San Francisco-based Social Imprints (asi/164607) is using promotional products to make the world a better place. The distributor launched a year-long campaign it’s calling “Give 2021 a Shot,” releasing new, limited-edition custom products with a social justice bent each month.

“After last year, everyone needed a break,” CEO Jeff Sheinbein wrote on the company website. “We all needed to pick ourselves up. We all needed to do our best to make 2021 great. We all needed the right attitude to, well, give 2021 a shot.”

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So far, the Give 2021 a Shot webstore includes a handful of T-shirts, a mask, socks, a notebook and a ceramic mug, each with a different social justice-themed design. T-shirts in the collection are made from eco-friendly materials, including recycled polyester and organic cotton. Social Imprints is donating the proceeds from the sales to Feeding America and The Bail Project. Several of the brands in the store also have their own giveback initiatives: Bombas donates a pair of socks to a homeless shelter for every pair purchased, and Soma donates a portion of its proceeds to sustainable water projects around the world.

This Denik notebook is part of Social Imprints’ Give 2021 a Shot campaign.

For Women’s History month, Social Imprints released a long-sleeve tee with the phrase “Women are” across the front. Shoppers could customize the shirt to finish the sentence however they wished.

“Everyone I’ve talked to has just been super, super excited about that tee,” says Willie Clark, marketing manager for Social Imprints. “I think that’s one of the coolest things we’re able to do – to give people a voice in what they want their shirt to say.”

Social Imprints created this customizable shirt for Women’s History Month.

A local fire department purchased the “Woman are” shirts, finishing the sentence with “paramedics,” “firefighters” and “EMTs.” Another person customized the shirt to read: “Women are diverse,” according to Clark.

Response to the campaign has been very positive – and driven a spike in engagement to the distributor’s blog and other social channels, Clark says. In March, for example, Social Imprints invited three women to tell their own stories on its blog, and those posts became more successful than anything else on the company website. “In one week, one of the blog posts did better than anything had done cumulatively for the past three years,” Clark says.

Each month, Social Imprints plans to release one or two new items to the webstore to coincide with various social justice themes. Clark is particularly excited about the plans for Pride Month in June, and though the specific products are still under wraps, he did divulge that proceeds from the yet-to-be-released merch will go toward the It Gets Better Project and True Colors United, to help LGBTQ+ youth.

In some ways, the Give 2021 a Shot campaign is just an outward representation of what Social Imprints has been about from the beginning, Sheinbein says. He and co-founder Kevin McCracken launched the company in 2009 as a “second-chance employer.” About 70% of its staff of nearly 30 is either a recovering addict with at least two years of sobriety, someone formerly incarcerated, a military veteran, high school dropout or underrepresented minority, according to Sheinbein.

“We just saw a huge opportunity out there because folks who were capable of doing more than a blue-collar job didn’t have access to white-collar employment because of their past,” Sheinbein adds. “We use promotional products because we thought it was a great entrée into white-collar work. It covers everything – graphic arts, sales, marketing, business development. All the different elements of business are covered under promotional products.”

Social Imprints’ model can be a challenge to pull off, Sheinbein says, but he knows it works. At the previous nonprofit Sheinbein ran, McCracken – just six months out of rehab – was the first employee Sheinbein hired. Now the pair run a $15 million promotional products company together. “If he hadn’t have gotten that chance, he wouldn’t be a co-founder today,” Sheinbein says.

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