It was a lightbulb moment for Jason Emery.

The president of Bolingbrook, IL-based promotional products supplier Toddy Gear (asi/91411) was talking to a customer in early 2021 about an item his company was launching using microfiber made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). And the customer asked why Toddy Gear couldn’t just swap all its microfiber products to the material made from recycled plastic like water bottles.

“I pondered on that question for probably two or three months. … It really made me think, ‘Why are we not doing this?’” Emery says.

Fast forward to November 2022, when Toddy Gear announced that all of its thin microfiber would be made from rPET at no cost difference for distributors.

The decision wasn’t without its risks, but Emery says he felt it was the right thing to do to help move the promo industry further down the path of sustainability: “At Toddy Gear, we manufacture so many products from a few raw materials, so we really have the ability to make that change,” Emery adds. “But we have to commit to it.”

In this episode of Promo Insiders, Emery speaks with ASI Media’s Theresa Hegel about what it took to make the change, why it was risky and what he envisions for the future of Toddy Gear and the industry as a whole.