About Us

Gemline was founded in 1958 by Sam Isaacson, as a Promotional Products Distributor. Sam sold the traditional logoed products of the time such as pens, calendars, and rulers.

The business slowly grew until 1962 when Sam had the idea of selling combs to school photographers, who would give one to each child prior to having their picture taken. This idea was later developed into a national program where he would sell sets of packaged combs to the students along with school calendars for the teachers or principal. He also sold the combs to corporations to give away as promotional items, alongside the traditional promotional products which Gem continued to sell during that time.

In 1968 Sam Isaacson began to sell inflatables such as beach balls, cars, and characters to gasoline stations to use as service station premiums. Service station premiums were loyalty gifts given to motorists who filled up their cars with gas from participating service stations. This new product proved successful enough that Sam decided to travel to Asia to source the product himself.

In 1973 there were shortages of gas and lines at every service station. Service station premiums were no longer necessary and, at the time, no longer legal. So, Sam went back to Asia in search of a new product line and a new business. It was then that he came up with the idea of importing travel bags.

In 1974 we began to import travel bags. It was a relatively new and unique idea to build bags in Asia and bring them into the United States for sale in the Promotional Products business. Although people were selling bags, they were mostly made in the United States. This proved to be a success and in 1976 the company put out its first catalog.

Gemline continued to grow and in 1978 we opened a screen printing department to print bags here in the United States instead of overseas. In that same year, we opened our own buying office in Taipei, Taiwan which remained open for 14 years.

In 1983 we closed our Taiwan office and opened a new office in Hong Kong which remained open for 19 years. This office provided easy access to our Chinese production base as well as an easy staging area to manage the rest of our Asian production.

Jonathan Isaacson joined the Company full time in 1988. In 1992 he became President and owner of the Company. Three years later, in 1996, we began construction on a new 90,000 square foot facility in Lawrence, Massachusetts. We moved in January 1997.

In 2001, we moved our Hong Kong office into a new 55,000 square foot facility in Southern China. Our headquarters in Lawrence has been expanded to 155,000 square feet and we have over 600 employees worldwide.