This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.
Remember the ECOCoolie from Numo Manufacturing? The first version of the EcoCoolie had only 15% post-consumer recycled material. At the time I applauded the fact that this Dallas based manufacturer was at least making a post-consumer material coolie (it was the first on the market as far as I could tell), but was disappointed at the low 15%.
Now Numo has come back to the market with the EcoCoolie Pocket Coolie 2.0 available Feb 1, 2010. This unit is made of 1/8″ high-density recycled-open cell scuba foam and will boast a full 85% post-consumer content, and at EQP for $0.89, that is $0.10 less than the EcoCoolie version one, when it debuted last year.
The EcoCoolie is available in Black, White, Red, Royal Blue, Navy Blue, Kelly Green, Lime Green, Bright Orange, Purple, Forest Green and Yellow. If your business is in the business of handing out coolies, then 2010 might be the year for you to go green with your beverage marketing materials.
And that is not all. Numo is using the same 85% post-consumer content material on their EcoCoolie Bottle Jersey 2.0 (EQP $1.65), EcoCoolie Four-Color Process Bottle Jersey ($EQP $2.72), EcoCoolie Zippered Bottle Coolie (EQP $2.08) and EcoCoolie Four-Color Process Zippered Bottle Coolie (EQP $3.49). Again all made with at least 85% post-consumer content material.
The beverage coolie is likely one of the most popular promotional items available in our industry. Like caps and tshirts, most people have a favorite coolie they have had for years, often showing their support for their favorite school, sports team, or brand.
Coolies provide the Ecopreneurist with a large imprint to cost ratio and are certainly an item to consider for any business that caters to the sport, outdoor, beverage, or educational markets.
If you are an ASI member with questions for Numo Manufacturing Tracy Moore is the contact to talk to. If you are interested in these items to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.
Adventures in Green Marketing 
Thanks for the update for what appears to be good news…
But should we be concerned with the post-consumer material content of “eco coolies” or ask ourselves “who needs a coolie to begin with”?
I do not want to sound judgemental but American culture, from a French guys perspective, seems laden with “easy to live without stuff” which contributes heavily to the amount of waste and pollution generated each year in the US…
Cool fact, I found out that 1 RPET bottle makes 2.5 Pocket Coolies. So for every 2500 coolies made, 1000 PET bottles do not end up in the landfill.
We got video of this at the Dallas show. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xt10RxKC8c
Pardiou – Yes. I could not agree more. All promo is consumption, and less consumption is better. The ideas in this blog are about finding solutions for products that companies are going to purchase anyway, as part of a marketing campaign, for trade-shows, etc., so why not provide a better solution than traditional products.
We got video of the new EcoCoolies and other Numo items at the ASI Dallas show. Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB-w3FtIkzU