Employee swag going global with Jaapi and Printful collab

Finding the right tech partner in Printful

Karim found Printful, and the API stood out to him. He thought it was the perfect foundation for building a custom swag experience.

Printful’s infrastructure helped Jaapi launch quickly. 

When Jaapi made its first few sales, Karim and his team didn’t handle a single t-shirt. The entire fulfillment process ran in the background, powered by Printful’s network.

It was a leap of faith – and it paid off.

“I have a non-traditional background in this industry. And when we sold our first product, the employees of the company got their first t-shirts without us ever touching them,” Karim recalls. “We just fully trusted Printful to do the right thing, which they did.”

That trust allowed Jaapi to focus on the platform, customer needs, and continuous improvement, instead of worrying about the logistics.

Why companies pick Jaapi for employee swag

Remote companies choose Jaapi for its flexibility and convenience. Whether their team is in Brazil, Europe, or Australia, everyone gets the swag that fits their lifestyle and season. 

Another bulk swag issue is that most employees end up with generic swag items they don’t like. They take them home out of politeness – then throw them out. Leftovers become surplus inventory companies eventually have to dump.

Jaapi’s global fulfillment model flips that script. Employees choose what they’ll actually wear without the company storing anything in bulk.

“Giving employees choice is, by design, more sustainable,” Karim says. “Because they can pick whatever they like and will more likely use the swag. They’ll wear it instead of giving it away or hiding it in a drawer.”

Scaling the mission

A major customer came to Jaapi with an unusual request, and it became the company’s biggest test yet.

“We got this request where we had to give the same t-shirt to 1,900 employees in 40 different countries. That kind of request would be impossible without the Jaapi-Printful partnership,” explains Karim. “We produce it at the facility closest to them, regardless of where they are in the world.”

Jaapi is approaching $1 million in revenue. Karim credits its on-demand swag and global-first approach for keeping clients and their employees happy.

Lessons for founders: Risks, trust, and feedback

Karim’s advice centers on one key insight: focus on what you do best and find reliable partners for the rest.

“Take risks. Trust partners. Don’t dwell too much on the details you don’t know,” Karim recommends. “The things that fail, you learn, you quickly adapt, and you fix them. You realize that what you thought would be a problem just isn’t,” he continued.

He quickly learned that real progress comes from action, not endless planning. What seemed scary or impossible often turned out to be minor details.

For Karim, success stemmed from building a flexible foundation, trusting the process, and solving the right problems. 

The approach worked because he knew what to own vs. what to outsource. Jaapi owns the customer experience. Printful owns the physical fulfillment. Neither tries to do everything.

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