A string backpack is a string backpack. Until it isn’t.
Put a corporate logo on it and hand it out at a conference. Give the same bag to high school students. Or decorate it with a juvenile Disney character and distribute it to young children. Physically, you might be starting with the same product. From a product safety perspective, you may not be.
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director, Sustainability & Responsibility, PPAI
That was one of the challenges facing the branded merchandise industry when Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in 2008. The law was largely built around traditional manufacturers that develop products for known audiences and age ranges. Our supply chain doesn’t always work that way. Suppliers may not know the ultimate recipient of a product, distributors may determine its use later and even decoration can change who a product appeals to.
Rick Brenner was among the industry leaders who recognized early that branded merch needed a seat at the table.
Beginning in 2008, Brenner worked directly with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to help regulators understand how our industry operates. His objective wasn’t to argue against regulation. It was to establish the industry as a partner in product safety and advocate for clear guidance companies could actually follow.
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It worked. CPSC developed guidance, participated in PPAI education and spoke directly to the industry at PPAI’s Responsibility Summit. And that collaboration helped establish a philosophy that continues to guide PPAI’s approach today: We shouldn’t aim simply to sell compliant products. We should aim to sell safe ones.
In 2014, PPAI introduced the Product Safety Awareness program at The PPAI Expo. Beginning with Expo East in 2015, companies seeking access to the PPAI marketplace were required to complete product safety education.
That was a significant move. Rather than offering another webinar and hoping people showed up, PPAI used one of the most meaningful levers available to us – access to our marketplace – to establish a baseline expectation for product safety knowledge.
For distributors, that knowledge helps people recognize risk, ask better questions of suppliers and understand their own responsibilities.
For suppliers, Product Safety Awareness remains a requirement to exhibit at The PPAI Expo, helping ensure that safety knowledge is embedded among the companies bringing products into our industry’s largest marketplace.
Enter Product Safety Awareness 2.0: The updated training is coming to our PPAI Advance education platform later this month.
A lot has changed since that initial program was introduced. Members now navigate evolving federal requirements, a growing patchwork of state regulations, testing and certification, labeling and tracking, PFAS and other restricted substances, recalls and an increasingly complicated global supply chain.
If your reaction is, “I sell branded merch; when exactly did I enroll in law school?” – fair. You shouldn’t need to.
That’s why PPAI is launching Product Safety Awareness 2.0. This isn’t a replacement for something that didn’t work. It’s the next generation of something that did.
PPAI staffers have worked alongside members of the Product Responsibility Action Group and other industry volunteers to rebuild the coursework around the realities members face today. Those volunteers contributed their expertise and research to identify emerging issues, common areas of risk and the knowledge companies need to make better decisions.
Keeping up with product regulation can be a job in itself. Most members don’t have an internal regulatory department or a budget for thousands of dollars in legal fees every time a new requirement appears.
That’s where your Association should provide value.
PPAI invests staff time and resources into researching regulatory developments, working with experts and turning a complicated landscape into practical education members can use. PSA 2.0 won’t make you a product safety attorney, nor is it a substitute for one. It should help you recognize potential risks, ask better questions and understand when additional expertise is warranted.
And when you really do need a lawyer, there’s a resource for that too.
Through the PPAI Solutions Center, members can access reduced rates for specialized legal guidance from Neal Cohen Law. Cohen is a former CPSC Small Business Ombudsman who now advises companies on product safety and regulatory compliance.
Think of PSA 2.0 as helping you know when you can answer the question – and when it’s time to call Neal and his team.
Nearly two decades after CPSIA prompted industry leaders to sit down with regulators, the principle remains the same. Regulations will change. New risks will emerge. And there will almost certainly be another acronym we’re all expected to understand by next Tuesday.
Our job at PPAI is to keep doing the research, working with the experts and giving members the tools to navigate it. Because the standard we’re working toward isn’t simply compliant products.
It’s safe and responsibly made ones.
