Iris van Herpen may not be a household name, but her new clothing technologies may be about to change the face of promotional clothing forever. van Herpen is a Dutch designer, beloved of Bjork, amongst others, and she’s currently staging an exhibition in Groningen that features clothing she has created for catwalk shows. And each piece has been modelled using 3D software.

It’s counterintuitive to what most of us know about clothing design, which is the idea that designers use the actual fabric and drape, cut and shape it around a model to see what’s possible – but van Herpen has other ideas. This new technology pushes the boundaries of what can be done with fabric, just as simulation software allows surgeons to push the limits of what can be done with surgery.

As an example, Bjork wears a 3D print dress with constellations on it for the promotional video for her single, Moon. Similar applications for promotional clothing could be 3D street maps to help people locate new businesses. And of course, for the next few years, such promotional clothing, whether it’s a printed T-shirt or a 3D hat that ‘changes’ the head shape of the wearer (Klingon printed hats are already being explored by the Star Trek franchise, apparently) will be headline-earning, and that’s the purpose of good promotional garments.

As British football fans focus on the recovery of Fabrice Muamba after a collapse on the football pitch, supportive T-shirts abound. Meantime, in New Jersey, America, a new T-shirt raises awareness of brain injury – its causes, its treatment and the need to raise funds for people with such injuries. The limited edition shirt is on sale for a month only.

Footballers are lifting their team shirts to show messages of support for Fabrice Muamba and his family, and the awareness of the risks of cardiac arrest and the value of knowing CPR and being able to do it on somebody whose heart has stopped.

Such awareness raising activities can be a valuable support to community activities – also being promoted this week is a walk for a hospice, linked to Davina McCall’s personal trainer whose relatives benefited from the hospice’s existence and TOWIE star Amy Childs wearing a Sport Relief T-shirt.

Of course not every business can find a celebrity to endorse them, but just about every business can find a good cause that needs public awareness and offer to sponsor a T-shirt or polo shirt that will help raise the profile of the cause. It can be extremely cheap, and by linking a subtle brand element such as a logo, to the awareness raising T-shirt, companies can create a long term association between themselves and a popular and worthy cause which benefits both parties.

Linking such T-shirts to an event can be even more positive: a marathon team, a group undertaking a world record, a flash mob or just giving out information leaflets about the cause in the street all bring a new recognition of the cause, and of the company that is supporting it through branded clothing.

A nuts and bolts article by Forbes shows how clothing brand Mishka has linked its garments to music to create a compelling blend for consumers, but what can non-clothing brands do to distinguish themselves from the competition?

Mishka has developed a relationship with hip-hop groups that has fed a loyalty factor into its garment sales. When groups like BBU are endorsed by DJs like Diplo, the spin-off for the clothing company that supports the group is a group of fans that wear Mishka clothing to show their fandom for Diplo, or BBU or several other bands.

The average business may not feel equipped or even keen, to get into the world of music promotion, but every founder has some kind of outside interest. For Mishka’s Mikhail Bortnik it was skate graphics and band T-shirts. For a car dealership owner it may be classic cars, the proprietor of a white goods store may love bowling, or the wife of the founder of a software company may be committed to growing vegetables. Whatever the passion, there are ways to promote relationships in the community through clothing, sponsorship and genuine grass roots enthusiasm.

Mishka was one of the first clothing retailers to have a blog ‘The Bloglin’ which launched in 2007 and became a check in point for fashion fans and music fans alike.

Bowling tournament schedules can be posted online with reviews of previous games, tips and hints about what to grow now and what to cook with what’s seasonally available can be treated similarly. Recipe lists given away with white goods – bowling bags or vegetable bags or baseball caps printed with the company logo for anybody doing anything outdoors, sponsored bowls or weed clearances for a local charity … the ideas are limited only by the ingenuity of those involved, and it’s much easier to promote a good cause than a company, any day. Getting staff involved is just as easy. You can set up a bowling team or a workplace vegetable bed, offer a prize for the best score or the biggest potato, and then put out regular press releases about the company’s charitable activities, supported by photos of the team wearing branded clothing.

We’ve all become used to seeing racing drivers and Grand Prix motorcyclists, and their vehicles, emblazoned with sponsorship decals and promotional symbols, but now Honda’s MotoGP team is benefitting from a new technology created in partnership with the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) which combines promotional clothing with sensors that collect and transmit data over a wireless network.

The T-shirts are able to conduct a real-time monitoring of the rider, creating an intelligent garment that is non-invasive and allows sports professionals to analyse the overall performance of an athlete by, for example, assessing if body temperature or dehydration are contributing to a slowing of response time, or whether physical effort during a race is leading to a build up of lactic acid in the rider’s body which can slow recovery time.

The clothing could also combine promotional activity with data gathering – it is possible, for example, for embedded LEDs in a garment to flash in unison with a rider’s heartbeat, which could lead to an interaction between clothing and race commentators who would be able to interpret the rider’s emotional responses via the rate at which symbols on clothing flashed or changed colour.

The clothing will be road-tested during the Qatar Grand Prix in April.

As President Obama fired a marshmallow cannon in the White House dining room in a publicity stunt that resonated around the world, a range of promotional clothing to fund the incumbent’s Presidential re-election campaign went on sale. It’s a bewildering concept for the British voter: while some people put up posters in their windows, or may put a sticker in their car, almost nobody would wear a campaign T-shirt, unless it was a satirical comment on the election process as a whole. In America though, dressing the part demonstrates commitment to a candidate and to their funding, which is strictly regulated by the Federal Electoral Commission. Beyonce Knowles has designed a T-shirt for the campaign, and a silk scarf created by Monique Pean bears the President’s portrait.

The drive to sell is being fuelled by deliberately low prices which allow people to get a designer label (tops by Marc Jacobs, or a bag by Diane von Furstenburg) at much lower than usual prices. The opposition have raised questions about the issue, suggesting that while the designers may have donated their time for free, anybody who would normally be paid to help produce printed clothing would be ‘underwriting’ the campaign, which is illegal, but the Obama team say they are confident that all the technical support given to and by the designers was voluntary and unpaid.

Twice in recent days, promotional clothing has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. To begin with, one retailer managed to list T-shirts for sale that appeared to predict a win in the upcoming England v Scotland match!

It appears that an online stock checking system was incorrectly implemented, so that a promotional T-shirt that had been designed to commemorate the 2008 Calcutta Cup win by Scotland were reoffered for sale, in relation to the opening Six Nations match which has yet to be played. Last time the two sides met, England won.

Scotland fans seem to have decided that relisting old T-shirt was a bad omen: the Scots have a story that many companies produced commemorative ties and sportswear based on a confidently predicted English Grand Slam victory in 1990, which had to be destroyed when Scotland won 13-7. The parallels have left many superstitious Scotland supporters very unhappy!

Also making negative headlines is the new ruling that New York City police officers cannot wear, own or possess anything that carries the famous NYPD shield, unless that item is an official uniform component. The ban has caused an outcry, as many officers chose to wear non-official shield-bearing clothing when they are off duty, as a sign of solidarity, particularly since 9/11.

A spokesman for the NYPD said, “The department wants to deter the unprofessional appearance associated with unauthorized police-related logos and slogans.” However, the president of the police union claims that the ruling is nonsensical and may infringe the right to free speech. Many officers are already asking why the only people in the world who can’t have an NYPD keyring or vest are the members of the NYPD itself.

Both stories highlight the risks involved in pre-empting anything, whether it’s public opinion, a sporting result, or market testing before choosing promotional material. It’s difficult to turn bad press into good news, and taking time to ensure that promotional clothing is legal, decent and accurately portrays the story you wish to tell can save a lot of negative headlines.

‘Karl’ is an online fashion collection which will be offered to net buyers for a month before it is made available in shops.

It’s an increasing trend which analysts identify as being part of the move towards rejuvenation of the fashion industry via the web. Online clothing retail has become a large growth area in otherwise moribund economies, and brands like Versace have seen it as a way of maintaining exclusivity for differing areas of their clothing empires, for example by having an online brand specifically targeted at preteens that doesn’t impinge on their established brands for adults.

In the ten years from April 2001 the overall value of online clothing retail grew by an astonishing 3,200% according to a report by the Interactive Media in Retail Group. This may be in part due to the fact that better-off individuals are more likely to buy named brands and also less likely to be suffering the effects of the recession. Mid-range branded clothing is also growing comfortably through online retailing and group purchasing has increased, suggesting sports teams and small companies are focusing on the benefits to be gained from buying uniforms or team clothing online with free postage, easy returns and discounts for larger orders.

Burberry and Coach have also moved into the online retail market which offers several other benefits, including the ability to discount more heavily. Sports brands such as Nike and Adidas in particular are keen to expand their access to new markets and this is likely to mean that online shoppers benefit from bargains in the months ahead.

While Facebook is the Goliath of social networking, there are many Davids out there, getting niche attention.

One way that brands and businesses are using bespoke social media is to drive networking through only the media that will reach their ideal customer base. So for example, Levis is using Instagram, the hip and retro photographic network, to find models for its next advertising campaign. One committed Instagram user is Jamie Oliver, and Barack Obama’s campaign team use the photo networking site too, as do Burberry, MTV and Bergdorf’s, Gucci, Billboard Magazine and Starbucks.

It’s easy to see that there’s a target market there: liberal, food conscious, keen to be on trend but not a brand slave … and that Instagram carries a message that links similar brands so that Jamie Oliver can be seen wearing Levi’s jeans, or a Bergdorf’s catwalk model spotted drinking Starbucks – the linkages create interest that drives activity.

So for Redbull, for example, find that posting pictures of casually clad people doing ‘out there’ things in daily life – skateboarding to work or dancing in an underground train – links their brand to a small but dedicated social media outlet that will drive attention to their product.

Promotional clothing has an unusual role in this kind of media, because it’s an almost wordless communication – Burberry works hard to ensure its models have a distinctly British look and boosts that by setting them against quintessential British backgrounds to give a strong, if silent, message to viewers.

Storify is being used by many big brands in a similar fashion, but to wrap social media into a brand line (eg Levi’s recent foray into the way women see themselves through their clothing choices) that gives a social media boost to a brand led statement. Tumblr is another social network that is being used to integrate promotional activity, branded clothing, consumer aspirations and peer recommendation.

According to a recent report from Sheffield Hallam University, the two sectors that will benefit most from the London Olympics are gambling and sports clothing. The research suggests that the UK sporting economy will expand and the clothing industry in particular is likely to grow by 15% in the next three years, while the gambling industry is predicted to grow by around 6% over the same period.

The long term trend of the British sporting industry to take a larger share of national economic activity is likely to accelerate as a result of the Olympics, and will spike in specific areas if British athletes win gold medals during the games: already Mo Farah’s impact on distance running has been seen not just in medal tallies and young people entering the sport but in an increase in sales of United Jack running vests and his trademark white-rimmed running glasses. As sports stars like Freddie Flintoff and Jonny Wilkinson develop their own sporting clothing brands, this trend will become a large part of both the economy and the fashion consciousness of the nation.

One of the greatest growth areas of sports clothing is branded winter wear, especially clothing that has UV protection against winter sun. Snow reflects around 80% of UV radiation, which is much higher than the 10% reflected by water, but most people forget to wear sunscreen in winter who would always put on suncream when they wore shorts and a T-shirt on the beach.

Men are much more likely to develop melanoma (a sun related skin cancer) than women because they wear less sunscreening products and tend to exercise outdoors more, giving them a greater risk of exposure to high UV levels on a regular basis, especially if they play team sports such as rugby or football where hats and sunglasses are not generally worn.

We’ve got used to camel, merino, bamboo and hemp as additions to textiles and organic cotton has become a commonplace choice for uniforms where companies are committed to environmental progress, but the newest addition to the clothing market is Yak!

The reasoning behind the idea is that wool from yaks, particularly Tibetan Plateau yaks is warmer than lambs wool and softer than cashmere, making it an ideal for sports clothing and outdoor enthusiasts.

The company behind the launch is a consortium of Beijing-based entrepreneurs including a former British Army officer and an American aid worker, and their promotional activity included kitting out Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, (aka the Snow Leopard) who is the first Ghanaian to compete in the Winter Olympics. He wore their fleeces and winter tops throughout the contest.

The company, called Khunu, hopes that the Snow Leopard will be as durable as their products and is donating 2% of the profits back to the yak-herders in the hope that this promotional activity will also garner publicity.