Promo Distributors and Suppliers Take to PRINTING United Expo for New Equipment, Tech Insight, and More

While much of the real estate at PRINTING United Expo is devoted to, well, printing, as in ink on paper, there is much more than that. With two giant exhibit halls, it allowed for apparel and other textile printing, as well as UV printing for promotional products, to be on display.

Promotional products companies on both the supplier and distributor side took to the event, some exhibiting in booths, others cruising the show floor like other print buyers. Some were looking at purchasing new printing and decorating equipment to make their products and processes better, others were looking at what trends end-users were interested in and adapting their businesses accordingly.

We caught up with a few people from the promo world on both the supplier and distributor side, sometimes in exhibit booths and other times in precious moments to sit at a cafe table, to discuss what drew them to the event, where promotional products fits into the show, what knowledge or equipment they're taking home to their companies, and what they're looking at for the future of decorated merchandise.

Convergence

Print service suppliers are unique in that they can start working as a promotional products distributor with the knowledge that comes from the print world. They're not too separate, and jumping into promo through items like apparel or signage isn't too far of a leap.

Trevose, Pennsylvania-based alphabroder was showcasing both its apparel division, as well as its hard goods lines, in order to educate and show off what the promotional products world offers.

"For the apparel, we have our private brands, our fashion brands, and then retail evenly distributed throughout the promotional products side of things," said Mitchell Wilson, business development ambassador for alphabroder. "You know, mugs, journals, pens, we sell a whole side of them. We also do decorating, screen printing, embroidery, imprint, pad print, laser engraving on some of the promo products. We help decorate, and we also just do wholesale if our customers decorate on their end."

The Online Boom

That appeal to distributors who want a wide variety of decorated products resonated with distributors on the show floor.

Jim Franklyn, Vice President of business development for Swag Promo, touched on how the internet has created demand for print-on-demand, direct-to-garment (DTG), and direct-to-fabric (DTF) printing, all things that were all over the show floor.

Franklyn called the show "interesting," saying that it personified how the lines blurred between traditional business models: print and promo, supplier and distributor. He also said that it enforces his belief that the internet is driving more small orders aided by online shopping for promotional products.

"A lot of companies now might have a massive program, but they also have a need for one-offs and just much, much smaller quantities for much more micro of a type of an event they're doing," Franklyn said. "So DTF and UV DTF is very interesting to us, because when we do have those customers, and they're in our core competency, we want to be able to [offer] them full service."

He added that until even 10 years ago, a lot of promotional products distributors might have shied away from one-offs, but now that's unavoidable thanks to the internet and competitors who allow end-buyers to buy directly in small quantities.

"That's just part of it," Franklyn said. "A customer has to be able to go online and order what they want, and if that's one shirt, they've got to be able to do it."

Face-To-Face Interaction

Since, as Franklyn said, a lot of attendees are on the distributor side, or are maybe those print professionals who want to see the easiest route to the promotional products industry, some suppliers used exhibits to show how their products are decorated, and how they can fit into a promotional campaign.

Miles Wadsworth, president of Logo Mats, walked us through his booth to explain what the supplier had to offer for attendees walking by their very colorful booth.

Better Decoration

Another way suppliers used the show was to invest in new print technology from one of the many print companies exhibiting and demonstrating what they can do on the show floor.

Rhonda Reilly, director of promotional products sales for Pilot Pen, was walking the floor looking specifically for opportunities to update Pilot's UV digital machines.

"I think it's really going to be beneficial for us, because it will shorten our people time, but increase our production," she said. "More than anything, we're looking for that."

If Pilot invests in new decoration equipment, Reilly says that the distributor can expect faster turn times thanks to increased printing capacity.

"For the distributor, we'd be able to turn and meet rush orders a little better, and also give a better quality of the imprints on the pens," she added.

Matt Quinn, president of QUINN, also said his primary goal at the show was to learn as much as he can about new equipment and printing technologies, as well as software management systems and finishing systems for flags and banners. At the top of his list was laser cutters, finishing systems, sewing capabilities, and software management programs.

It was enough of a draw to get Quinn, who says he doesn't typically attend shows like this at all, to make the trip from Pennsylvania to Atlanta. Quinn says he's betting on his company to be able to handle whatever the future holds, as we've seen firsthand over the last few years that major industry (and world) shakeups can happen almost overnight.

"One of the main reasons I'm here is because I think 2024 is going to be a real tough year for the industry, and really nationwide, will all of the stuff going on in the world, and I like to do the opposite of what's going on," he said. "I like to really invest and put a lot more in my company. Even when COVID hit, everybody was scaling back, I really pumped things into it and built things into the company, whether it's hiring people or looking at new equipment and so on. That's really what I'm here personally [to do.] I don't personally go to a lot of the shows. I have people that go. I'm here because I want to make some decisions."