to be the ones doing the decorating. Many promo suppliers add customization themselves, or printers can form partnerships with contract decorators to fill in gaps in any equipment they’re not yet ready to acquire.

Flags, Banners & Signage

At $757 million in 2023 sales and representing 2.9% of market share, flags and banners didn’t quite make the cut of the Top 10 product categories in promo. Still, as the 12th-largest category, they’re a significant slice of the pie and one that wide-format producers are already well-positioned to capitalize on. “We’re doing a bunch of vinyl applications, like stadium wraps and printing all the pieces to build a trade show booth,” Schwarz says.

Signage, in general, is an area that has become more and more prominent in promo in recent years. “There was a time when Showdown was the solo booth with a single flag flying in the middle of [ASI shows],” Walsh says, adding that now there are dozens of sign and display suppliers. “The sign and displays category is certainly one that’s found a home in the promotional products industry.”

To stand out in the space, Walsh recommends focusing on geographic relevance, since signage can often be heavy, large and price prohibitive to ship. Finding local partners to offer signage printing services can help mitigate such costs.