Promotional Clothing – Wear your Brand
Friday, December 19th, 2008One area that has made huge strides forward in the promotional merchandise industry is that of promotional clothing. With huge choice on the high street and numerous brands competing for our retail spend, branded and corporate wear has needed to keep up with styles and appeal that will be well received when given.
As designs have evolved along with trends, the transfer through to the promotional side is becoming quicker all the time, allowing clients to take advantage of what people are wearing and buying, brand items up with their corporate identity and use these as budget giveaway items for the mass market, or as high end, value added gifts for top corporate clients.
Historically the choice would be limited and the white T’shirt would have been a common branded giveaway item. There would have been limited choice of polo shirts, the odd fleece and a jacket or two.
Large manufacturers have the product lines available and the wholesale side allows a consistent volume supply with decent pricing to achieve an end product to fit whatever budget the client has.
Fruit of the Loom have been one of the biggest names to supply items for promotional use, but there are many others such as Jerzees, Kustom Kit, Result, Gildan to name but a few.
The uses of promotional clothing is now considerable. The high volume, low budget giveaways are covered by the white or coloured T’shirts. There is a large colour and style choice of polo shirts, often used as workwear, exhibition wear or a giveaway to a smaller audience.
Corporate events such as golf days are satisfied by great choice of including Ping, Callaway, Adidas and Nike, where a logo can sit very nicely alongside a world famous brand name, adding prestige to the item.
Companies are also looking to improve how their clients perceive them in the workplace, and branded workwear is often a result of this. Employees tend to respond when wearing the corporate ID, as they are representing the company. Clients see this as quality and it gives a great impression seeing a workforce “uniform”.
Finally, with a slight deviation from the workwear that is now commonplace, there is considerable choice in fleeces, soft shell and other jackets – which can not only be used for employess, budget depending, but are also incredibly well received corporate gifts.
There will certainly be even closer links and merging of retail styles into the promotional clothing side of the industry – and this can only benefit the end user, who may have more choice, but ultimately will be satisfied with the item they decide upon.