C-Slide, a Utah-headquartered promotional products supplier, is going out of business.

Founder Ron Gustaveson and Art Director Rick Winward both confirmed to ASI Media that the company, in operation for about 16 years, is shutting down. C-Slide has stopped accepting orders.

“The bank owns the company,” said Gustaveson.

Ron Gustaveson, founder of C-Slide, has since started a new company called DR Outsourcing, which provides outsourcing services, particularly working to “bridge the gap between small businesses and exceptional labor in the Dominican Republic.”

C-Slide specialized in webcam covers and related technology products, including chargers, speakers, camera detectors and cable organizers. C-Slide held patents on a number of products, the firm said.

Gustaveson founded C-Slide and owned it until selling to Liebman Group, a Florida-based private equity firm, in 2018.

Gustaveson said the partnership did not go swimmingly. Disagreements over how to take C-Slide forward led to marketing, sales, operational and product development challenges, he said. “COVID was a bad hit too,” he said, adding that in his opinion the company never really found its footing again post-pandemic.

Gustaveson left C-Slide for years but said he returned in 2024 to try to help lead the supplier back to success. The company even had a presence at early-year promo products trade shows, he said.

Still, it wasn’t enough, with Gustaveson saying “the board decided to shut the company down.” He also said that when he sold the company it had no debt, but asserted that it had been laden with debt in recent years. Gustaveson said he regretted the decision to sell C-Slide.

“The PE guys may come in with the best intentions and want to make changes, but changes were made that were not for the better,” he maintained.

ASI Media contacted Liebman Group for comment. The firm had not responded as of this writing.

Private equity firms have increasingly been investing in the promotional products industry over the last decade or so. It’s a divisive prospect. Proponents have said PE benefits promo by promoting innovation, technology adoption, better service, better solutions and deeper end-buyer penetration. Meanwhile, critics say that PE involvement harms companies for short-term gain and negatively reshapes the market by driving consolidation, elbowing out many mom-and-pop players and potentially challenging the traditional supplier-distributor model.

Some of promo’s largest companies have private equity backing. Counselor Top 40 suppliers with private equity investment include S&S Activewear (asi/84358), PCNA (asi/66887), Koozie Group (asi/40480), HPG (asi/61966) and Next Level Apparel (asi/73867). Counselor Top 40 distributors with PE backing include HALO Branded Solutions (asi/356000), Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601), Custom Ink (asi/173232), DiscountMugs.com (asi/181120) and Zorch (asi/366078).

While things went south with C-Slide, Gustaveson certainly hasn’t lost the entrepreneurial itch. This year, he founded DR Sourcing. The company provides outsourcing services, particularly working to “bridge the gap between small businesses and exceptional labor in the Dominican Republic.”

“We’re connecting companies with top-tier talent for roles like customer service, sales and bookkeeping,” Gustaveson said, noting the talent in the Dominican Republic is bilingual.