wearables

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just next month. In many parts of the country, it's still warm and the leaves are a rich bright green. But give it a few weeks and businesses in every sector of the economy will be shifting their marketing efforts and promotions toward the winter holidays including Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve.

Autumn is here and, in most parts of North America, the leaves are just about ready to turn to shades of orange, red and brown. As the joke goes, pumpkin-spiced everything returns to stores near you.

In last week's Idea Custom Solutions blog, we talked about the fact that wearables — altogether the promotional products industry's best selling category — is one that need not be tied to specific seasons.
 

We’ve talked previously about the power of the t-shirt. Perhaps this classic garment has an unfair advantage. After all, the t-shirt is not only an icon in American folk and pop culture, but also pops up now and again as a part of high-fashion, depending on what's hot in one season or another.

The term wearables can mean different things to different people. To much of the tech-savvy world, “wearable” usually means any sort of gadget you might wear on your head, arm or even your waist. Wearable devices might pump out music, make phone calls, or serve up useful data. Items like the Fitbit and the Apple watch are changing how we work, play and live. They are also somewhat of a fashion statement for those on the cutting-edge.

It’s the beginning of March, but where is that frigid weather? Whether it’s global warming, or just a lucky burst of warm air that’s got the temperatures up in northern parts of the country, sunnier days make us start to think of spring and summer.

Just when we thought we had another few weeks of fall weather, it started getting chilly. As strange as it was, December 2015’s freakishly warm weather — with temperatures in the 50s and 60s just a few days before the winter holidays — were a nice treat. So much for a “White Christmas”!

At the beginning of 2015, the Advertising Specialty Institute circulated their annual “Impressions Study”, a market research report that provides an in-depth look at promotional products and the people that use them every day.

The report’s aim was to provide to suppliers and distributors of specialty advertising products better insight about what works. The study profiled everything from wearable items to writing instruments, and provided detail on many promotional product categories and how they contribute to overall marketing strategies.

If you’re talking to your customers on a regular basis, you may find that, for many of them, right now business is very good. And it’s not just talk. 2015 looks to be a landmark year.