A sold-out crowd jammed into the beautiful Keep Memory Alive Center in Las Vegas to experience a full day of inspiring insights shared by some of the boldest and bravest in the business! 

In today’s episode of the skucast, we’re bringing you a live session from skucon 2023, recorded just this past Sunday, and it’s called The Tipping Point: In three, brief 10 min interviews, we’ll talk with three distributors who have each experienced a turning point in their business, we’ll uncover the challenges they faced, the obstacles they overcame, and the tipping point that led to their growth.

Tom Rector (Founder and CEO) and his team at ScreenBroidery grew over 143% from 2021 to 2022, and along the way, they created a pretty special experience: A Shark Tank Experience bringing together clients and suppliers.

Today, we talk with Tom about their phenomenal growth, his advice for entrepreneurs during uncertain economic times, and a little something he calls, “Storytelling Land.” Join us!

Jeremy Parker began in the business just like many of you did: hoofing it, old-school style, knocking on doors, cold calling customers, and landing business. Today, we talk about how swag.com has soared from $300k in sales to nearly $40 million in a span of seven years and how an award-winning documentarian became the co-founder of swag.com

Jorge began working for Hirsch in 2010, straight out of high school, after meeting Hirch vice president Paul Hirsch on the soccer field. He started as a production assistant and after 12 years of mastering every machine in the building, from the print machines to the forklift, he’s now the Lead Production Manager. Jorge, or George, is an integral asset to the back of house at Hirsch, and, according to Director of Sales and Marketing, Brittany Frase, “he still makes the best box of anyone on the floor.”

At skucamp, the leaders of three of the industry’s largest suppliers joined Catherine Graham, commonsku’s Co-founder and CEO on stage to answer audience questions and discuss the state of the industry now and in the future. The panel featured David Nicholson - Vice Chairman at PCNA, Dan Pantano, President & CEO at AlphaBroder Prime, and Jonathan Isaacson, Chairman, and CEO at Gemline.

Part of the commonsku crew took to the road to ramble our way down Texas highway 290, threading through Houston, Austin, and Dallas. Mark Graham (commonsku’s President and Chief Brand Officer), Bobby Lehew (Chief Content Officer), and Dave Shultz (VP of Supplier Partnerships) decided to put all our talk about community into action. By the trip’s end, we visited with over 80 friends through tours, dinners, and meetings and consumed more Tex-Mex and brisket than one should probably have in a lifetime.

Landon Wade, the owner of Goodson Clothing Supply, and his team are reinventing the way we think about branded merch, business partnerships, and transparency.

They believe that the product you choose to carry your brand name speaks values and the old way of choosing merch is broken.

Chuck Hammond bought the family-owned business back in 2003. At that time, there were 15 employees, and today, Raining Rose employs over 300 full-time and 150 contract employees.

Raining Rose was an early adopter of everything sustainable: they received their LEED certification in 2015, and were designated a B Corp in 2016. Raining Rose has appeared on Fortune’s annual 100 Fastest-Growing Inner City Businesses an impressive 10 times since 2005, and they were 8 times on the Inc 5,000 list.

Gemma Aguiar is Founder and CEO of Design Like Whoa, a women-led and San Francisco-based agency with a design-forward focus who makes sustainability attainable for their clients.

Attendees from all over the globe rolled into the beautiful borough of Brooklyn last week. From Hawaii, Australia, and Great Britain, and from West Coast to East Coast, skucampers descended on Brooklyn’s Ace Hotel to make vital connections with new friends and learn crucial tips to help grow their business and sharpen their leadership skills.

Kate Hallett is the Chief Marketing Officer at Harper + Scott. She has over ten years of integrated marketing experience with a proven track record for growing businesses. Kate is a passionate storyteller with disciplines across multiple industries, including enterprise and late-stage startups in both B2B and B2C environments.

Dan Pantano is the President and CEO of alphabroder – Prime Line, one of the foremost leaders in the industry. With more than 90,000 customers, they ship over 50,000 boxes and more than a million units of product a day. It’s a massive operation, and we chat with Dan about some of the most pressing issues facing alphabroder and our industry.

Ben Pawsey is the VP of Marketing at HPG, one of the largest promotional products suppliers in North America, comprising 10 specialist brands including Hub, Origaudio, Debco, and more.

What if you had a colleague in your company who suggested that from now on, you wouldn’t charge for shipping? And now, what if that colleague was the boss? Because that’s exactly what happened when Matt Fischer suggested in a board meeting with his team, that they implement a no charge for shipping policy, and after the idea was met with stunned silence and finally agreement: they did.

Cutter and Buck is a brand many of us are familiar with but like so many of our trusted partners, we know so much about their product and so little about their company, which is why we love talking with folks like our guest today, Joel Freet the CEO at Seattle-based Cutter & Buck.

Isaac Hetzroni moved to Bali, and is now leading a global team. He rebranded his company with a new vision, and they have a new direction all focused around smart sourcing, which is an interesting and bold move as a UVP because his mission sits right in the heart of the supply chain at a very complex time.

In this podcast episode, Ally Delgado will talk about Merchology’s meteoric rise in sales growth, their evolution from an online-only player to a fully consultative and service-driven company, their expansion into more sustainable practices, their brand Zusa, and more!

The skummunity awards were created to honor the explorers, rule-breakers, dreamers, and innovators in the branded merchandise industry.

Being transparent with customers about the limitations, while also exploring alternatives is what we, as an industry, have always done best.