New Products and Trends for 2018

Millennials and Tech products are the driving force behind the popular products and trends for 2018.

The promotional products industry is rooted in traditional customizable products like pens, stress balls, drinkware and office gadgets. Many of the original products are still relevant heading into 2018 but, this year some of the popular new products and trends offer a more sophisticated evolved product from the traditional versions. Some are also brand new due to break through technology and pop culture trends. These products are game changers!

According to ASI, some new products to the industry include:

Smart Shirts – Companies that are already well-known in the apparel industry like Nike, have partnered with tech companies to bring smart shirts to consumers. These offer cutting-edge technology and bring the ease and comfort of our go-to smart devices to our apparel. Levis and Google partnered up to create a new commuter Jacket, shown here, that will quickly become a necessity to urban cyclists. This jacket will allow them to monitor their heart rate, answer calls and follow gps directions. How cool!

Iridescent Drinkware – Millennials have been identified to be attracted to patterns, bright colors and metallics. This line of drink ware was designed to be attractive to new millennial buyers.

Wireless headphones – Do you have a new iPhone yet? How about a Motorola? Well, in case you are not aware they’ve done away with the headphone jack in these new smartphones so, bluetooth headphones are a must this year.

In addition to the market and industry trends, we have some trends locally at The Gear Group. We have been doing a lot with custom Yetis in 2017 and that trend will continue into the new year. The most popular Yeti product that we sell is the 20 oz. tumbler etched with a logo or message.We also see the trend of pop sockets holding strong. Those are the handy little gadgets that you can attach to the back of your phone to prop it up or hold your phone.

As far as decoration methods, we have recently seen an increase in orders for our embroidery department. Our corporate clients are loving embroidered office gear and some are getting creative with us and pairing decoration methods to create a unique design. For example, hats with patches and direct embroidery. Or, bags with screen printing and embroidery. We have been fortunate to work on some fun projects!

As far as declining trends, fidget spinners are definitely loosing steam, but we see more “fidget gadgets” coming out as time goes on with buttons, switches and such to keep hands busy. So we will continue to follow that into the new year. Thanks for your interest in The Gear Group, we are looking forward to 2018.