Apparel has grown as a category to make up nearly half of annual promotional products sales in North America – and at ASI Orlando on Jan. 5-7, suppliers had their latest and greatest styles on full display. The overwhelming takeaway: What’s trending in promo apparel continues to be retail-inspired styles that lean into modern, often athleisure-based silhouettes and decoration methods.

Here are four specific themes ASI Media editors spotted while walking the show floor.

Fashion (and Female) Forward

There was a huge variety of dedicated women’s styles on the show floor at ASI Orlando – and not just unisex or adapted cuts of men’s items. It’s a trend that’s proved more important within the past few years; as promo apparel continues to mirror retail trends, manufacturers and distributors alike are finding that a focus on the female demographic can pay off.

Pennant Sportswear (asi/79954), for example, showcased an oversize fleece with an exaggerated mock neck that Chief Financial Officer Russ Evans said garnered a lot of attention on the floor. “We got a lot of comments saying there wasn’t anything else like it,” he added.

Oversized mockneck (5483) from Pennant Sportswear (asi/79954)

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At the Next Level Apparel (asi/73867) booth, President Eric Simsolo said it was the versatility of a boxy tee that made it such a popular cut for both streetwear (sized up for an oversize fit) and the office (more form-fitting for an elevated look). A heavier-weight blend certainly hasn’t entirely overwritten lighter styles, he said, but it is often the more fashion-forward option. And in many cases, Simsolo said, it’s replaced V-neck styles as a preferred option for female customers.

“It’s not crewneck or V-neck now,” he said. “It’s crewneck or a boxy tee.”

Women’s heavyweight boxy T-shirt (7610) from Next Level Apparel (asi/73867)

Soft, Cozy Fabrics – And a Softer Color Palette To Match

Relatedly, along with retail inspiration in silhouettes comes a similar desire for retail-adjacent fabrics and softness. The apparel market of the industry – specifically appealing to the business casual corporate sector – has been pivoting more toward athleisure since the pandemic, with a focus on comfort that grows every year.

Counselor Top 40 supplier SanMar (asi/84863), for instance, recently debuted a Soft Spacer line through the Mercer+Mettle brand, with a buttery soft fabric available in quarter-zip and full-zip silhouettes. “It’s really with that athleisure and modern design in mind,” said Senior Merchandiser Sam Keng.

Mercer+Mettle women’s Soft Spacer full-zip (MM3103) from SanMar (asi/84863)

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These new pieces, though, aren’t only available in the typical corporate uniform shades. Of course, there will always be significant demand for black and navy, particularly when it comes to styles that remain at the more formal end.

But as the apparel gets more casual, the demand for color variety gets wider. Counselor Top 40 supplier S&S Activewear’s (asi/84358) booth boasted a selection of soft blues, greens and creams mixed among the traditional shades, for example.

The apparel side of the S&S Activewear (asi/84358) booth illustrated part of the shift toward a softer color palette.

And one of Lane Seven Apparel’s (asi/66246) most looked-at styles, similarly, was a plush Nantucket fleece (LS11004), available in softer hues like ice purple, a warm brown and an off-white shade called “latte,” to name a few.

Nantucket fleece (LS11004) from Lane Seven Apparel (asi/66246)

“It’s not just people asking for budget friendly,” added Jeff Beja of Royal Apparel (asi/83731). “People are willing to spend, but they want better fashion, better fabric, better quality.”

Creative Decoration

Outside of exact silhouettes, suppliers also showed off unique apparel decoration ideas – both in terms of imprint methods and placement – headed into 2026.

The bright, resortwear-inspired colors of the ADG Promo (asi/97270) booth were fitting for the Florida sunshine during ASI Orlando – as were the supplier’s samples of its chenille decoration method, which gives the design a fun, overall fluffy appearance, almost reminiscent of a sherpa.

ADG Promo’s (asi/97270) chenille patch decoration style is a good fit for resort or hospitality merchandise.

There’s also room for decoration options focused on more subtle branding. Apparel supplier Levelwear (asi/48081) – a Canadian company focused on performance apparel – has a patent pending for something new: decoration on the inside flap of zippered items, like this quilted full-zip jacket.

Inside zip decoration from Levelwear (asi/48081)

For headwear, 3-D chain stitch decoration – an elevation of the retro chain stitch style popularized last year – has been big at Counselor Top 40 supplier Outdoor Cap Company (asi/75420), said Inside Sales Representative Chelsea Bridges, as has the trend of upside-down lettering in an arc.

Both styles, she said, are aimed at making a bolder impact than a traditional patch or embroidery method.

Rope Caps

Camo performance cap (OC550CAMO) from Outdoor Cap Company (asi/75420)

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Outside of decoration trends, performance features – in particular, perforation or mesh on the back half of the cap – are proving popular in the headwear space. Many of those attributes are particularly aimed at the golf community, said Joe Calus, national sales manager at Counselor Top 40 supplier Otto Cap (asi/75350), which is debuting its new collection at the PGA Tournament this week.

But, ultimately, rope styles are king to start 2026.

Otto Cap has even begun offering ropes as an add-on to existing style caps – in other words, the ability to pop a rope onto the front of a non-rope style to get added customization and the best of both worlds.

“You can put a rope in, you can change it out if you want different colors and designs,” Calus said. “It’s really trying to innovate on a classic product.”

Bridges at Outdoor Cap echoed the popularity of the trend. It’s held up across classic trucker and performance SKUs, as well as across a variety of different verticals, she said.

“We had to add a version with a rope to our most popular style,” Bridges added, “because there was just so much demand for it.”

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