If you left Las Vegas last week with your feet throbbing and your notebook full, you felt it too. This year's PPAI Expo felt different than past years.
For years, the industry has asked, "Can we brand it?" Walking the aisles of Mandalay Bay from January 12-15, the question had shifted. Now, distributors were asking: "Will they keep it?"
Between running our booth #2310, hosting the Breakfast Club and Happy Hour for the skummunity, and bouncing around events like the PromoKitchen mixer, we spent four days watching the industry change its mind about what matters. Spoiler: it's not just about the logo anymore.
Here's your definitive download on the new rules for 2026.
The biggest surprise on the floor? Products got smaller. As hybrid work solidifies and business travel comes back, the most valuable real estate in the world is inside your client's backpack.
The Evidence: The miniature takeover was undeniable. Tiny, functional versions of premium drinkware (pocket-sized Yetis), scaled-down toolkits, miniature first-aid kits. Not novelty items but daily drivers that fit in a bag.
The Shift: This isn't just cute. It's calculated. Gen Z's "little treat" culture has collided with the practical needs of mobile workforces. Desk space is shrinking. Sustainability messaging favors using less material. If it's too bulky to commute with, it's getting left behind.
Your Move: Audit your current proposals. Are you pitching shelf-clutter or daily drivers? If your customers won't carry it, they won't use it.
During The PITCH on Monday (promo's answer to Shark Tank), over 500 people watched seven suppliers pitch. The judges sent a clear message.
The Winner: Sock101 with their "Experiences" concept. Audrey Miesner didn't pitch a product. She pitched an activation—their team shows up to events with heat transfer machines and sets up "Sock Bars" or "Bucket Hat Bars" where people get custom designs pressed on in 20 seconds.
Her line: "We're not bringing a product to you; we're bringing a full-blown activation and unforgettable experience."
The Verdict: Utility is the ultimate flex. The buzzword of the week was "keepability", not sustainability, not eco-friendly. Will someone actually keep this?
If it doesn't function beautifully, it's just future landfill.
On Education Day, Bobby Lehew packed Mandalay Bay to capacity for a reality check on AI. The hard truth? Most of us are still babysitting our tech (manually prompting every single step).
The Session: Bobby's "AI + Promo: Trends and Tools Every Pro Needs" session was so packed they had to turn people away. His point hit hard: we're stuck in the "Babysitter Model," holding AI's hand through every task.
The Fix: Move to recursive workflows where AI handles the "Aegis" (research, outlining, data gathering) so you can protect your "Creative Core" i.e the high-value work only you can do.
Todd Henry's line that kept repeating: "Creativity is very inefficient but wastes nothing."
The commonsku Bridge: This is exactly why we built connected workflow. The friction of email ping-pong and system-hopping kills creativity. When your pitch connects directly to production connects directly to payment, you stop babysitting transactions and start managing relationships.
Charlie Moscoe and Aaron Kucherawy also ran a packed session earlier that day walking through how to maximize commonsku's workflow features. People are hungry for systems that actually work.
By Day 3, tech fatigue was real. We watched distributors flock to booths offering texture.
What We Saw: Crocheted totes. Woven fabrics. Denim covered in patches from favorite bands and cities. Custom embroidery that tells individual stories.
The Shift: This is the move from "Corporate Uniform" to "Personal Diary." People don't want to wear your company's billboard. They want items that tell their story.
The "Hidden Gem" Strategy: The smartest distributors weren't hugging the main aisle. They were hunting the back corners for these artisan "impact players" that differentiate a pitch from a catalog dump.
What Won:
What Lost: Static displays with spec sheets stacked high.
The Pattern: Suppliers leading with context beat suppliers leading with features. "Here's how a tech company used this for onboarding" beats "Here are the material specs."
Your Move: Stop shipping samples in boxes. Create activation moments. In-office tastings for food products. Pop-up try-ons for apparel. Desk setup demos for accessories. Make them experience why their team will keep this.
Sometimes what's missing signals the shift more than what's present.
Tech Gadgets Went Quiet: The novelty tech that dominated past Expos? Barely visible. The tech that was there had clear utility: translation tools, charging solutions that work, practical audio.
Language Shifted: Suppliers weren't leading with "eco-friendly materials." They were leading with "designed to last" and "worth keeping." Sustainability is table stakes. The edge is emotional attachment.
Generic Corporate Apparel Looked Nervous: Booths pushing plain polos had less traffic than ones showing retail-ready pieces and hyper-personalized options. The uniform look is losing.
Sales and customer success held down the booth for three days straight. Demos, questions, more demos. A lot of 'oh, so I don't have to export spreadsheets anymore?' realizations. The team showed how everything connects, from the first pitch all the way to getting paid.
The skummunity Breakfast Club:
Coffee, tea, breakfast, commonsku merch!
Turns out a lot of people wanted caffeine and a game plan before tackling a million square feet of booths. People showed up early (way earlier than expected for 8 AM in Vegas).
Good coffee. Good conversations. Then everyone scattered to hunt.
skummunity Happy Hour:
Floor closed at 5 & skummunity rolled in tired. That's when the useful stuff came out—supplier hits and misses, booths nobody told you about, what's actually driving results. Raw takes only.
Booth conversations inform you. Happy hour conversations with people in the trenches level you up.
To everyone who stopped by Booth #2310, joined us at Breakfast Club or Happy Hour, or just gave us a fist bump in the aisle—thank you. You're why we do this!
Between the caffeine-fueled strategy sessions at Breakfast Club and the packed Happy Hour, one thing became clear: The industry is shrinking. Not in dollars but in intimacy.
Distributors are curating smaller, smarter collections. Building tighter relationships. Letting AI handle the repetitive stuff so they can focus on the creative work.
The winners in 2026 won't be the ones who pitch the most products. They'll be the ones who know their clients well enough to pitch the right ones. Use data to find what they're missing. Tell the story around it. Do it this week while Expo is still fresh.
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