On-Product Printing Promotes & Protects – October 2023 M&A Activity

Most of us do not have to read this label to instantly know that this patch is attached to a pair of the eponymous Levi Strauss original 501 denim blue jeans. The label and the look say it all, these are genuine Levi’s.

Marlon Brando wore a pair of Levi’s 501s in the 1953 movie The Wild One, forever changing blue jeans from farmers’ garb to the ultimate symbol of counterculture cool. James Dean solidified the hip image in 1955 in the film Rebel Without a Cause when his jeans stood out in stark contrast to the letterman sweaters and poodle skirts then popular on high school campuses. Marilyn Monroe made the stitching of the backside pockets famous in a photo for Life Magazine. More recently, Steve Jobs, Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain, and Barack Obama, among many others, all made Levi’s 501s their cool uniform of choice. Regardless of the wearer, we immediately know authentic Levi’s jeans because they sport the printed leather patch (or faux leather nowadays) with the two-horses logo sewn onto the waistband. Printing lets us know that we have the real deal.

OpSec Group, headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, acquired Global Trim. Based in Yorba Linda, California, Global Trim provides a wide range of custom labels, tags, stickers, and patches for branded apparel. The company’s labels adorn many of the brands we admire and purchase. Highly focused and dedicated solely to serve the needs of the apparel manufacturing industry, the company utilizes many production technologies, including woven labels, printed cloth labels, highly decorated printed hangtags, printed heat transfers, molded silicon, and yes, even leather patches that are printed and debossed.

The buyer, OpSec Group, provides a range of services to protect brand identity and related intellectual property rights, including the management of trademark and brand licenses, monitoring compliance with government and brand regulations such as ethical sourcing requirements, product identification and traceability, enforcement of brand ownership, protection of online digital content, and product authentication technologies. Consistent with its corporate mission to protect intellectual property, with its acquisition of Global Trim, the company now provides distinctive product labels, hangtags, packaging, and other forms of identification that uniquely identifies its customers’ brands. Printing and imaging are integral to the recognition that we associate with the value of a product.