Counselor’s exclusive ranking of the suppliers with the most revenue in the promotional products industry.

Blue Generation

(asi/40653)

Transformation and momentum: Those are the two words Matt Rubin, the director of strategy and fourth generation of family leadership at Blue Generation, uses to describe the firm’s progress over the past year. The New York City-based supplier moves down two spots on this year’s list as sales remained about flat, with Rubin citing the challenge of having to compete against larger, wholesale suppliers. But it’s pushed his team to “stay sharp, differentiated and relentlessly focused on delivering value that the big players simply can’t match,” he says.

4
Generations of family leadership

Now, Blue Generation is focused first and foremost on creating modern, professional and retail-inspired apparel that people “actually want to wear,” according to Rubin. “A major highlight will be our first-ever midyear launch: an all-over customized sublimation line that we believe will genuinely wow the market,” Rubin says. He adds that the supplier is leveraging expanded distribution partnerships – like its recent deal with Apparel Coast to Coast (asi/37355) – and completing “a total revamp of our website to better reflect who we are today and where we’re headed.”