Tag Archives: bamboo

A Recipe for a Great Holiday Gift

25 Oct

Bamboo Savor 3 x 5 Recipe Box

I love bamboo. Bamboo is a sustainable material: it’s a grass and thus much quicker to grow and replenish than hardwoods. It is easier to work with than other woods, and it needs less water to grow than cotton.

So, bamboo is great. Now add it to a food concept, and you’ve got a great promo gift, especially for the holidays.

Zipline is offering a sleek bamboo box that can store 3×5 recipe cards (and will be kept visible for a long time on folks’ kitchen counters), while displaying your logo front and center. At 6.1875”W x 4.125”H x 4.75”D, the box has enough height to accommodate tabbed dividers.

And it features an angled card stand on the lid to prop up the recipe during cooking; nice touch. The imprint area is 2.5”W x 2.5”H, and logos are done in gorgeous laser engraving.

We love the bamboo recipe box standing alone, or you can pair it with other bamboo (or food-related) gifts for a themed complete holiday or program gift concept.

Want more bamboo? I have previously talked about bamboo-blend shirts, bamboo-covered notepads, USB flash drives with bamboo covers, and bamboo pens.

If you are an ASI distributor, you can get more information about Zipline’s Savor 3 x 5 Recipe Box from Zipline. If you are interested in Zipline products to promote your own business, contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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Zorrel Offers Bamboo Charcoal Blended Polo

22 Aug

Z1353 Hastings

Zorrel has been making a big splash in the promotional apparel market for some time now, as the standard stock from Zorrel looks more like something from Nike or Under Armour than your normal promotional apparel. Plus Zorrel will decorate (screen print and embroidery) in factory, which saves both costs and time on getting orders to market.

Next to Ash City, Zorrel is quickly becoming the go-to source for my clients.

But Zorrel never offered sustainable material apparel, which kept Zorrel off this blog. Well that has changed with the introduction of the Z1353 Hastings.

The Hastings is a 70% virgin polyester, 30% bamboo, 5.6 oz/190 GSM polo. The Hastings is currently available in white, tomato (red), and blue. Limited colors, but it is still a very pretty polo that is built to last.

Bamboo gets the sustainable and “eco” nod because it is easier to work with and less water intensive to grow than cotton. Also poly fabrics that claim to be anti-microbial normally have had a chemical treatment applied to the textile or into the fiber itself. With bamboo, fabrics are naturally anti-microbial, requiring no harmful chemicals.

The Hastings is a new shirt for Zorrell, or if not, Zorrell does not themselves consider the Hastings as a sustainable material shirt, because when we talked to their representative in our area about a sustainable line from Zorrel, we were told flatly that “they don’t do that”. Well apparently now they do.

The Hastings polo runs to 4XL, so it goes one size more than sustainable polos from Ash City (but Ash City offers 12 sustainable material polos vs just this one from Zorrel). Normally to get to 4XL a client needs to go back down in quality to a basic organic cotton polo.

Bottom line I like this shirt and I am hoping the success of the Hastings in 2011 will mean more colors, and even more styles using the bamboo material in 2012.

If you are an ASI distributor and want more information on the Hastings, contact Sandy Gray. If you would like to purchase for your own business please contact your local promotional items provider or email info@proformagreen.com for pricing and samples.

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Two New Bamboo Promo Ideas

15 Mar

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of  Proforma Green Marketing, 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.

Bamboo as a material was a big mover in 2009. The industry saw bamboo cloth being used in caps, shirts, towels, jackets, heavy totes and even robes. As a replacement for hardwood, bamboo is used in awards, cutting boards, umbrella shafts, and any number of tool handles.

For 2010 the move to bamboo does not seem to be slowing down. As a quick-growing, renewable, natural resource bamboo seems here to stay in the promotional products market. Here are two quick ideas in bamboo new for 2010.

The KIVA Ball Point from LogoMark is one of the first bamboo body pens to hit the market this year. I suspect there will be more. Like most items from LogoMark this pen has a little more style and flare than its peers.

The bamboo pen body gives the KIVA a natural feel and the black, blue or green plastic tip and clip is biodegradable plastic. These pens EQP for $1.45 with one color imprint. With PLA pens for Shepenco running at around $0.50, the KIVA is not meant to be competing in the cheap eco-pen field, but rather as a nicer, client or employee gift pen, perhaps as part of a package with  LogoMark’s bamboo office picture frame or bamboo business card holder.

A number of basic bamboo shopping totes are also coming to market including a bamboo version of the very popular Big Thunder tote by American Ad Bags.

This Bamboo Thunder is 100% Natural Bamboo – which is naturally biodegradable and an eco-friendly sustainable resource – and has a incredibly soft touch that you just do not get with poly or canvas bags. For added strength the Bamboo Thunder offers stitched seams in the sides and at the bottom gusset.

One issue might be price. The Bamboo Thunder by American Adbag runs EQP $3.00, which is more than the $2.10 EQP price of the screen printed polypropylene Big Thunder by Bag Makers (yes different manufacturers, same name, go figure). Both bags measure in at a whooping 13″ x 10″ x 15″. Yes that is a 10 inch gusset.

If you are an ASI distributor Dustin is the contact to talk to at LogoMark. Want more info on the Bamboo Thunder, talked to Courtney Rasmussen at American Adbag.

If you are interested in the these items or other bamboo ideas to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

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Pacesetter Awards Sets The Pace For Eco Award Plaques

31 Jul

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.

Pacesetter Awards caught our attention at the Proforma 2009 Convention in Denver with their range of award plaques made from eco-friendly materials. Not only is Pacesetter Awards working with some new materials; the actual finishes, plus the multiple sizes and shapes of their products seem to place them ahead of their peers. Unfortunately none of the new line is yet on view at the Pacesetter Awards website or virtual catalog. Continue reading →

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First Bamboo Fiber Golf Towel

16 Jul

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.

Here is a short video from the 2009 Proforma Convention in Denver. This is Pro Towels Etc’s new bamboo fiber golf towel, which they say is the first bamboo fiber golf towel introduced to the promotional items market.

Why towels? As a promotional item they have a number of advantages over shirts and caps, the items they seem to compete with the most. According to Pro Towels the advantages are:

  • For Recognition – Make a huge impact with a 25″ x 50″ logo on a beach towel.  Largest imprint area amongst most other promotional products.
  • For Durability – Machine washable for endless use. When was the last time you threw a towel away?
  • For Leisure – Towels are used when doing fun things such as swimming, boating, golfing, etc.
  • For Value – Superior value for price.
  • For Style – Towels never go out of style.

For the Ecopreneurist organic cotton and bamboo towels are a great match for many summer time marketing activities like boating events, golfing events, spa weekends, etc., and they really do provide a large imprintable message area at a low cost.

If you are in the business the ASI contact to talk is Dana Zezzo at Pro Towels Etc. 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.

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Tri Panda, Sample of Bamboo Paper Stock

14 Jul

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.

In this short video Craig from Independent Printing shows off their new bamboo blend print stock. This was taken at the Proforma 2009 convention so I did get a chance to touch and feel this paper. You cannot tell that this is a bamboo blend. It looks and feels and acts like “paper” and seems suitable for any print job.

Another thing to mention about Independent Printing is that their offices and press are now powered by renewable resources. Indeed they have created their own symbol to denote their products are printed with clean energy which they can add to any project coming out of their shop.

Really, when talking about green printing using green resources I think Independent Printing is quickly taking the lead position in our industry. Any custom or standard job, any size, they have the Ecopreneurist covered.

You can read a lot more about Independent Printing’s commitment to eco-friendly printing on their website.

Continue reading →

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A Sign For The Times

17 May

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.

On April 21, 2009 Drinking With Benefits held their latest open house event at the State and Allen Lounge in downtown Dallas.

The goal of Drinking With Benefits is to “develop an awareness and call to action for local communities through businesses that implement the ideals of an eco-friendly community, thereby creating an active ‘go green’ network of lounges, bar and nightclubs”. Part of their education and advocacy outreach is recognition by Drinking With Benefits of those businesses who recycle their waste—in particular glass, which has the most connection to the patrons of these businesses.

As part of their program Drinking With Benefits needs to get their message out by identifying the bars that are members of their organization. Enter the Dakota Burl plaque from Norwood. This plaque is made entirely of sunflower husks and when laser etched really looks very elegant. Each new member of Drinking With Benefits is now presented with a Dakota Burl plaque to place in their establishment to show their participation in the program and to help promote it. That was part of the reason for the April 21st event. Continue reading →

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Classic Umbrella Returns With Green Make Over

14 Mar

The new nonwoven material umbrella with all bamboo shaft from Debco looks and acts like any other umbrella out there. But this one is eco-friendly.

Ok, perhaps with the all bamboo construction on this model the umbrella looks a little better than your average promotional item umbrella, but the point is that this unit is another example of the new green promotional items coming to market that act green without necessarily looking green.

The 48” arc of nonwoven material is number #5 recyclable – the same material as used in grocery totes. Thanks to that fact the umbrella is available in all the colors of your common shopping tote as well, so black, lime green, royal blue, red and white are all available. The nonwoven used is 50 gram polypropylene with 30 GSM water resistant lamination.

The patent pending design features a 100% natural bamboo shaft with curved handle. Fiberglass ribs have been added for strength and durability – not very eco there – and the umbrella has a basic Velcro tie closure. EQP pricing on this large umbrella is $15.43 with one color imprint.

Of course for the Ecopreneurists looking to use an umbrella in their marketing campaign all the old standbys work for an eco umbrella as well. Slogans like “we have you covered”, “bringing you in from the rain”, etc. And they of course work everywhere traditional umbrellas do so they are a great idea for Ecopreneurists targeting things like golf events, restaurants and cafes, and hotels.

For more information on these items and the other great stuff from Debco email Andrew Green. If you are looking to order, email info@proformagreen.com or contact your local promotional products seller.

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Video: Showdown Displays Launches Bamboo Line

28 Feb

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.

Showdown Displays was showing off four new bamboo frame displays at the ASI show in Dallas, two similar in design to the Panda Stand and Panda Stand L, plus an X model, a Deluxe model and a Bamboo Literature Display. Showdown also had their new “Build-able Block” system on show, which I will need to cover in another article. Build-able Block is a modular system to scale to any display size or configuration which is made with a fully recyclable corrugated cardboard-like material.

These bamboo solutions work both as retail/lobby displays and for those Ecopreneurists doing the trade show route. They also work well for spas as the signage is “softer” than traditional aluminum or steel displays.

Prices range from EQP $189 for the basic X model to EQP $319 for the Showdown version of the Panda Stand. Pricing is for a kit including banner and hardware. Here is John from Showdown Displays talking at ASI.

For more information visit the Showdown Display website or email us at info@proformagreen.com for pricing. See move videos from ASI Dallas here.

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Panda Stand L – Light, Easy and Green Signage

27 Jan

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of 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.

We wrote before about the Panda Stand from Megagraphix by way of DRYTAC. Well, the new, lighter, and less expensive Panda Stand L is now also available.

Like the classic Panda stand the Panda Stand L was developed to provide an earth-friendly alternative to a common display solution, the L shaped tension frame banner.

The frame of the Panda Stand L is 95% bamboo, with hooks and clasps made from steel. The banners themselves are available in eco-friendly material and can be printed with soy or vegetable based inks. Traditional banners can also be fitted to the Panda Stand L.

As the name implies, the stand is a simple L shaped tension frame that snaps together in a few minutes and breaks down quickly into a compact, lightweight, transportable unit. A cotton-cloth carrying bag is included with the stand.

At just seven pounds and with a visible graphic size of 78.70″ (200 cm) x 31.5″ (80 cm), these stands are great for Ecopreneurist on the go, providing high visibility at low cost in a easy to display and carry solution.

This makes them great for retail application, conventions and hospitality events. They also make good in-house signage for spas and resorts and other organizations with eco-friendly business models. Expect to pay $200 – $280 based on artwork, art reproduction and quantity ordered.

Please visit the Megagraphix and DRYTAC websites for more information on the Panda Stand L. You can also email us for addtional info and pricing at info@proformagreen.com.

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