Tag Archives: organic

Holiday and Fall Lip Balm Backdrops

22 Nov

One of Many Fall Graphic Backdrops.

Marketing folks are always talking about getting their message on the lips of their audience. It is both a metaphor and a cliche. It is also, actually, easily done.

The weather is changing once again, time to think about dry air and dry lips, time to think about lip balm.

And if you are thinking about lip balm for Fall projects, our friends at Raining Rose are making it easy with new Fall and Holiday theme backdrops.

Start with the lip balm. Raining Rose products are all USA made using natural and organic ingredients in a USDA certified facility. Raining Rose even offers 100% USDA certified organic lip balm, in recycled content packaging.

No additional charge to use a graphic backdrop. Graphic backdrops can be used on any product.

Add to this superior product the ability for full wrap, full color imprints standard, and the option of a theme backdrop, and you have a practical promotional item with excellent messaging opportunities.

Lip balm works great for Fall trade-shows for spa and hotel marketing, for tie-in with winter sports, for year end auto sales events. A classic idea is the bowl of lip balm with a mix of flavors as a fun client gift (and a salesperson’s excuse to return and refill the bowl).

Raining Rose pre-printed backdrop artwork is an easy way to get a Big Bang for a little price on premium USA made lip balm.

Winter Themes for Holiday Events

As always, if you are ASI and want samples of Raining Rose products just ask Lisa Waggoner.

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.

Tags: , ,

Raining Rose Drastically Increases Pre-Print Graphic Backdrops

15 Sep

Raining Rose products are made in the USA and feature all natural 66% organic content. The Raining Rose factory is an FDA audited facility. All products have their ingredients listed on the Raining Rose website and on casings. All casings are made from recycled content plastic.   They offer USDA organic certified products and are a great product for any business looking for an eco-friendly leave behind.

Ok, most folks already know that boilerplate statement for Raining Rose. What has got us so excited is that Raining Rose has drastically increased their pre-printed graphic background options. Do you see a theme here? Yet again a manufacturer is offering more for your money through the use of pre-printed designs.

These graphic backdrop wrap pre-prints from Raining Rose add no cost to the run price of their amazing lip balms (I have literally gotten calls at our office from people receiving these items from my clients and asking where they can get more because they are out and now addicted to the quality). And if you check out the Raining Rose graphic site again next week, you will likely see more and different ideas, as Raining Rose constantly updates their backdrop themes based on holidays, seasons, and events.

Currently what is hot is Back-to-School and Halloween, but there are also smart ideas for Breast Cancer Awareness (October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month) and weddings. For an EQP around $0.90 for Raining Rose Premium Lip Balm – featuring ingredients like organic palm oil, beeswax, organic extra virgin olive oil, flavor or essential oil, organic hemp seed oil, vitamin E, and rosemary extract – these items are very popular giveaways for nearly any event.

FYI, fully custom, full color artwork wraps available on Raining Rose lip balms also make them a great platform to reprint your entire business card contact information. This idea has been popular with real estate agents, insurance brokers, and fitness trainers. Or do a ‘follow me’ theme for social media buffs.  Or simply add your contact information to one of the many great and often changing pre-printed designs.

As always, if you are ASI, PPAI or SAGE and want samples of  Raining Rose products just ask Lisa Waggoner. 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.

Tags: , , , ,

Gemline Launches Green Living Site

19 Dec

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.

Gemline – one of our favorite manufacturers – has launched what they are calling their GREEN LIVING WEBSITE at www.gemline.com/gemline.web/living-green.

This site gives a great overview of the green and eco-friendly products in Gemline’s portfolio and I applaud Gemline for getting all their green items together in an easy to view site.

The online catalog is divided into five categories – Organic, Recycled, Cotton, PVC Free and More Options for items like Bamboo and Solar.

I hope more manufacturers produce focused sites for their green items and I encourage them to follow Gemline’s example. Bravo Gemline.

For more information on any items shown on the Gemline Green Living site please visit the site or email us at info@proformagreen.com.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Debco: Is All Cotton Organic?

1 Dec

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.

Debco is now producing color versions of the econo natural 4oz shopping tote. The colors available are black, red, green, lime green, navy, and pink.

The econo tote is very popular with Econpreneurist as the price of these units -$2.11- for the natural color tote places them in range of the popular non-woven shopping bags that are becoming ubiquitous in grocery stores.

Why the popularity? Because organic cotton – any cotton – is biodegradable while most non-woven poly bags are not.

So this post was going to be about me being so excited that Debco is now offering their econo natural 4oz shopping tote in colors, wonderful colors.

According to Debco their overseas supplier uses Azo free dyes on all their bags color bags.  This dye is supposedly eco-friendly and non-hazardous, but they have not conducted any lab tests to confirm this 100%.  However Debco has volunteered to have it done for any client that requests it.

But that is not what I am going to write about.

Apparently – and I don’t know if it is because these guys are based in Canada – Debco is making a distinction between bags made from 100% natural cotton and their organic cotton bags. A distinction I have not seen before. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

100% Organic Caps with Eco-Friendly Screen Printing

10 Nov

Organic cotton cap

Proforma Green got our samples in today of the new 8650 V Natural™ Organic Cap by Vitronic Promotional Group, one of our manufacturers.

These caps are great. The 8650 V is a casual unstructured cap made from 100% organic cotton with a Velcro closure and a 3.25″ crown.

The bonus is that they come in multiple colors – Green, Natural (as shown), Soft Blue, Soft Pink and Soft Yellow – and Vitronic can use a sustainable process for dyeing and finishing on these 100% organic cotton caps, so you can show your commitment to the environment.

The best part is the cap with one color imprint runs as low as $3.97 per unit.

For any Ecopreneurist out there buying caps for resale, for employees or for events, these are certainly a good product to consider.

If you are in the promotional items business contact Norma Garza at Vitronic for more information on these caps or to order samples (mentioning Proforma Green might help). Her email is NormaG@vitronicpromotional.com.

If you are a business or other organization interested in these caps, please contact us at www.proformagreen.com or info@proformagreen.com. We will be happy to send you a sample.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Dye = Natural Fade

27 Sep

Brian Base, the creator of RideSearch.com, was at the Green Dallas event held this last weekend here in Dallas, Texas. Proforma Green runs the t-shirts for RideSearch.com and both RideSearch.com and Proforma Green had been asked to participate in the event by the City of Dallas.

Well Brian was wearing a shirt we ran for him for the 2008 Plano Green Living Expo back in April (another event we both attended as vendors) and I noticed something.

The RideSearch.com shirts are natural cotton shirts. This means they have no dye in them, they are the color of untreated, undyed cotton.

What I noticed was that these shirts fade, although I am not sure fade is the correct word. As I mentioned the natural shirt, whether organic or regular cotton, are called natural because they have no dye in the shirts. So really there is no color (dye) to fade from the shirt, it is just the natural wear of the cotton.

And it seems that over time these shirts go from a sand tan color to more of a lighter parchment color.

I never really thought of it before but because the shirts have no dye in them they just act like what they are, natural cotton, and the “fading” is a result of their nature.

This caught me totally off guard, I simply was not aware of this fact. Now I am thinking it might be something to make a point out of, for example printing on these shirts under the client’s artwork or logo something like “This shirt is 100% organic non-dyed cotton which will naturally fade over time”.

This could be done small in 12 or 14 point type. The idea is to use this fact as a bona fides of the shirt’s natural nature to which they act accordingly.

The fading of course does not have any bearing on the art printed on the shirts, that holds up perfectly well. Also the material itself – the cotton – holds up as well as their dyed counterparts. Natural cotton shirts are also softer than normal shirts because they have not gone through an industrial dyeing process.

As a second choice we do offer dyed organic shirts like the Anvil Adult 5.0 oz. 100% Organic Cotton Short-Sleeve T-Shirt which comes in BLACK, CHARCOAL, CHOCOLATE, CITY GREEN, NAVY, RED, RIVER BLUE, WHITE and YELLOW HAZE for clients that want to avoid the natural fading.

As for RideSearch.com Brian did not seem to mind at all. He loves the shirts and seems to get a big kick giving them away at events. He always has a fist full of shirts when he walks through the crowds.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Price Drop For Organic Cotton? Maybe. SanMar Takes Aim at AshCity Green Line

25 Sep

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

SanMar, one of the largest shirt manufacturers in the US, just got into the eco-friendly apparel game in a big way.

The SanMar green site at http://www.sanmar.com/Green.html boasts 27 items, many that are eco-friendly versions of their very popular Port Authority band.

Port Authority is normally ranked #1 or #2 in the promotional market industry for sales. It is the shirt most Proforma offices recommend to clients.

SanMar also is offering bamboo shirts but as yet does not seem to have a product to go up against the e.c.o. Fleece items from AshCity, however I suspect they will come out with something to compete in this area.

AshCity offers in-house embroidery services. SanMar does not (of course Proforma Green can embroider any item from any supplier).

What does all this mean for the Ecopreneurist? Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Organic Cotton Bags Getting Less Expensive

20 Sep

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Non Woven Poly bags are great but many of our clients don’t like non wovens and keep asking when an inexpensive organic cotton tote would be available.

Well the new Econo Tote Bag from Debco seems to fit the bill at 14.75” W x 16.5” with runs under $2 for orders over 1000 units and starts around $3.50 for a small run of 50 units with one color imprint included. These bags are 100% natural organic cotton processed AZO-Free with no hazardous chemicals. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

Vantage Verve: Going for a Super Green Shirt

30 Aug

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

The Verve line of organic cotton promotional t-shirts from Vantage Apparel seems to be going for the title of most green t-shirt available.

Like many other organic shirts in the promotional items industry Vantage starts with a non-bleached t-shirt made from organic cotton (i.e. no pesticides or petroleum fertilizers used to grow the cotton). At this point the shirt is similar to other organic shirts, like the AnvilOrganic line from Anvil Knit Wear (which by the way does come in different colors than just “natural”). Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Organic Spa Tote II from Gemline

9 Aug

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of ProformaGreen, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy. John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Another example of the speed at which the green promotional products industry is changing is the second generation of the Organic Spa tote from the manufacturer Gemline.

Like many of the wonderful bags from this manufacturer, this tote is made from 100% certified organic cotton fabric and azo-free dyes.

However look at the front of the tote. This material originally was made of bamboo, it is now made from woven jute.

Why? We suspect a few reasons. Jute may be less expensive and it also makes for a more supple bag that is a bit lighter, easier to carry and easier to place embroidery or silk screening on.

The main point I want to make is that the time between Organic Spa Tote I and Organic Spa Tote II was less than 6 months. This normally would not happen with promotional items, but I have seen it in eco-friendly items again and again.

Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries

%d bloggers like this: