Trends & Fresh Promo Ideas for 2021

Every January, PPAI Expo — the largest trade show in the promotional products industry — comes to Las Vegas. This year, for obvious reasons, the trade show became a virtual event. While we missed seeing our vendor partners in person, we were still able to get a sampling of what’s new, fresh, and trending in promotional products going into 2021. Here’s a look at some of the highlights we previewed at last week’s conference:

PPE Reigns Supreme

PPE & other Covid-related products remain top of mind right now, and it’s no surprise, given that we’ll need to continue masking, washing & sanitizing our hands, and maintaining social distancing, even with the new vaccine being distributed.

Our suppliers continue to expand their options for popular items like face masks and hand sanitizer, as well as complimentary products like mask holders, “ear savers,” and various sanitizing products. But here are a few stand-out items we saw this year:

Car Visor Mask Holder

Keep clean masks always within reach when you’re out and about with this unique & super useful item. When you don’t need masks any more, it also doubles as a Kleenex dispenser!

Mask Cases

Instead of keeping masks crumpled up in purses or bags, have one safely stored on-hand wherever you go!

Sanitizer Pens & Antimicrobial Pens

Everyone always needs pens; antimicrobial pens include a coating that resists growth of bacteria & other microorganisms. And now, a few options also incorporate a sanitizer spray dispenser! Talk about an ideal two-in-one product.

Masks & Sanitizer

Custom face masks (with TONS of new options & styles) and hand sanitizer continue to be some of the most popular items. We saw lots of options and new styles for these items.

Trends: House & Home Offices

People are staying and working from home a lot more these days, so it only seems fitting that a lot of the trending products we saw this year are all about making our living and working spaces at home more enjoyable.

Items we saw & loved include bamboo serving boards (excellent for hosting an at-home charcuterie night), small planters for bringing a little green indoors, and stylish desk accessories for sprucing up your home office.

Trends: Reusable Storage

Efforts to go green continue to be a big trend amongst promotional products suppliers. This year, we not only saw additional options for reusable food storage containers, but we also saw the addition of reusable storage bags to replace plastic sandwich bags, etc.

We also love these new mesh produce bags for taking to the grocery store and cutting down on plastic produce bag waste.

Trends: Retail-Style Keepsakes

Trends that have been growing in popularity in the retail space over the last year or so are popping up in the promotional world now, for custom branding. We loved pieces like these motel-style key tags and wooden block magnets.

New Drinkware Looks

Drinkware is ALWAYS one of our favorite promotional items, because they are evergreen, always popular, and always useful. This year’s show featured some sleek new designs for water bottles, insulated tumblers, and ceramics. These are a few of our favorites for 2021:

Trend: Fun at Home

With most of us staying at home as much as possible lately, we loved these products that help liven up our time at home, whether it’s for celebrating a special occasion, or just a fun diversion.

Want to know more? Email us now at ideas@jagforms.com and let’s chat!