PPAI Expo 2027: What Distributors Can Expect from Brikl at Booth 5055

The PPAI Expo 2027 runs January 11–14, 2027, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, with the show floor open January 12–14. Brikl is exhibiting at booth 5055, a 30 x 20 ft booth in the Bayside Halls, right next to BELLA + CANVAS and a short walk from S&S and Stahls'. The booth has three counters: two where distributors can try Brikl v3 hands-on, and one with a first look at the upcoming Brikl Supplier Platform.

In short:

• The PPAI Expo is the largest and longest-running trade show in branded merchandise, with nearly 1,000 exhibitors and a show floor of about 1 million square feet.
• It is trade-only: distributors, suppliers and service providers. End-buyers can't attend.
• Find Brikl at booth 5055, Bayside Halls A–E, beside BELLA + CANVAS and near the food court.
• Two of the three Brikl counters are dedicated to the Distributor Platform and the v3 release.
• See Turbo Store build a live, stocked store in about 10 seconds, right in front of you.
• The third counter gives a first look at the Supplier Platform. More on that in a follow-up post.

What is The PPAI Expo, and why does it matter?

The PPAI Expo is the annual trade show of PPAI, the Promotional Products Association International. PPAI calls it the largest and longest-running trade show in the branded merchandise industry. For many distributors, it's the place where the year's buying, sourcing and technology decisions start.

The industry it serves is large. PPAI estimates that U.S. distributor sales reached $27.1 billion in 2025, the first year above $27 billion, though growth slowed to 1.3%. Online sales already make up about $7.1 billion of that, or 26.3%. In other words, more than a quarter of the industry's volume now runs through a screen, and that share keeps growing.

Three things make the show hard to replace:

• Everything in one place. Suppliers, decorators, apparel brands and technology providers share one floor. In three days, a distributor can see products, meet partners and compare platforms that would otherwise take months of calls.
• It sets the tone for the year. The show opens in January, so the products, prices and tools seen there shape the programs distributors sell for the next twelve months.
• Relationships. Branded merchandise is still a relationship business. Many supplier and distributor partnerships that run for years started with a conversation on this floor.

PPAI's president and CEO, Drew Holmgreen, summed it up when registration opened: "The PPAI Expo remains the most important gathering of the year for our community." PPAI also calls 2027 the first year of a new three-year roadmap for the show, so expect changes in the format over the next few editions.

PPAI Expo 2027 at a glance

The show runs four days at Mandalay Bay: one day of education, then three days on the show floor.

	Details
Venue	Mandalay Bay Convention Center, 3970 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas
PPAI Advance (education)	Monday, January 11, 2027, 7:30 AM–4:45 PM
Show floor	Tuesday and Wednesday, January 12–13, 9:30 AM–5 PM; Thursday, January 14, 9:30 AM–2 PM
Show floor size	About 1 million square feet
Exhibitors	Nearly 1,000 companies in more than 2,500 booths
Products	More than 250,000
Education	More than 30 hours at PPAI Advance
Who can attend	Trade only: qualified distributors, exhibitors and PPAI member suppliers

For scale, the 2026 edition expected more than 16,000 attendees, including more than 10,000 distributors. They came from more than 3,500 companies and 30 countries, and saw more than 400 new products on the floor.

Who attends, and who exhibits?

The PPAI Expo is a trade-only show. PPAI is explicit that end-buyers, such as corporate purchasers of branded merchandise, can't attend. That keeps the floor focused on the people who make, sell and deliver promo.

Who walks the floor:

• Distributors make up most attendees, from one-person shops to the largest national distributors. They must be PPAI members, qualified non-members, regional association members or SAGE subscribers.
• Multi-line reps who represent several supplier lines.
• Member suppliers who aren't exhibiting but come to meet distributors and see the market.
• Industry media covering new products and trends.

Who exhibits:

• Hard-goods suppliers: drinkware, bags, writing instruments, tech, and the many other products distributors put a logo on.
• Apparel brands and blank wholesalers: on the Brikl side of the hall alone, that includes S&S, BELLA + CANVAS and Next Level Apparel.
• Decorators and fulfillment providers who print, embroider and ship orders.
• Technology and service providers: ordering, store, ERP and workflow platforms, like Brikl.

The mix matters for distributors. In one trip, you can source products, meet the partners who decorate them, and compare the software you'll use to sell them.

Where to find Brikl: booth 5055

Brikl is at booth 5055, a 30 x 20 ft booth in Bayside Halls A–E at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. It sits in one of the busiest parts of the hall, surrounded by many of the apparel brands and platforms distributors already work with.

Landmarks to find us:

Neighbor	Booth	Where it is from Brikl
BELLA + CANVAS	5041	Right next door, to the west
FedEx	—	Just across the aisle, to the east
Food Court	—	A few steps north-east
Stahls'	5255	Just south, one booth row down
S&S Activewear	4322, 4623, 4629	One aisle north-west
Next Level Apparel	4737	One aisle north
The Magnet Group	5031	Two booths west, past BELLA + CANVAS
Gemline	5013	Same row, further west
Logomark	4337	Two aisles north-west
PCNA	4022	North-west, at the end of the row

The easiest way to find us: head for the food court in the Bayside Halls, and look for the square, hanging Brikl sign next to BELLA + CANVAS. You can also search "Brikl" in the official PPAI Expo 2027 floor plan to get directions on the day.

If you're planning your route, the cluster around our booth makes it easy to combine visits. You can meet your apparel suppliers at S&S, BELLA + CANVAS and Next Level, see decoration and fulfillment at Stahls', and then stop by Brikl to see how it all comes together in an on-demand store.

What's at the booth?

The booth is built around three demo counters and two meeting tables. Everything is hands-on: you sit down, and we build with you.

• Counters 1 and 2: the Distributor Platform. Bring a client's logo, or just a client in mind. We'll build a live store with you, quote a bulk order and show you what the dashboard looks like after orders come in.
• Counter 3: the Supplier Platform. A first look at what we're building for suppliers. See the section below.
• Two meeting tables. For longer conversations: moving existing stores to Brikl, enterprise and white-label setups, or a pricing walkthrough.
• The merch wall. Every product on the wall was made on demand through Brikl: tees, hoodies, caps, beanies and drinkware, decorated with DTG, DTF and embroidery. Pick them up and judge the quality for yourself.

Brikl v3: what you can try at the distributor counters

Brikl v3 is the biggest release of the platform so far. It is the third version of Brikl's fully on-demand platform, after v1 in 2024 and v2 in 2025. The goal is simple: make on-demand work for every account you have, not just the largest ones.

Turbo Store: a live store in about 10 seconds

Turbo Store builds a live, stocked store from three inputs: an industry, a quality tier and a logo. It assembles the catalog from the Brikl marketplace, applies one pricing rule across the store, places the artwork on every product and opens the storefront.

Why it matters: a store used to be something you built for your biggest accounts. When a store takes seconds, you can build one for every prospect, and walk into the meeting with their store already live. At the booth, give us a logo and watch it happen.

Order Builder: on-demand for the bulk orders you place today

Not every order starts in a store. Order Builder handles bulk orders with per-unit pricing, size grids, quantities and printed order sheets. Decoration is set per item, not per order, and you see your margin while you build the quote.

There is no store needed before you quote, and no minimum quantity before the numbers work. A team order of 14 hoodies is priced the same way as one of 400.

Instant digitization: any logo, decoration-ready

The slowest step in many orders is the artwork. Instant digitization turns any logo into a decoration-ready file, so a client's low-resolution JPEG no longer holds up the order.

Store Editor: design by clicking

The Store Editor lets you redesign a storefront by clicking directly on what you want to change. Banners, sections and product placement are all edited on the page itself.

Brikl for AI: run your business from chat

Brikl is built API-first, and in v3 every action in the platform is available as a tool through Brikl's own MCP server. That means you can manage stores, products and orders from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok, within the permissions you set.

At the booth, we'll show you what it looks like to ask an AI assistant to build a store, check this week's orders, or update the pricing on a collection.

What hasn't changed

The fundamentals of Brikl stay the same in v3:

• A marketplace of 8,000+ products from 190+ brands.
• No inventory and no minimum order quantity. Every item is produced on demand.
• Automatic routing of each order to the right decoration partner.
• Brikl as Merchant of Record on the Launch plan, handling payment, sales tax and chargebacks.
• 3.5% per transaction, with no setup fee and no monthly subscription.

See the full release on the Why Brikl page.

A first look at the Brikl Supplier Platform

The third counter is for suppliers, and for distributors who want to know what's coming. The Brikl Supplier Platform is in the works, and PPAI Expo 2027 is the first place to see it.

We'll keep the details for the booth and for a follow-up post. Here is the idea in one line: suppliers publish their catalog once, and distributors can work with it wherever they sell.

If you're a distributor, the takeaway is this: more of the products you already sell, on demand, in the same place you run your stores. If you're a supplier, come find us at counter 3.

See Brikl v3 live at booth 5055

Come build a store with us in the Bayside Halls, January 12–14. Can't make it to Las Vegas? You can start on Brikl today, with no setup fee and no subscription.

Book a demo online · Start free — no credit card

Sources

• Registration officially open for The PPAI Expo 2027 — PPAI
• The PPAI Expo 2027: attendee FAQ — PPAI
• The PPAI Expo 2027: attendance information — PPAI
• The PPAI Expo — PPAI
• PPAI Expo 2026 recap — Trade Show Executive
• U.S. distributor sales reached new height in 2025 — PPAI Research
• PPAI Expo 2027 floor plan — Map Your Show
• Why Brikl: new in v3 — Brikl