It was a phone call that proved fortuitous.

Steve Elberts needed help at his small business. He rang Jim Shannon, a young accounting major who’d attended the same college as Elberts. “I’m a little T-shirt shop looking for a controller,” Elberts explained.

Shannon felt his future lay in public accounting, but the thought of helping build a smaller, mom-and-pop business seemed an exciting opportunity to explore first. He took the job.

Thirty-one years later, Shannon remains with the company – a loyal executive with a dedicated blue collar work ethic who rose to president and now CEO. And the business? Well, it’s S&S Activewear (asi/84358) – a Bolingbrook, IL-based Top 40 supplier that’s inked one of promo’s most impressive success stories of the last decade. 

“Jim was there with S&S from the beginning,” says Jimmy Dastice, a more than 25-year industry veteran and executive vice president at Chicago-based distributor Art-Flo. “He’s been a vital asset in the company’s growth.”

Indeed, S&S has grown from that “little T-shirt shop” into the third largest supplier by revenue in the promo industry – an estimated $1.51 billion apparel powerhouse with more than 2,500 employees, 80-plus brands on offer, and over 4 million square feet of warehouse space strategically situated across North America.

Shannon has been essential to spearheading the massive success, which includes executing some of the most significant acquisitions the industry has seen in recent years, ensuring S&S’s portfolio of products is deep and on-trend, and being an industry leader when it comes to back-end and customer-helping technology solutions. Not that many in the industry would know; Shannon has intentionally eschewed the spotlight over the years, preferring to focus on the business of building the company. Yet as S&S’s profile has risen dramatically, Shannon’s contributions can no longer be ignored.

For success in both the long-term as well as the short-term (including growth during the pandemic and a major acquisition of a Top 40 competitor last year), Shannon is Counselor’s 2022 Person of the Year. “It’s just incredible,” Shannon says, “to see how far we’ve come.”

Decades of Leadership

S&S’s growth story begins in the late 1990s when now former owners Jeff Adams and Paul Rohr bought the firm, providing capital clout. Powered by such backing, Shannon and other company leaders transformed S&S into a formidable regional supplier in the Midwest. That resulted from the firm executing a strategy that included building strong relationships with vendors and clients, streamlining processes to enhance service, and adding an ever-broader range of corporate and athletic apparel brands.

“We bet on the brands concept, and we did it early,” says Shannon – a prescient move, as promo’s penchant for brands and retail-quality fashion-forward styles has soared.

Compelled by client demand and a belief they could replicate their Midwestern success in other regional U.S. markets, Shannon and the S&S management team began working to turn the firm into a major player in promo nationally. The push catalyzed in 2010 with the acquisition of California-based Americana Sportswear. Then came the acquisitions of New Jersey-based EVA Sportswear in 2013 and Technosport Canada in 2019 (now S&S Canada).

“We’ve relied heavily on investing in employees with a strong work ethic and qualities that fit our culture. We wouldn’t have accomplished any of our success without having the right people in place.” Jim Shannon

S&S made huge strides with organic growth too, helped considerably by its swift expansion of distribution center space in important markets around the country and through a business model that involves the supplier investing in relationships with manufacturers, rather than production itself. “We do not manufacture or carry private lines,” explains Shannon. “We focus on building solid, collaborative partnerships with our manufacturing suppliers. It’s our commitment to continue providing new growth opportunities for them.”

One of Shannon’s achievements in propelling the exponential sales growth of the last 12 years has been finding high quality, high-performing people and putting them in position to succeed with S&S.

“We’ve relied heavily on investing in employees with strong work ethic and qualities that fit our culture,” Shannon shares. “We pride ourselves on having little turnover and watching our employees grow in skill, experience and rank alongside the growth of our company. We wouldn’t have accomplished any of our success without having the right people in place.”

Or without Shannon’s leadership, say S&S team members like President Frank Myers. “Jim,” Myers asserts, “has an extremely level-headed and people-first approach to business, which inspires employees, customers, and vendors.”

Matthew Lamb concurs.

“Jim is as balanced and measured a leader as you’ll find in this industry and this steadfast approach is one of the key driving forces for the success S&S has had,” says Lamb, executive vice president of research and development at Facilisgroup, a software-as-a-service company and partnering group for the promo industry. “What Jim has achieved at S&S is nothing short of remarkable.”

Building the Future

Just as Rohr and Adams buying S&S was a watershed moment for the company, so was another monumental, future-focused ownership change – one that Shannon had a pivotal role in bringing to fruition. Adams and Rohr had reached a point in life where they were ready to sell. They, Shannon and the S&S executive team then became laser-focused on finding a new partner that, in the CEO’s words, “would protect what had been built over decades while also helping guide the next phase of S&S’s growth.”

They found that in Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a global private equity firm with offices in New York and London that has managed the investment of more than $40 billion in over 100 companies with an aggregate transaction value of more than $175 billion. CD&R became the majority stakeholder in S&S in the first quarter of 2021.

“CD&R has been a fantastic ownership group, providing meaningful guidance and support while continuing to provide the autonomy for our managers and operators to allow them to do what they do best,” says Shannon.

For sure the partnership appears to be bearing fruit. Backed by CD&R, Shannon and S&S inked one of the biggest headlines in promo when in November 2021 the company acquired TSC Apparel, which at the time was the 14th largest supplier in the industry. That blockbuster acquisition was followed up with another – the April 2022 purchase of TSF Sportwear, a heavyweight supplier, particularly in the South.

“Our acquisitions aim to provide a better service model for our customers, be best in class with our suppliers and provide new growth opportunities for our employees,” says Shannon. “Through our nationwide expansion, we’ve been able to offer customers access to new technologies and resources, faster and reliable shipping, and greater depths of inventory and brands.”

Keep in mind: All the business-building activity of the last couple years has come amid the enormous challenges of the pandemic. Impressively, under Shannon’s leadership, S&S grew annual sales by about 8% in the pandemic-affected years of 2020 and 2021.

“Our teams have been agile throughout COVID,” Shannon says, “whether that be virtual trade shows and events, moving to a work-from-home environment, or creating new digital forms of sales and marketing.”

The digital adaptation during COVID continues a trend of technological advancement that’s long been underway at S&S under Shannon. It includes everything from the pioneering development of a 100% web-based enterprise resource planning system to a top-notch website with fast load times and customer-pleasing features like an inventory display grid, simple-to-use e-commerce platform and integration with the supplier’s mills.

S&S has also been a leader when it comes to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. That’s evidenced by undertakings like a multimillion-dollar investment to install solar panels at its facilities, emissions-offsetting initiatives, reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, and the Make An Imprint program, which focuses on donations and volunteering activities.

“Sustainability continues to drive all businesses in a meaningful way, and it will continue to have a significant impact in our industry over the next decade,” says Shannon.

Certainly, Shannon is always looking to the future as he executes in the present. Throughout his three decades with S&S, that future has always included both the supplier and the promo industry. For Shannon – who with his wife Laura has four kids ages 16-22 – loyalty and longevity are no surprise given his perspective. “This industry is like no other,” he says. “Once you’re in it, you can never leave. I’ve become friends with many vendors, customers and employees. It’s hard to find an industry or a job where you get to work with friends every day.”