42 • JUNE 2026 • PPAI haunt where he enjoys a slice of pizza with grilled chicken on top. As early as 5 years old, Neaman set up lemonade stands and delivered newspapers. In college, he managed snack bars and other food businesses, meeting the drunk munchie demand. “I got my 10,000 hours in business, according to Malcolm Gladwell,” says Neaman, the founder and now president and executive chairman of Vantage. “I’ve always been good at seeing opportunities, finding a need and fulfilling it.” Neaman graduated from Syracuse University in 1974 and earned his MBA from Harvard two years later. He was interested in retail, communications and advertising but didn’t realize that branded merch is the intersection of those three avenues. So, he underwent a 19-month “corporate indoctrination” working for Time and HBO, whose preppy offices inspired the foundation of Vantage Apparel. (He chose the name because it suggests forward vision and positioning.) “I thought there would be a market for custom-made polo shirts,” Neaman says. “The thought process was that there would be less competition in selling a better piece of apparel with embroidery than trying to deal with the T-shirt world.” Content with eating bologna sandwiches while he followed his entrepreneurial spirit, Neaman hustled around New York City, buying fabric, having shirts made to order locally and then customizing them with a direct embroidered logo. He remembers walking Fifth Avenue with Sy Rosenfeld of Allied Premium as he explained what was then known as the “ad specialties” industry. “You’re just a sponge absorbing everything and building case histories every time you meet someone,” Neaman says. “I’d spend half the day dealing with production issues and the other half calling distributors. Apparel was relatively new to them at the time. They didn’t want to sell things with sizes.” Neaman estimates that wearables accounted for only 5% or 6% of the merch market in the late ’70s and early ’80s. But as technology advanced and business casual became an emerging trend, the apparel segment exploded. Representing nearly 10% of distributor revenue, polos are now the third-largest product category, according to industry research. “We were in the right place at the right time to ride the wave,” Neaman says. ‘We’re The Rock Stars’ Rose Marie Juba – whose roughly 300 coworkers refer to her as Rosie – is Neaman’s third-longest-tenured pupil. After assisting at her sister’s bridal shower, the high school senior was offered a job by the late Emily Gola, who played a pivotal role in shaping and guiding Vantage for more than 30 years. Juba joined the then-five-person team in July 1982, quickly becoming a jill of all trades. “Because I was young, you could throw me anywhere,” says Juba, her Easter-egg nails tapping the conference table. “When it snowed, nobody wanted to drive, so I’d go pick them up and take them home because you had to work. We were growing.” Currently a production supervisor, Juba handled the company’s first in-house embroidery order some 40 years ago. She recalls being trained on the initial machine by a Polish woman in Long Island, New York, who couldn’t understand her and vice versa. “When I got back to the office, they asked if we were ready to begin embroidery tomorrow. I said, ‘Tomorrow? We need needles, thread, backing, wait ’til you see this thing!’ We didn’t know what we didn’t know.” That naivete has matured into mastery. Vantage’s stock-in-trade has become embroidery, offering specialty threads, unique stitch techniques, custom monogramming and an ample selection of appliqués. One of the largest embroiderers in North America, the company operates more than 1,200 embroidery heads across its facilities in Avenel, St. Louis and Santa Ana, California. There’s hardware to prove the team does it as well or better than anyone. Vantage earned its 30th consecutive PPAI Golden Pyramid Award for embroidery decoration this year – a feat no other company in the branded merch industry has achieved. Must Read | Suppliers Rose Marie Juba “The thought process was that there would be less competition in selling a better piece of apparel with embroidery than trying to deal with the T-shirt world.” – IRA NEAMAN, MAS
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