Banner Short, the head of our promotional products department was recently interviewed for an article in COUNSELOR magazine, which is published by the Advertising Specialties Institute. The article examines how amid economic constraints, some employees, consumers and marketers are giving high quality logoed apparel a second look.

Read the full article here: The Case for Apparel

article excerpt… The biggest catalyst is fit, says Short. “You want people to ultimately wear your promo items” so advising clients to purchase items that are actually cut well will pay back in terms of return-on-investment. American Apparel, for example, is perfect for the younger generation “because of their cut, material and trendy image.” For company gifts, Short recommends Cutter & Buck and Tommy Bahama.”These brands already have high perceived value because the public is already used to seeing them in golf pro shops and high-end retail outlets,” says Short.

Surely in the plot for Field of Dreams PART II Kevin Costner sells advertising on his cornfield homerun wall to start making some good money and then in the end his stadium cornfield is bought out by American Airlines. It’s the American dream, just like baseball!

Our new media world is not too different from that… and is just what that WSJ article examines. It’s not surprising that developing a great product and giving it away for free is a great way to build a new media empire.  Just take a look around: Google, Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, etc.  It was pretty safe to say that as long as you built a rabid following with thousands of users, you know.. If you build it, they would come.

However, from what the WSJ article suggests the well is perhaps drying.  Maybe that is just more “bad economy talk” (zzzZZZZ) but everything does change, especially in this industry. It’s true that Google is killing more companies that it’s buying or creating. And what has worked in the past won’t always work in the future and in this industry the future is next quarter.