PromoKitchen Podcast #112 - Dan Edge | Peerless Umbrella

Mark Graham and Danny Rosin are here with a brand new PK Podcast for you! 

Some of you may be familiar with the popular Kickstarter campaign for a cooler known as the “Coolest.” It became the biggest project in Kickstarter history by raising over $13MM. As coolers are a big item in the promotional products industry, a number of us paid close attention to how this product would roll out after its incredible fundraising success.

Sadly, they ran into major production and distribution problems that have dogged them to this day. Danny was a backer and shared the updates from the company founder with me over the past 2 years. These became the inspiration for this episode.

The challenges faced by the Coolest highlight the divide between “coming up with a cool idea” and “manufacturing that idea and getting it into customers’ hands.” 

We wanted to explore this disconnect by speaking with an industry veteran that knows a thing or two about product design, sourcing and manufacturing: Dan Edge at Peerless Umbrella.

While this episode is not about the Coolest per se, we wanted to use it as an example to get us started about how to bring products to market in our industry. 

Some background on Dan … 

Dan has been working in the promotional products industry since 1997 and has spent all of those 19 years with Peerless.

He is their National Sales Manager and is also responsible for product development and marketing for the company. In 2016, Dan was named “Best Boss” by PPB Magazine.

He has served on multiple PPAI committees and is active on many social media and industry groups.

Now he's here with us today. Dan, welcome to the podcast!