The promotional products industry’s pivot to selling personal protective equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic continued in July, according to new exclusive data from ASI.

Five of the top 10 search terms in ESP, ASI’s database of products from around the promo industry, were tied to PPE or related health-protecting items. Various terms for face coverings and hand sanitizer appeared in the top 10. However, so did traditional industry items like pens, water bottles, mugs, lanyards and tote bags.

“While 2020 will be forever known as the year of PPE, optimism in 2020 is exemplified by the July rise of more traditional promo products, indicating that better times are expected,” said Nathaniel Kucsma, ASI’s executive director of research and corporate marketing.

After decreasing in June for the first time since the pandemic began, searches for PPE items rebounded in July. Neck gaiter skyrocketed 101%, followed by mask (54%), face mask (43%) and face shield (36%). Hand sanitizer was the only PPE item to decrease in searches. The data also indicated somewhat of a return to normalization in promo products demand last month. Searches for lanyards jumped 61% and searches for mugs were up 35%.

For the first seven months of 2020, hand sanitizer, face masks and pens were the most-searched terms in ESP. In fact, four of the year’s top 10 search terms relate to face coverings – face mask, mask, bandana and neck gaiter.