Where has the year gone? I know we all say that at the end of every year, but having joined the magazine in March, that now seems a lifetime ago – the best part of a year in fact by the time this issue comes out. So what has happened in the garment decoration industry in the past year?

One thing’s for sure, it seems to have been in the headlines quite a bit, if not directly then indirectly. The ethical debate has really hotted up in the past year, with a growing focus on avoiding sweatshop and ‘slave’ labour.

UKL is launching its first ever twoday trade show at its Swindon Headquarters, to take place on Thursday 17th and Friday 18th January 2008.

The Quayside Group has been appointed distributor for the Fanshirt brand.

The Manchester based Quayside Group is sole UK distributor of the JHK clothing brand and recently bought the organic clothing brand Saf.

M&R has launched HeatWave – a new gas textile dryer to bridge the gap between its infrareds and the Sprint line of gas dryers.

“HeatWave meets the needs of small to mid-sized shops torn between larger, more expensive gas dryers and the cost of bringing in the added electrical capacity necessary to run an electric dryer,” said M&R.

Midwest has been given sole UK distribution rights to the new ‘ecofriendly’ Happy HCR series of embroidery machines, which it says are so cutting edge they are flying out the door.

One material well known for its warmth and comfort is Fleece – the perfect fabric for autumn and winter times, says Gustav Daiber GmbH. The promotional wear specialist presents its micro fleece novelties in the latest James & Nicholson “Workbook 2008”.

Continental Clothing is urging the print wear industry to follow its lead and boycott the use of Uzbec cotton in promotional garments.

It follows the hard-hitting Newsnight documentary aired on BBC 2 last month, which revealed that the government of Uzbekistan – the second biggest cotton exporter in the world – uses forced child labour to pick its cotton.

The British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) has appointed a vice chair in addition to two new board members as part of its drive to increase industry expertise and support following the recent surge and demand for new membership.

If you’re attending Printwear & Promotion 2008, make sure you don’t miss out on what promises to be the industry event of the year – the newly launched Printwear & Promotion Excellence Awards and Gala Dinner.

An exhibition for pros

A new event for the European products industry, the Pro8, will be held in Amsterdam from 29 to 31 January 2008.

The show will be organised by two trade journal publishers: Het Portaal from the Netherlands and WA Publishing from Germany, whose publications include EPPI Magazine.

Organic cotton production for the 2006/2007 crop year has increased by 49%, according to PAN (Pesticide Action Network) UK.

The latest Fibre Report from the US-based Organic Exchange revealed that 58,000 tonnes of certified organic cotton were produced last year, compared to 38,000 tones the previous year, said PAN UK. There are currently 67 known active organic cotton farming projects around the world.

B&C is offering customers the chance to win gift vouchers for luxury items such as an Ipod Nano, laptop or LCD screen TV as part of its new Winter Thrills promotion.

EthicStar is now offering a new zebra print hooded zipper jacket as part of its drive to offer the garment decoration industry something different.

A new website has been launched for the entire digital printing community.

UK Digital Printing (www.ukdp.org) and its forum is an independent and free Internet networking resource portal for printers and print suppliers serving all graphical sectors, with no administrative charges, membership fees or any other hidden costs for printers.

Designed to acknowledge outstanding examples of garment (and non-garment) decoration, these awards cover a multitude of techniques within eight clearly defined categories.

The BGDF (British Garment Decorators' Forum) has been given a new look with a revamped website and forum.

A new category – Situations Vacant – has also been added. This is where job vacancies can be added online for free.

Following the success of its adult equivalent this year, Okarma has added by popular demand a children’s T-shirt to its collection. Perfectly matching the adult´s version, the new OK10B children´s tee comes in a selection of colours – white, natural, navy and olive – and is available in sizes S – XXL for ages 3 to 13.

Senator Pens’ sister company Rou Bill has extended its BIG Message family with the BIG Message XL and XL Message Light, which it says offers buyers a bigger brand canvas for greater impact.

Erbé of France, a specialist in machinery for use in textiles manufacturing, has launched a new high-tech linking machine and is now seeking European distributors.

Charlie Willis, a well-known figure in the promotional marketing industry, has joined the Promotional Marketing Exhibition team as sales consultant.

TGI Corporation, which supplies garments to the university market, has created a new division – The Hooded Top Co – to supply hooded tops to the print and embroidery marketplace.

Fluid Branding is planning to put a spring in the step of promotional campaigns with the launch of an award winning and stylish rubber radio.

Edun LIVE – the blank T-shirt brand from U2 front man Bono and his wife Ali Hewson – will be available in the UK from December 1 through Continental Clothing.

Over the past few months I've been looking into ethical issues surrounding each stage of 'The Lifecycle of a T-Shirt'. In September I travelled to India to see this 'lifecycle' for myself and witness first hand how Epona's Fairtrade, organic clothing is made – from visiting the cotton fields to seeing the spinning, knitting, dying and cut and sew operations.

Time to get tough

You’ve been following Printwear and Promotion’s climate change series, you’ve thought about taking action to reduce your business’s carbon emissions, but as yet you’ve done nothing. You haven’t progressed your business, or accepted your responsibility as an industry leader.

Printwear & Promotion has teamed up with embroidery thread manufacturer Robison Anton to bring you a new series of technical articles aimed at guiding and educating both existing and new embroiderers in this fast-paced industry. Here we introduce the company and the author, Duncan Yarnall, embroidery product manager for Robison Anton.

Is there an employee anywhere in the world who thinks they're paid enough? Equally, is there anyone who thinks their benefits package couldn't be improved?

How old is your business? You may have been established for many years or you might have started up only recently. However long you have been trading, you will realise that you are in a very competitive sector and that the choice available to the customer is becoming ever wider.

One of the reasons for the popularity of bags in promotional campaigns is that they are functional objects (as opposed to purely decorative) and can be used time and time again, generating, consolidating and enhancing brand awareness to a wide audience.

BagBase, the colourful, fashionable promotional bag brand, is launching three new Teamwear products for 2008 in response to the burgeoning demand for team-related apparel and imprintable products.

Available exclusively through BTC activewear, the Shugon range of quality bags is growing yet again for 2008.
From its business category, Shugon’s Windsor Laptop Wheelie Bag is ideal for cabin luggage and features a removable pouch for laptops up to 15.4ins. Ideal for decoration with a large 20x10cm area available, the 1680D polyester bag has a 28- litre capacity and a sturdy handle.

TheMagicTouch has further extended its range of bags, holdalls and accessories suitable for personalised decoration using the digital image transfer process.

PenCarrie’s bag collection is broad: more than 120 styles are available. Brands featured include Quadra (with over 70 styles in total), BagBase (38 designs),Westford Mill (a good ‘basics’ collection of 10) and Tour Collection (with two bags matching its ‘country flag’ clothing range). Overall, PenCarrie says the bags it offers are a great source of inspiration to decorators: with everything from washbags and wallets (useful add-on sales) through to business suiters and laptop bags and on to picnic backpacks and cooler bags.

The bags sector of our industry is one which has maintained steady growth over the last few years, with many different opportunities for printing and embroidery available. From schools to the work place, exhibitions to leisure clubs the environments bags are appropriate for are vast and many.

Westford Mill, the value bag brand, is adding two Jute shopping bags to its 2008 collection. Both styles offer a stylish natural alternative to disposable plastic shopping bags, and are priced and specified to target the high volume end of the promotional bags market.

Quadra says its new Tungsten collection raises the imprintable business bag to a new level in 2008. “Each Tungsten design combines high calibre specifications and a functional features set with tone-on-tone styling that exudes executive class,” it says. Whether in the boardroom, a business class departure lounge, or the seat of a chauffeur driven BMW, a Tungsten bag says all the right things about its owner, says Quadra.

Worldwide product recalls have made front page headlines and cast doubts in the minds of potential customers on standards of manufacturing in China.

The multi-billion dollar global fashion company Gap has admitted that it may have unknowingly used child labour in the production of a line of children's clothing in India.

The end of 2007 is nearly upon us and no doubt with a glass of Champagne in one hand and a party popper in the other, our thoughts at the end of December will soon turn to this year's achievements and our aspirations for 2008.

Subli Nation is an official dealer of Sawgrass Artainium dye sublimation inks and the George Knight range of digital heat presses; and stocks a large range of dye sublimation blanks including the Unisub, Vapour Apparel and Subli soft ranges.

As distributors of Sawgrass ArTainium sublimation inks, TheMagicTouch says it offers clients a comprehensive insight as to the sales and marketing of image transfer.

Dye Sublimation is the easiest and probably one of the most versatile methods of digital printing but there are pitfalls and prospective customers should be aware of a few simple ground rules.

XP307 Nylo Flex was introduced this year as a new and easy to use cuttable material for application to 100% nylon products including jackets, bags and umbrellas. Manufactured with a mild sticky backing for easy weeding and application, 10 colours make up the range of 20- metre and 5-metre rolls.

With 27 years of experience as the UK’s number one digital transfer specialists, Xpres continues to introduce exciting new products to its advanced line of sublimation technology.

Having a website is now a staple requirement of almost every business; at its bare minimum it should reinforce your corporate identity, tell your potential customers what you do and also provide a means of contacting you. Assuming that you’ve ticked these boxes, your next objectives should certainly include the following points:

There has never been a better time to try to get your message across via the powerful publicity medium that is bags. Indeed, at the moment, displaying your corporate message or logo on a carrier bag is very much in vogue.

As 2007 draws to a close, looking back it has been an interesting and eventful year for PROMOTA.
2007 started with an extremely successful PROMOTA show. The show itself was warmly received by all and around 1,000 distributors had the opportunity to meet with over 160 supplier members exhibiting over the two days.We eagerly anticipate that our members will show as much support for the 2008 International PROMOTA show in February.

PROMOTA member, Kan-do-it, is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of promotional carrier bags and merchandise. The company believes it is possible to turn any shape into a carrier bag and, this Christmas, plans to show us exactly how.

The new Heavy Gauge Knitted caps and hats collection from Beechfield brings hot retail designs to the winter promotional headwear market, and is available from distributors now.

For 2008 the Result Headwear collection joins the ever-growing stable of leading brands at BTC activewear!
Each of the 50 styles has its own unique look and feel, yet all boast the same strength and quality that has made Result Headwear the perfect solution for easy embellishment, says BTC.

The new trade only supplier of headwear and bag solutions The Marketing Worx says it has made a big impact on the market since launching earlier in 2007.

Winter has arrived but that doesn’t mean we all have to stay locked indoors, says Gustav Daiber, whose headwear brand Myrtle Beach offers practical caps, hats or beanies to protect heads from the cold.

Why are baseball caps so popular? Amar Sandhu of International Insignia looks at the phenomenon, which has arisen in the UK over the last 50 years

Hats are perfect promotional items, says PenCarrie’s marketing manager David Abraham. “Printed or embroidered with logos or slogans, they can be given away at events; sold as souvenirs at visitor attractions such as theme parks; or used as part of a staff uniform.

From visors and caps for the summer, to chunky knit hats for the winter, Ralawise has a range of headwear for all seasons.

With a large number of fashion influenced styles introduced to the already extensive collection of headwear in 2007, the range mixes new and ‘classic’ existing styles well and offers something for all customers.

Brian Clough taught us how to play football, Paul Smith taught us what to wear, and a ratio of seven women to every man led us to believe there was no better Saturday night out this side of the Yum Yum Club, Amsterdam.