Tag Archives: promotional

Ash City Partners With American Breast Cancer Foundation

7 Dec

Ash City USA – one of the leaders in eco-friendly apparel for the promotional items market – is partnering with the American Breast Cancer Foundation through their new “We’re Thinking Pink” campaign.

From the Ash City website, “Ash City USA is proud to announce it has become a supporter in the fight against breast cancer. With the recent launch of our “We’re Thinking Pink” campaign, we are joining in the fight to help fund research for the American Breast Cancer Foundation to help find a cure.

Money raised helps provide individuals, their families and their loved ones in financial need with direct financial assistance, education, support, and access to early detection screenings. ABCF supports research for innovative diagnostic, treatment and patient support methods through leading medical institutions.”

The deal is if you purchase any apparel or accessory item from Ash City and have your order decorated with the ABCF pink ribbon, Ash City will make a donation to the ABCF. Or, and this is even better, pick any pink product identified with the pink ribbon symbol in the Ash City catalog (no embroidery required) and Ash City will again make a donation to the ABCF. Here is a link to the press release.

Currently Ash City carries over 27 different styles in ABCF Pink, including eco-friendly items like the LADIES’ RECYCLED POLYESTER FLEECE FULL-ZIP JACKET (75% recycled polyester/25% polyester 4.9oz./yd2/165gsm anti-pill fleece. Overlay trim: 100% recycled polyester EQP $47.90), and LADIES’ ORGANIC COTTON/SPANDEX JERSEY LONG SLEEVE CREW (94% organic cotton/6% spandex jersey, 5.2 oz./yd2/175 gsm EQP $33.90).

For more information on this great campaign please contact Chris Clark at Ash City USA. If you are looking to purchase Ash City clothing for your own ABCF event or any other purpose, please contact your local promotional items distributor or email info@proformagreen.com for samples and pricing.

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Owl Line Expands Into Recycled Leather

3 Dec

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.

Owl brand bags made from 100% Post-Consumer recycled PET Fabric have been a very popular line in the promotional products industry since their introduction in 2008. Now, in time for the holidays, the Owl brand is expanding into a full range of items made from recycled bonded leather, to include wine totes, computer bags, mouse pads, and fine wallets.

What is recycled bonded leather? According to the website for OWL Promo,  OWL™ recycled bonded leather is “truly unique in the market. No paper, wood or other fillers, just 100% leather fibers. Leather fibers are bonded together with natural rubber from the rubber tree – no toxic chemicals or harsh glues are used. Colors come from natural tanning oils and vegetable tannins derived from tree bark, fruits, leaves and roots. All dyes and pigments used are lead free. So only OWL™ recycled leather has the look, feel, and aroma of natural, full grain leather.”

Continue reading →

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A Better Messenger Bag And Day-Timer

4 Jun

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.

Spring is in the air and with it the spring line up of new eco-friendly promotional items. Here are a few stand outs from Leeds.

The first of the new items of note is the Tempo 100% Recycled PET Urban Messenger Bag from Leeds. This thing is 100% recycled PET (old water bottles, that type of thing) but you would not know it to look at it. Yes it is green, but it also has some great lines and is a very functional messenger. The Tempo is also manufactured in the US (which helps its total carbon footprint) and it is certified made from eco materials.

EQP on the Tempo 100% Recycled PET Urban Messenger Bag is $8.92 with one color imprint. That is a great price for this good sized H 11.17″ x W 4.33″ x L 15.25″ bag. Again, where is this cost premium everyone is talking about to “go green”?

The Tempo is a solid marketing choice for any Ecopreneurist focusing on a number of audiences such as the urban commuter, the college crowd, or even forward looking IT firms.

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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Voltaic Systems Offers Four Bags in 2009

5 Mar

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.

Voltaic Systems is offering four bags in 2009. Voltaic bag are really mobile solar power generators designed to charge virtually all hand held electronics. They are a great item for ecopreneurists working in remote locations or with businesses needing to work remotely.

A Voltaic bag will keep your phone charged and give you enough power to use your laptop and PDA when away from traditional power sources.

The Voltaic website proclaims that “embedded in the outside of these solar chargers are lightweight, tough, waterproof solar panels. The new Generator produces up to 15 watts, powerful enough to fully charge a typical laptop from a day of direct sunlight. No other solar bag can do this! The smaller bags produce 4 watts of power so 1 hour in direct sun will power over 3 hours of iPod play time or 1.5 hours of cell phone talk time.”

Another bonus is that fabrics used to make the bags themselves are made from recycled PET i.e. soda bottles.

What are the drawbacks? Mainly price. Even at EQP the Backpack model shown runs $226. There are a number of less expensive solar-charger-only products on the promotional items market, however the Voltaic line is certainly at the top with regards to quality, usability, performance and power.

Take a look at their whole line on their website. The site also has more background on Voltaic’s commitment to the environment. Voltaic does sell individual bags to retail customers, however if you are looking for a group buy for branded items I suggest you contact your local promotional items dealer or us at proformagreen.com.

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Green Gifts Ideas from an Ecopreneurist Part 2

6 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.

Ecopreneurist.com asked me to post a few more ideas on what an Ecopreneurist might give for the holidays.

I wanted to approach the idea from two points. First, I am in the promotional items business. For our industry the main purpose of gift giving is to say thank you to the clients you have done business with in the past year, and to keep your name in front of those clients so that they do business with you next year.

Second, as an Econpreneurist gift giving gives my business a chance to show off our green credentials but also – maybe – influence our clients, not all of whom are green, about becoming more green in their own businesses.

In this article I want to point out two everyday items your clients likely already use that are now being produced with eco-friendly materials and that would make great end of the year client gifts.

Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner – Did you know that Day-Timer now makes an eco version of their most popular portable planner? The Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner from Leed’s is an example of a very useful, very popular and well regarded brand that is now available in a new green formula.

The rich bonded leather cover is made from recycled leather fibers and natural latex and includes nickel-free rings and zipper pulls. Recycled paper used in the planner is certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Other than that it is a standard Day-Timer® featuring two-page-per week format, with each day’s space including areas for to do list, appointments, diary, monthly tabbed calendar/dividers, loose-leaf address and phone directory, monthly planning pages, set of reference sheets, etc.

The usefulness of the Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner makes it a great gift because people will use it and hang on to it, plus in 2009 you can send your client a refill of the inside planner pages, giving you both an opportunity to touch your client again and promote a core green idea of reuse. Day-Timer® Eco Zippered Portable Planner runs about $39 including your organization or company logo. Continue reading →

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Soy Candles, Ideas from PPAI Tradeshow

10 Oct

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.

All you North American eco hotels, yoga studios, cafes, craft shops and spas, rejoice. There is finally a US company making soy candles in the US from US materials that can do large scale runs.

Decarte Products pronounced “Da Kart” specializes in creating a premium fragrance 100% soy candle, and they were at the Promotional Products Association International event in Fort Worth showing off their new line.

The best thing about this company – aside from the US manufacturing – is that they specialize in candles only, unlike most other manufactures that carry candles, if at all, as an after thought.

Why soy? Continue reading →

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JournalBooks: Eco Beauty by Design

7 Oct

Custom JournalThis 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.

JournalBooks is doing stunning custom work with nearly 100% total recycled materials in their notebook and spiral journal products.

Really some of their stuff is just flat amazing and a great way to take green printing and marketing to a whole new level.

For printing JournalBooks uses plant based inks which they claim are better than soy based inks for reproduction quality and are harmless to the environment.

JournalBooks compares the impact of their plant based inks to that of vegetable oil.

The JournalBook Classic journals have 100% recycled covers. Even the poly covers – recycled milk cartons – in the classic line are completely recycled. Continue reading →

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New Generation of BPA Free Bottles Aims at Spas and Gyms

3 Oct

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.

I mentioned before in this blog that the gym and spa industry is one of the main buyers of sport bottles. It makes sense, sign-up for a membership, get a water bottle and t-shirt.

I also mentioned that the BPA scare pretty much halted the market for plastic gym bottles. This was an event especially felt by eco-friendly gyms, yoga studios and spas that had been using bottles as giveaway items. Many businesses gave up on plastic altogether and moved to aluminum or steel bottles.

Well the industry is fighting back with BPA free bottles especially designed for gyms – like Glass America’s 19 oz. Treadmill BPA Free Bottle – bottles designed with wide mouths and easy grips.

These new bottles also have the words “BPA free” imprinted directly on them to make sure the audience does not miss the fact these are “safe” bottles.

We will see how well these new bottle designs do. It is nice to see the industry bouncing back in this area and at the same time moving forward on green products.

For more information on BPA free bottles from Glass America please visit their website or visit us at Proformagreen.com.

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Seed Paper: GreenWashing or Saving the Planet?

23 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.

A number of manufacturers are working on natural (non-dyed) paper impregnated with seeds. The idea is that if you plant items made of these papers flowers or trees will grow.

Bloomin’ Promotions and Seed Cards are two manufactures doing this type of thing.

I really don’t know what to make of this idea.

If properly used I am sure they would be a great learning tool, perhaps in an educational setting – write a letter to the planet, plant the letter in the school yard and see it live – that type of thing. Continue reading →

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