Hanes is adding four new T shirt styles to its successful Cool-DRI range for men and women this Spring. Hanes Cool-DRI Performance wear is made from an extremely light and stretchy polyester fabric with a bird-eyelet construction offering superior moisture and temperature control.

It was “all for onesies, and onesies for all” at Beechfield Brands HQ on ‘Red Nose Day’ this year, as the company’s office staff came dressed for work in their favourite onesie to raise money for the Comic Relief appeal.

Printwear & Promotion LIVE was a key show for Your Embroidery Services Ltd who used it to launch three products – DTG Digital’s The Blizzard, the MAN-12 from SWF and Trans Slam, the latest in transfer printing paper.

Trutex Limited, one of the best known and long-established brands in the school uniform market, has acquired John Hall Schoolwear, a UK based specialist school uniform manufacturing business located in Rochdale, Lancashire. 

The winners of this year's Printwear & Promotion Garment Decoration Awards were announced this week at Printwear & Promotion LIVE in Birmingham.

The show, now in its third day, in Hall 12, at the NEC, is topping last year's visitor numbers, with a 9 per cent increase on day two, compared with the same day last year. First day figures were similarly encouraging - up by 7 per cent on the first day last year.

Promotional products manufacturer, Listawood, has appointed Graham Winter as European sales director. Formerly managing director at PF Concept UK, Graham brings over 25 years of industry experience to his new role. 

Printwear & Promotion LIVE opened on Sunday (February 24th) with a record number of visitors flooding through the doors. The first day attendance of 2000 visitors represented a 7 per cent increase on day one last year.

The show, which runs from Sunday through to Tuesday (February 24-26) in Hall 12 of the NEC, Birmingham, is our biggest and best for many years, with more than 120 stands.

This year’s show is a total brand-fest, with all of the biggest brands in the industry on board, from Gildan, Anvil and American Apparel, to Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Stedman, Continental Clothing, Regatta Professional, Henbury, Beechfield and the industry’s key distributors all showcasing their latest garments.

There are always plenty of good deals to be had at Printwear & Promotion LIVE (Hall 12, NEC, Birmingham, February 24-26)*. This year is no exception. Check out the deals, discounts, special offers and prizes being offered by exhibitors at this year’s show…

Join us for our big night out in Birmingham with tribute acts ‘Kylie’, ‘Michael Buble’ and the Night at the Movies cabaret. Sunday, February 24^th, 7.30pm until late.

An action-packed seminar programme awaits visitors to Printwear & Promotion LIVE (February 24th-26th, NEC, Birmingham). And for 2013, there's a new twist, with live demonstrations and the chance to get some hands-on experience with guidance from some of the industry's top experts. For our 2013 show, we welcome presentations by Target Transfers, Resolute DTG, Roland DG, Wilcom Europe and Wicked Printing Stuff...

BTC activewear's joint managing directors, Glenn Hyams and Charles Grose, have stepped down after many years helping to build the successful multi brand distribution business.

With four months to go and already, 90% of the stand space sold (having increased the floorspace twice), Printwear & Promotion LIVE 2013 promises to be our biggest and best show in many a year. And, you are guaranteed to see the biggest names in the industry alongside some new and exciting names and technology.

Russell, via its Jerzees Schoolgear brand, used The Schoolwear Show in October to showcase its new range of hoodies for 2013, while sportswear brand Spalding introduced the latest member of its One Team range.

It's time to start thinking about your entries for the prestigious 2013 Printwear & Promotion Garment Decoration Awards which showcase the very best in promotional garment decoration, from screen, transfer and sublimation printing to embroidery or a combination of embellishments.

Russell is delighted to announce that a selection of garments from its schoolwear range, Jerzees Schoolgear, is now available from Knightsbridge’s most famous store, Harrods.

Direct to Garment specialist, Resolute DTG Ltd has joined forces with Chameleon Ink. The alliance not only brings another popular brand of direct to garment ink into the Resolute line, it brings new equipment to the promotional market exclusive to Resolute.

SF (Skinnifit) has launched a new on-trend polo shirt. The Thick and Thin polo comes in two colours – black and blue for both men (SF049) and women (SK049).

Printwear supplier, Blue Max Banner, has agreed to buy the trademarks and business of the Snowgoose brand from Rowlinson Knitwear with effect from September 20, 2012.

Hanesbrands Europe GmbH, a leading European company for printable corporate clothing, is now operating under the new name Smartwares Printables GmbH. The British company, Hanesbrands UK Ltd, will bear the name Smartwares Printables Ltd. The change of name follows in accordance with the recent acquisition by Smartwares Holding.

New from Regatta Professional is a range of eight street smart jackets and midlayers which are not only extremely hardwearing and feature all the pockets you would ever need but they look really stylish too! Designed with the White Van Man in mind, this range offers styles that will keep up with their daily working routine, whilst still looking good to go down to the pub at the end of the day.

AWDis began life as a hoods only brand but as devotees know, this has changed a lot over the past few years with the inclusion of zip front Zoodies and five designs of Jogpants plus the Just Cool and Just Sub polyester shirt collections.

The new Premier ‘Highlights’ range is set to take the imprint market by storm. A unique twist on Premier’s best-selling range of black aprons, ‘Highlights’ aprons feature a clever use of colour that will make any uniform stand out from the crowd.

Stunning raised effect embroidery is now another garment decorating service available from Evolve Branding. This new process gives a richer, bolder almost 3D look that is particularly suitable for simpler designs and logos with strong definition, which due to the preparation and amount of stitching involved is best used on heavier based garments such as jackets and body warmers, as well as baseball caps and bags. It is not recommended for T shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies etc. 

Aachen-based Hanesbrands Europe GmbH, one of the leading companies in Europe for printable corporate clothing, together with its related company Hanesbrands UK Ltd, were taken over on May 29, 2012. The 100% subsidiaries of the US Hanesbrands Inc. corporate group have been sold to the Dutch consumer goods group Smartwares Holding. The new owner will continue to operate and expand Hanesbrands Europe GmbH and Hanesbrands UK Ltd, as an independent group. All staff members are to be retained and the company HQ will remain in Aachen, Germany.

Gildan Activewear Inc has agreed to acquire 100% of the common shares of Anvil Holdings for a total purchase price of approximately $88 million. The acquisition will be financed by utilization of Gildan’s bank credit facility. Gildan will not assume any of Anvil’s currently outstanding indebtedness.

Clothing brand Regatta has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2012. This is one of the UK’s most prestigious accolades for performance in business in the UK and overseas.

UK leading trade-only promotional bag supplier Crazy:Bags has struck a unique alliance with global promotional bag manufacturer and specialist, Halfar. Since May 1, UK distributors now have unlimited access to the full range of Halfar products whilst working with a trusted and established UK based brand.

MHM Direct GB are now an official UK dealer for Brother Digital Garment Printers and are offering the full range, including the all new GT-3 Series. This new series has been designed following five years of feedback from garment printers all over the world.

Blue Max Banner has announced the expansion of its Quality Control department at the head office in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The new department increased from one member of staff to a team of three from March. The dedicated full-time personnel will report to Chris Whitby, commercial director.

Giving customers the right tools to develop their business is key, according to the UK’s largest printwear distributor, Ralawise. DEBBIE EALES chats to Ralawise Marketing Services Manager FRAZER HYNES on the distributor’s innovative marketing tools stand at Printwear & Promotion Live.

We are delighted to announce the winners and runners-up in the 2012 Printwear & Promotion Garment Decoration Awards, which attracted a bumper crop of entries. The awards were announced at this year's Printwear & Promotion Live at Birmingham's NEC, when editor, Debbie Eales presented the winning entrants with trophies kindly provided by Crystal Galleries.

Details follow, but please see the April issue of Printwear & Promotion for full story.

Roland Authorised Dealer, Tyne and Wear-based Radecal, has recently added the Roland EGX engraver range to its growing portfolio of Roland technologies.

Day three of Printwear & Promotion Live has just opened on a high with stands reporting brisk business, solid orders and hundreds of potential new customers.

And the great news is that this year’s show (which continues today, Tuesday) in Hall 12 at Birmingham’s NEC looks set to be a record breaker with visitor numbers up a whopping 10% over the first two days.

There’s plenty to see and do, with a full, information rich seminar programme, three great fashion shows a day and all the biggest names in printwear, decoration machinery and associated supplies.

Plus, you never know who you’re going to bump into at Printwear & Promotion Live. Yesterday, we had a visit from Coronation Street actor, Sam Aston, who plays Chesney Brown in the popular soap.

With the promise of 100 stands, some exciting new printwear brands, a host of first time exhibitors, the latest machinery and a strong focus on teamwear, ahead of the London Olympics, Printwear & Promotion Live 2012 is going to be a cracking show! The show takes place at the NEC, Birmingham, from February 26th to 28th.

Printwear & Promotion Live (February 26-28, Hall 12, NEC, Birmingham), is always a good opportunity to take advantage of special show offers and discounts. Some of our exhibitors are also offering free samples, competitions and prize draws. See details below*

Printwear & Promotion Live 2012 features an action packed, free seminar programme and for the first time, we will be running daily at noon, an industry-leading keynote seminar presented by Continental Clothing, Fujifilm Sericol and The Soil Association.

All presentations will take place in the seminar suite from Sunday, February 26^th to Tuesday, February 28^th (see timings below).

A new product has been added for 2012 under the DecoNetwork product umbrella. The DecoKiosk allows custom decorator to open a physical store virtually anywhere. Run on DecoNetwork as a platform, the DecoKiosk utilises DecoNetwork’s interactive Online Designer as well a powerful back-end allowing DecoNetwork users to centrally manage their products, payments and shipping instantly.

EcoPrint 2012, a new print industry event dedicated to sustainable print production, has announced that Mimaki Europe is the latest organisation to become a founding exhibitor and supporter. As a founding exhibitor, Mimaki Europe will also take its seat among other industry leaders on the EcoPrint Development Group, where it will play a key part in defining and refining the event.

Beechfield is sponsoring a gruelling fundraising trip to Mount Everest that could see the brand’s B181 Coolmax Sports Cap occupying the highest point on earth. 

To celebrate the St. James's Place Wealth Management Group’s 20th year in business, the company’s charitable arm – St. James's Place Foundation – is aiming to raise £500,000 through a sponsored 120-mile trek to Everest Base Camp, (following the route taken by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953), and a subsequent attempt on the summit. The money raised will be used to fund a multitude of projects that help children with special needs, and hospices.

Stocks Sewing Machines have opened an Embroidery Academy in partnership with Embroidery Design Solutions, offering training on Wilcom products and embroidery techniques. Stocks are one of the largest UK independent suppliers of Industrial and commercial embroidery equipment. They are sole UK and Ireland agents for ZSK industrial embroidery machines for the UK and Ireland, and also supply the Brother PR range.

For a business that started in a garage 30 years ago, Somac Threads hasn’t done too badly. The Chester-based, family-run firm sets the bar for quality threads, great customer service and keeping the tradition of UK thread manufacturing very much alive. DEBBIE EALES reports.

Philip Penlington, director of Fotorama, one of the UK’s leading and longest established fixed fee promotions companies believes that contrary to media reports there will be many superb opportunities in 2012 for marketers to run exciting sports-linked promotions – without the danger of acquiring a criminal record...