Custom Ink (asi/173232) has a new brand identity to reflect its evolution beyond just T-shirts.

With its new tag line, “Ink is more than you think,” the Counselor Top 40 distributor is looking to convey its status as a modern, all-encompassing provider of branded merchandise and solutions. According to a statement from CEO David Doctorow, Custom Ink has expanded its catalog to more than 10,000 different products, having doubled its hard goods offerings, which now account for more than two-thirds of the company’s total catalog.

Custom Ink’s (asi/173232) product catalog includes premium brands like Carhartt, as well as an expanded selection of hard goods.

Along with the new tag line, Custom Ink introduced the character Janine, who personifies the “Ink is more than you think” idea by championing the power of branded merchandise.

Additionally, Custom Ink now offers premium brands like Nike, Patagonia, The North Face and YETI, which goes along with Custom Ink’s survey findings that “longevity” was the most important feature of promo items among recipients. The company found that 67% of the more than 1,000 corporate end-buyers it surveyed said they measured the campaign’s success by whether recipients voluntarily wear or use the items distributed by their employers.

Bigger Orders, New Services

Custom Ink’s beginnings in apparel might have been modest, but as the company’s footprint in the industry has grown and the industry – and world – have changed around it, so did its approach to branded merchandise. Custom Ink, alongside other companies like Counselor Top 40 distributor 4imprint (asi/197045), began as sort of a bridge from the traditional promotional products industry model to consumers buying directly. As the company grew, so did its presence among traditional apparel and promotional buyers using the standard distributor model, rather than smaller buyers or individuals purchasing one-off T-shirt orders for things like school events, family reunions or the like.

“The pandemic didn’t just disrupt our business – it revealed who our customers had already become,” Doctorow said. “Almost overnight, we went from primarily serving small groups to also serving larger businesses and organizations. Fortune 500 companies and household brands have been using us for years. We just hadn’t fully embraced what that meant, until now.”

To better compete in the modern branded merchandise landscape, Custom Ink updated its platform, implemented a one-item minimum on more than 1,000 products and announced a new partnership with creative agency Mekanism as its creative partner.

“We didn’t need to start from scratch,” says Carrie Lipper, president of Mekanism. “Custom Ink already has a lot of love behind it. The magic was in taking that existing brand equity and giving it a voice that matches the energy of the people who use it. By adding a dose of humor and some humanity, we’re showing that swag is about more than just a logo on a shirt; it’s about the culture it creates for the team.”

After news of layoffs and closures in 2023, Custom Ink announced a partnership with Kornit Digital in late 2024 to pivot production to digital direct-to-garment decoration. In May 2025, the company appointed Phil Auerbach as CMO, Justin Swietlik as CFO and Kane Posner as senior vice president of strategy, all reporting to Doctorow, who was appointed CEO in July 2024.

“I’ve learned something in my time at Custom Ink,” says Doctorow. “Swag is nobody’s full-time job, but everybody notices when it’s done right. The person who steps up to handle it – the Janines of the world – deserves a partner that makes the process seamless, reliable and rewarding.”

Based on estimated 2024 North American promotional products revenue of $650 million, Custom Ink ranked fifth on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors in the industry.