At a time when people often think about responsible action in terms of broad concepts that will pay off in the distant future, PPAI’s Responsibility Summit was often grounded in concrete issues that need to be addressed immediately. The three-day conference, held in Denver this week, was heavily focused on compliance and regulation issues, as well as panels and sessions on sustainability. The two topics, of course, went hand in hand, and shared an important commonality: due diligence is non-negotiable for any responsible merch company.
“This year’s Responsibility Summit was successful in the way that compliance and sustainability work should be: It built off of its own progress as the event went on,” says Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS, PPAI’s director of sustainability and responsibility. “The audience participation, and even the presentations by panelists and speakers, were referencing prior sessions. That kind of engagement means so much in this field. Compliance requires a sharp understanding and close attention to detail, and sustainability requires buy-in. Those are things I saw a lot of in Denver this week.”
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director of Responsibility and Sustainability, PPAI
Mike Smith, founder of sustainability-focused business service provider and PPAI member Aclymate, says that conferences like PPAI’s Responsibility Summit are more than “nice-to-have’s” for the branded merch industry. They’re crucial to the survival of the industry.
“If merch hadn’t been getting on top of sustainability, then it would be facing an existential problem. The real leaders of this space know that. PPAI’s strategic plan is part of that, but having a room full of leaders is a big deal. That existential problem only gets fixed by people who care enough to do the fixing.”
Mike Smith
Founder, Aclymate
‘People Feel Safe In Community’
Tuesday’s keynote speaker was David Katz, founder and CEO of Plastic Bank, which has looked to solve international ocean plastic. Using an entrepreneurial mindset, Katz managed to transform ocean plastic into a type of currency that has helped impoverished global communities. His humanitarian work has earned him international acclaim, and the message that he shared with attendees mirrored much of what PPAI wants members to reflect on.
“The world doesn’t need more stuff, unless it means something,” Katz says.
Katz praised and called upon the group of branded merch professionals who had come to Responsibility Summit to learn from each other. Building out of groups of like-minded people can solve problems with real tangible goals. Inspiration can compound greater when it’s encouraged by other people inspired by other people.
“People feel safety in community,” Katz says. “They feel seen and alive.”
David Katz
Founder and CEO, Plastic Bank
Compliance And Regulation Lead Discussions
This year’s Responsibility Summit showcased just how far compliance and product regulation complexity had come in the past few years. The majority of the panels focused on compliance issues that directly faced the branded merchandise industry. Product regulation in 2026 is far from static, and navigating its ins and outs has never been more difficult without guidance.
In her “Regulatory Round Up” session, Laura Smith, CAS, sustainability and compliance lead for Storm Creek, PPAI 100’s No. 28 supplier, called SB 707 (California Responsibility Textile Recover Act), “The most important textile regulation in the U.S. right now,” and one that every branded merchandise firm dealing with textiles will have to keep an eye on. Similarly, she made a prediction regarding what will come next in the textile sector.
“If California is the first wave of textile EPR, then Europe is the second,” Smith says.
Smith also provided a helpful timeline of dates to remember:
Three dates to remember:
- September 27 – EU green claims enforcement begins
- November 10 – CA SB 253 greenhouse gas disclosure reporting deadline
- Ongoing – Monitor developments related to California textile EPR (SB 707) implementation and challenge (tentatively denied, not yet final)
In Smith’s Regulatory Roundup, she made a point to connect compliance to sustainability, claiming that the leaders in sustainability are the ones who are able to meet these standards and continue to thrive within shifting regulations.
“Sustainability is continuing to separate industry leaders from followers,” Smith says.
Laura Smith, CAS
Sustainability & Compliance Lead, Storm Creek
Other compliance panels included:
- An in-depth discussion about PFAS regulations regarding responsibility along the branded merch supply chain as well as state by state compliance differences.
- Various sessions hosted by attorneys specializing in specific compliance issues such as packaging EPR and green claims.
Striving For Improvement
Ryan Moor, founder of AllMade, and one of PPAI’s Coolest People In Merch, brought to light some harrowing statistics during his presentation: About 42% of merch that is created is never worn. The average lifespan of a T-shirt is seven wears.
These are statistics that have more to do with habits of society than the branded merch industry as a whole, but that doesn’t mean the industry avoids all complicity. More importantly, the conference was proof that the industry was coming together to do the difficult work to keep fighting against that tide.
PPAI’s chief marketing officer, Melissa Ralston, took the stage with Sarah Shepard, the compliance and sustainability manager for Terry Town, PPAI 100’s No. 33 supplier, for a discussion titled “Product End-of-Life Made Practical: Designing for Circularity.” Shepard broke down what it looks like to being thinking about end-of-life planning for a product and encouraged the crowd to focus on “progress over perfection.”
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The branded merch industry isn’t just chipping away at big problems. The community has to react to big trends, such as AI. PPAI Board member Kate Alavez, MAS, president of PromoShop, PPAI 100’s No. 22 distributor, moderated a panel “Sustainability Tech Stack 101: AI, Reporting Tools and ESG Enablement.” The panel included Nathan Cotter, chief supply chain officer at Hit Promotional Products, PPAI 100’s No. 3 supplier; Matin Sharifzadeh, strategic customer success manager at Elm AI and Tyler Brooks, director of supply chain, social responsibility at 4imprint, PPAI 100’s No. 1 distributor.
The panel was an open discussion on the value of AI for employees and avoiding wastefulness as well as the environmental impact of its data usage. The group also emphasized that if a firm is going to use AI, it’s important that it is being used correctly.
“If you are going to use a platform that has AI technologies, I would caution everyone to wait to use those technologies until they have good data, because garbage in, garbage out when it comes to these AI technologies,” Brooks says.
Unlike the compliance panels, which provided immediate practical advice, panels like these laid the foundation for discussions that can continue into the future, building a framework for stronger procedures. Together, the content shared one key commonality: pushing the branded merchandise industry in the right direction.
