If you haven’t taken a couple of minutes to watch our Good At video series, now’s your chance.

Your mood will thank you for it.

If you’re at Mesh today, please stop by and play a game of RIGHTSLEEVE Road Hockey.

RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.

Our annual client party and product showcase is always a high point of the year for RIGHTSLEEVE.

We get to hang out with our clients, enjoy good company, and have fun with SWAG. 

Here are shots of the exclusive SWAG 2.0 2013 Merchandise Collection featured at the event.

To see more pictures from the event, check out full the full gallery on Facebook.

Made in Canada

There are many factors that play into purchasing decisions.

Here are some off the top of my head: availability, style, colour, recommendations, mood, sizing, quality, price, past experience, where it’s made, what it’s made with, and working conditions.

I’m sure you could easily tack on another dozen if you brainstormed for a minute or two.

Think about going through that list right now and ordering the factors from most important to least important to your purchase.

Now, imagine you did the exact same ordering exercise two years ago.

And, that you’ll do it again two years from now.

Chances are the list would be ordered differently each time. You’d be in different financial circumstances, surrounded by a different environment, have varying external demands on your time and your money.

Really, who hasn’t grabbed something out of a closet or drawer and muttered to themselves “What was I thinking?”

Like much of the world, we’ve been following the coverage of the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh. We’ve watched the rescue efforts,the coverage, and the subsequent response from the public.  A lot of purchasing decisions went into creating those circumstances and people are questioning those decisions right now – from corporate as well as individual levels.

Some people are calling for boycotts some are saying that boycotts aren’t the answer.

Still other people are saying that the solution lies in purchasing North American made clothing.  (And, while we’re proponents of buying North American made clothing such as American Apparel or Redwood Classics the truth of the matter is that we don’t have the production capacity in North America to handle the volume required if people switched en mass.)

All of this leaves purchasers with their heads spinning.  Understandably so.

So, what do you do?

You strike a balance.

A balance between price and labour conditions.

A balance between quality and availability.

A balance between the factors, and this is key, that are important to you.

So, think about it.

Take some time to figure out what’s important to you today and start there.

If you want to have a conversation about it, let us know on Facebook. We’d love to chat.

Ask a half-dozen companies how they do their swag planning and you’ll get a dozen different answers. In part, it’s because swag ordering is done within different departments for different reasons at different times of the year. Oh, and often those different departments don’t talk with each other about what they’re ordering.

I like to refer to the resultant approach as the “slap a logo on it” method. Whereby you find a product and, well, slap your logo on it.

There’s a better way. Read the rest of this entry »

Winter might be holding on with clenched teeth, but in our minds, we’re sipping mai tai’s on the beach.

If you’re not already thinking about your upcoming promotional products needs, we’re here to help get you moving.

We’ve gathered a list of items that you should be thinking about for the upcoming season. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t worry, it happens to everyone at one point or another.

You don’t need to be ashamed.

Your swag just got a little boring. Really, it happens.

Fortunately, we know ways to fix it.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to say more about this new video series from RIGHTSLEEVE, but really, the video already says it all.

Please watch it on rightsleeve.com or subscribe on our YouTube channel.

RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.

We are always on the look-out for what is trending in the retail space to ensure the products we recommend will delight and wow the end recipient. With that in mind, we’ve identified three products that we think are going to be big for spring & summer 2013.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not sure why, but chiropractic services always seems to be one of those modern professions that is likened to snake-oil salesmen of the past.

People either seem to love it or hate it.

Now, I for one am a believer in chiropractic, but I usually ask my providers if they also get adjustments.

I suppose I want to know that they believe in their profession.

The same goes for most things, I suppose:

Does my doctor eat her vegetables?
Does my phone provider use their own service?

So, does RIGHTSLEEVE believe in the power of swag for our own marketing?

You bet we do.

And, I’m going to dissect our recent holiday campaign to show you how we approached it.
Read the rest of this entry »

“What makes a successful Camp clothing & merchandise program,” you ask?

Well, thanks for asking. No, really! Thanks.

A lot of people assume they know what makes a good clothing program but they miss a few key elements. Read the rest of this entry »