Kickstart: Embracing Taylor Swift's eras via beads and bracelets

Swifties have gone all in for plastic this summer.

Not that they're thinking of their embrace of friendship bracelets for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour as being about plastics, obviously, but fans making (or buying) dozens of bracelets with plastic beads to trade at her shows have created a new boom in beads.

Friendship bracelets weren't something the musician pushed in advance of the tour. Instead, as Cosmopolitan writes, they seem to have grown organically as fans made their own bracelets — preferably with letters spelling out song titles, lyrics or fandom inside jokes — and shared them both in person and via social media posts.

"The trend ties back to the Swift song You're On Your Own, Kid from the singer's 2022 album, Midnights," added Amber Raiken in The Independent. "In the beloved bridge of the tune, the lyrics read: 'Everything you lose is a step you take / So make the friendship bracelets / Take the moment and taste it.' Swifties took the Grammy Award winner's advice literally, with friendship bracelets becoming a staple of the Eras tour."

Joe Ritacco, vice president of Rhode Island-based injection molder The Beadery, says that "we can't really link anything directly to Taylor Swift fans, but we have had a surge in activity [and] interest by wholesale customers and on our website in white alphabet beads and pony beads, both of which are used in many friendship bracelets."

Will the interest in crafting with plastic beads outlive the tour? Perhaps. After all, It’s Nice to Have a Friend(ship bracelet).

Kevin N. Pageau, owner and president of International Marketing Alliance and a former GE Plastics engineer involved in the early use of CAE technologies in the auto industry, has been named the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the automotive division of the Society of Plastics Engineers.

Pageau will receive the award during the SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala Nov. 8 in Livonia, Mich.

Pageau has been a longtime leader of the awards, helping to coordinate both the event and parts judging. And early in his career — while at GE Plastics — he was part of the development team that won an SPE award for the 1990 Eagle Premiere sedan.

"Kevin is the smartest guy I know in this industry," said Fred Deans, of Allied Composites Technology and SPE Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2015, in a news release. "Many of the plastics tooling analysis programs used in industry today are a result of Kevin's ingenuity."

In addition to International Marketing Alliance and GE Plastics, Pageau has worked with BP Amoco, Dott Industries, Mayne-McKenney and Plastics Engineering and Technical Services.

The SPE auto division has named a lifetime achievement winner every year since 2001. Awards have been given to parts since 1971.

Decowraps, a supplier of packaging for florist shops, is rolling out a more sustainable plastic wrap for fresh flowers and plants.

The EvolveFlex film contains up to 90 percent recycled content, the Miami-based business said, adding that it allows local shops to "take the crucial first step towards reducing plastic waste in landfills and showcasing your dedication to environmental sustainability."

Decowraps also sells paper wrap. It is a supplier to major retailers such as Walmart, Costco and Target as well as smaller shops.