Brand-new findings from ASI Research indicate that across North America, education continues to be the number-one end-buyer market for promo.

In Canada, orders from schools and universities made up 11.3% of total industry sales. It’s also the top market in the U.S., where it accounted for 13.1%. Construction and manufacturing/distribution rounded out the top three end-buyer industries for Canadian distributors.

Among the most in-demand product categories in Canada were T-shirts (which is also number-one in the U.S.), followed by bags and drinkware.

Construction, logistics and tourism are the top three markets for Full Line Specialties (asi/199688), a certified B Corp in Surrey, BC, while key product categories include jackets, T-shirts, headwear, drinkware and polos. “We haven’t seen a big uptick in demand for bags, even with the nationwide plastic ban,” says President and CEO Sam Singh, whose company does about 10% to 15% of annual business with clients outside of Canada. “I think a lot of businesses now rely on shoppers to bring their own bags.” That could pose an opportunity for distributors to pitch branded totes to retail locations.

Click here for a PDF of the below infographic.