It appears that the world continues to spin on its axis. You may now exhale. A couple of months back, this was not a guaranteed thing.
In March of this year, PPAI held its Expo East show in Atlantic City, so that it would coincide with the Imprinted Sportswear Show. Fear-mongers claimed that this move would be the worst possible thing for our industry. Really? Worse than the last worst possible thing for our industry? End-users at the Las Vegas Expo? Or electing me to the PPAI Board (but I’m still not bitter)?
The fear was that having screen printers and embroiderers would ruin the integrity of our sacred show, lowering the standards of the attendees. Please, all of our industry shows have been suffering and limping over the last couple of years (with the possible exception of a certain for-profit organization that is still trying to persuade me to exhibit at one of its shows, insisting that this show will attract between 4,000 and 5,000 attendees. No, really!). The ISS shows have also felt the pain of declining attendance; ISS organizers too were looking for ways to increase their numbers and jumpstart their show.
And so, in March of 2015, screen printers and embroiderers attended a promotional products show. And no one died.
This was not a new idea. Back in my days with Hilton Apparel, I exhibited at both promo and decorated apparel shows, and saw the crossover potential. Yes, there were several attendees at the apparel shows who would probably never embrace the concept of adding promotional products to their toolboxes. But for every one of those, I saw five attendees whom I knew could also be selling mugs and writing instruments to the people who had been coming into their shops for only sweats and Ts.
It was a hard sell to the SAAGNY Board, of which I was either a member or ultimately the president. Would allowing the screen printers and embroiderers into our private club going to anger our core constituency? Yeah, quite possibly. But with membership at almost 50% suppliers, couldn’t we have opened that half to all new markets?
This issue outlived my term on the Board (which in and of itself is amazing, considering how many years I was part of it), and came back to life a few years later - only to die again. As such, it was a pleasant surprise when PPAI (having since taken over the Atlantic City show) announced that it partnered with the ISS people.
March 2015 came and went. Although I’ve not been in the promotional apparel business for six years (seems longer), I still went over to the ISS side of the Atlantic City show and saw many old friends. They reported that they had good traffic of promotional products people, which mirrored what I experienced on the promo side of the hall.
I won’t lie: there were non-promo attendees who, when shown this product or that, asked if a logo could be put on it. But there were also some who were genuinely interested in what we promo people had to say – if we had the patience to explain it to them and maybe even teach them how to sell it.
I’ve seen the future. I might even still be part of that future. The lines are getting further blurred, and it’s not just because my eyesight is getting worse.
Mike Schenker, MAS, is a promotional industry veteran and member of the Specialty Advertising Association of Greater New York (SAAGNY) Hall of Fame. He can be reached at mike@mikeschenker.com.