About Us
The argument in favor of using filler text goes something like this: If you use real content in the Consulting Process, anytime you reach a review point you’ll end up reviewing and negotiating the content itself and not the design.
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ABOUT KP INNOVATIONS
We’re Building the Category We Wished Existed.
KP Innovations was built on a simple belief: merchandise deserves the same level of strategy, creative thinking, and accountability as any other meaningful investment in your brand.
WHY WE EXIST
Companies Spend Real Money on Merchandise. Almost Nobody Truly Owns It.
Branded merchandise touches nearly every part of a modern organization. Marketing uses it to build awareness. Sales uses it to open doors and strengthen relationships. HR uses it for onboarding, recognition, and culture. Operations manages uniforms. Events teams rely on it to create memorable experiences.
Yet despite the reach of merchandise across the business, the function itself is often fragmented.
One department uses one vendor. Another team orders from somewhere else. Products are selected under deadline pressure. Budgets are spread across cost centers. Inventory sits in closets. Nobody has a complete view of what is being spent, what is working, or what should happen next.
The traditional promotional products industry has largely responded by offering more products, more catalogs, and more ways to place an order.
We believe the real problem is much bigger than product selection.
Merchandise does not need another shopping cart. It needs strategy, leadership, and ownership.
That is why KP Innovations exists.
HOW WE GOT HERE
The Industry Was Solving the Order. We Wanted to Solve the Function.
KP Innovations was founded in 2022 after seeing the same pattern repeat across companies, industries, and programs.
Organizations were spending meaningful money on merchandise, but the process behind that spending was almost entirely reactive. A trade show appeared on the calendar, so someone ordered giveaways. A new hire started, so HR assembled a welcome kit. A client needed a gift, so sales searched for something that could arrive in time. A department wanted apparel, so another vendor entered the picture.
Each individual order might get completed. The larger function never improved.
The industry had become exceptionally good at fulfilling requests while asking very few questions about whether those requests made sense in the first place.
A partner should be able to look beyond the immediate order and understand the audience, objective, budget, calendar, brand, distribution plan, and intended outcome. That partner should be able to connect strategy with creative development, sourcing, production, fulfillment, company stores, and ongoing program management.
- Most importantly, someone should be accountable for the whole picture.
- So we began building the company we believed should already exist.
Not a better promotional products vendor. A different kind of merchandise partner entirely.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Merch Is Media™.
Companies routinely pay to interrupt someone for a few seconds, then treat a product that may be worn, carried, or used for years as a disposable expense.
We believe that is a fundamental misunderstanding of what merchandise can do.
A well-designed piece of merchandise creates reach. It creates frequency through repeated use. It creates dwell time that most advertising channels could never realistically purchase. It moves through offices, airports, homes, job sites, gyms, restaurants, schools, events, and everyday life. Most importantly, people choose to keep it. That is the thinking behind Merch Is Media™, the philosophy at the center of KP Innovations.
- Who is the audience?
- What behavior are we trying to influence?
- What should this item communicate?
- How often will it be seen or used?
- How will it be distributed?
- What outcome should justify the investment?
- Those are not product questions. They are strategy questions.
We believe merchandise should be planned, designed, distributed, and evaluated with the same discipline as any other channel competing for your budget.
FOUNDER OF KP INNOVATIONS
Meet Kevin Patrick.
Kevin Patrick is the Founder and Chief Swag Officer of KP Innovations, the creator of the Merch Is Media™ framework, a growing body of work focused on changing how companies think about branded merchandise.
His perspective was shaped by years spent across merchandise, private-label apparel, creative development, client programs, and business operations. Across those experiences, he kept seeing the same disconnect: merchandise had become important enough to touch nearly every part of the business, but rarely important enough for anyone to truly own.
- Marketing had a piece of it.
- HR had a piece of it.
- Sales had a piece of it.
- Operations had a piece of it.
- Vendors handled individual orders.
- No one was responsible for connecting the whole function.
- Those are not product questions. They are strategy questions.
BEYOND THE SWAG
The Podcast
Conversations with founders, marketers, operators, creatives, and business leaders about the strategy behind the physical things brands put into the world.
CHIEF SWAG OFFICER™
The Operating Model
A new approach for companies that need senior merchandise leadership without building an entire internal department.
OUR POINT OF VIEW
The Principles Behind Our Work
STRATEGY SHOULD COME BEFORE PRODUCT
We begin with the audience, objective, moment, budget, and intended outcome. Product selection comes after those questions have been answered, not before
THE CHEAPEST ITEM IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE MISTAKE
Low cost per unit means very little if the product is ignored, discarded, or never used. We care more about cost per outcome than cost per item.
EMPLOYEES ARE ONE OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT AUDIENCES
The quality of what a company gives its employees communicates something about how that company values them. People notice the difference between something thoughtful and something left over.
DELIVERY IS NOT THE SAME AS SUCCESS
An order arriving on time matters, but it is not the final measure of a program. The better question is whether the merchandise accomplished what it was intended to do.
YOUR LOGO IS NOT THE CREATIVE IDEA
A logo can identify the company behind an item. It cannot make a forgettable product worth keeping. Good merchandise requires judgment, creative direction, and a clear understanding of what people will actually want.
DISTRIBUTION IS PART OF THE STRATEGY
Who receives an item, when they receive it, how it arrives, and what happens around that moment can matter as much as the product itself.
NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS YOUR LOGO
Sometimes branding strengthens the experience. Sometimes it cheapens it. We are comfortable recommending restraint when restraint is the better strategic decision.
SOMEONE HAS TO OWN THE FUNCTION
When merchandise belongs to everyone a little, it often belongs to no one enough. Clear ownership is what turns scattered activity into a program that can improve over time.
A DIFFERENT MODEL
A Vendor Waits for the Order. We Get Involved Before the Order Exists.
The traditional promotional products model is transactional by design.
A client requests a product. The vendor provides options. A quote is approved. The order ships. The relationship goes quiet until the next request.
That model works if the only goal is to complete a transaction.
Our work begins earlier.
We want to understand what the business is trying to accomplish, who the audience is, what has already been purchased, what inventory exists, what else is on the calendar, and how the decision fits into the larger program.
Sometimes that leads to a better product.
Sometimes it leads to a different production method.
Sometimes it means consolidating several disconnected orders into one smarter program.
And sometimes the right recommendation is not to place the order at all.
That is the difference between fulfilling a request and taking responsibility for the outcome.
THE TRADITIONAL VENDOR
KP Innovations
We do not want to be the company you call when you need 500 things. We want to be the team that helps determine what is worth creating in the first place.
BUILT FOR COMPLEXITY
We Do Our Best Work When Merchandise Has Outgrown “Just Order Something.”
KP Innovations works with organizations where merchandise touches multiple audiences, departments, locations, or business goals.
SCALING COMPANIES
Growing organizations that need their merchandise operation to mature alongside the business.
MULTI-LOCATION BRANDS
Companies that need consistent standards across locations without turning headquarters into a bottleneck.
PEOPLE-FIRST ORGANIZATIONS
Teams investing seriously in onboarding, culture, recognition, retention, and employee experience.
SALES-LED ORGANIZATIONS
Companies using merchandise across client relationships, events, gifting, and revenue programs.
PREMIUM BRANDS
Organizations that care deeply about how every physical touchpoint represents the larger brand.
COMPLEX PROGRAMS
Companies managing multiple vendors, stores, inventory, fulfillment, departments, or recurring initiatives.
SELECTED CLIENTS
When Our Work Carries Your Name, the Standard Is Higher.
We have supported merchandise programs, custom products, apparel collections, gifting initiatives, and branded experiences across automotive, finance, insurance, technology, nonprofit, hospitality, professional services, and other industries.
- The scope changes.
- The standard does not.
WHAT WE ARE BUILDING
This Is Bigger Than Selling Better Merchandise.
For decades, the promotional products industry has competed on access, price, speed, and selection.
- Those things still matter.
- But they are not enough.
Companies do not need more ways to buy more products. They need better ways to decide what is worth creating, who it is for, how it should be distributed, and what success should look like.
- That is the larger work behind KP Innovations.
- It is why we created the Merch Is Media™ framework.
- It is why we are building the Chief Swag Officer™ model.
- It is why Kevin hosts Beyond the Swag.
- It is why we publish industry-specific playbooks.
And it is why we continue to challenge an industry that has spent too much time talking about products and not enough time talking about outcomes.
And it is why we continue to challenge an industry that has spent too much time talking about products and not enough time talking about outcomes.
GO DEEPER
The Ideas Behind the Work.
KP Innovations works with organizations where merchandise touches multiple audiences, departments, locations, or business goals.
MERCH IS MEDIA™
The philosophy behind how we plan, evaluate, distribute, and measure merchandise.
BEYOND THE SWAG
The forthcoming book challenging companies to rethink where merchandise belongs inside the business.
BEYOND THE SWAG PODCAST
Conversations about strategy, creativity, brand, culture, business, and the future of merchandise.
CHIEF SWAG OFFICER™
The operating model for companies ready to give merchandise real leadership and accountability.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF MERCHANDISE PARTNER
If You Need a Vendor, You Have Thousands of Options.
If you are looking for a team that will challenge the brief, think beyond the immediate order, own the details, connect the moving parts, and treat your merchandise investment with the seriousness it deserves, we should talk.