Color influences 62% to 90% of decisions without people even realizing it. To ensure your branded merchandise does well in 2025, align with trending colors to stay relevant and evoke emotional connections. Here are the 2025 trends in color palettes that will help you succeed.
Future Dusk
As WGSN announced, Future Dusk's deep violet-blue is an intriguing hue, dark and moody with a sense of mystery that heralds a period of immense change. A romantic twilight shade, it sits between blue and purple, suggesting the transition of moving from dark to light or dusk to dawn. As a blue tone, it lends a feeling of calmness and stability, giving the hope of averting the many crises people are experiencing today.
With the sky themes and its celestial, otherworldly feel, it's no wonder that Future Dusk also aligns with our increasing passion for space exploration and the growing industries of space tourism, asteroid mining, and even the metaverse. This hue also takes inspiration from the rise of "synthetic creativity," like AI art.
The tone is gender-inclusive and versatile, reminiscent of older, cozy spaces. It's a mainstay of the Whimsigoth interior trend, an aesthetic that reimagines gothic decor to hold a witchy, magical vibe. All of this makes Future Dusk an ideal option to give your merch an air of wonder and imagination.
Mocha Mousse
Muted luxuries have become popular as a way to fulfill our desire for everyday pleasures. Mocha Mousse, Pantone's 2025 Color of the Year, is a neutral, mellow, warm pink-brown that evokes cacao and coffee. Brown, often considered a humble and grounded color, now takes on a glamorous tone with this trend.
The tone exudes a sense of comfort and wellness, reminding people that they don't need a showy display to indulge themselves and can instead savor special, intimate moments of joy.
Try Mocha Mousse in your packaging and multimedia merchandise as a neutral, utility-oriented tone. It has an almost tactile nuance that invites people to interact with it, making it an appealing hue for food, cosmetics, or wellness products.
Seasonless and genderless, the hue is perfect for slower trend cycles. It can complement a variety of colors, lending to its longevity. As a result, Mocha Mousse is a good option for merchandise you intend for customers to use for a long time. With accent notes from your brand palette or other 2025 trending colors, you can produce stylish pieces that anyone will be eager to buy.
Fiery Reds
Brightly burning hues like tomato red, Pantone's Scarlet Smile, and Sunset Coral — a feature on Coloro's Spring/Summer '25 Palette — are feel-good colors that radiate with energy. With conscious hedonism on the rise, these fiery reds let people eager to pursue their passions wear that desire on their sleeve.
These reds also speak to the growing urge for escapism felt around the world in recent years. People want to break away from their everyday lives and the norms they feel confined to, and intense, fiery reds represent such a shift from everyday activities. Reds are a catalyst for creativity and passion, attracting people wishing to express these qualities.
Brands can take advantage of the versatility and vibrancy of these tones to draw attention and engage customers. Pulling in people who want to linger in conscious hedonism, these are the ideal colors to encourage your audience to connect, reflect, and explore.
Animal Instinct Prints
2024 saw the return of the "mob wife aesthetic," as TikTok influencers started putting out tutorial videos on how to dress like a mob wife. Francis Ford Coppola, the Godfather director himself, even posted on Instagram that the mob wife was making a comeback.
With this trend came the boost in animal prints — specifically leopard prints — in fashion. Dior, Celine, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana, Jacquemus, and Isabel Marant have all featured this element in recent collections in various styles ranging from subtle to strong.
While it's more of a pattern than a color, we're including this brown-based aesthetic as a neutral staple gaining momentum as we enter the new year. As the mob wife trend suggests, animal instinct prints recall an opulent, wild yesteryear that today's digital audience wants to recapture. Branded apparel along these lines can use the leopard print to draw in this audience.
Animal prints also play a big role in the resurging #IndieSleeze trend, Gen Z's reinterpretation of the chaotic glamour and edgy nostalgia from the early 2000s. The style combines mismatched, disproportionate clothes to create a form of cohesive chaos, making the wearer feel more relaxed and carefree. Brands like ADIDAS, Vans, and Converse have adapted by introducing animal-print skate and streetwear that appeals to this audience.
Likewise, your brand can emphasize your audience's individuality with a variety of animal-print merchandise suited to different tastes. If you want to be a part of a trend that dresses to stand out, diverse options are the way to go.
How To Blend Trends With Your Voice and Audience
Realizing the value of these colors is step one. The next step to capitalizing on these trends is understanding how to blend them with your unique voice and audience:
- Define the story: Start with a compelling story that incorporates the color. For example, Future Dusk would work well on tech accessories like phone cases to evoke curiosity and align with innovation.
- Align messaging with the product: Pairing your promotional products with the color's significant attributes resonates better with the audience you're trying to reach. For example, using Mocha Mousse for cozy merchandise such as premium journals carries the idea of quiet luxury.
- Adapt the color to the medium: The medium and item on which you place the color should dictate how you use it. For example, a subtle leopard print adds texture to a mug, while a bolder one would fit better on a statement bag.
Explore Boundless for 2025 Branded Merch
Employing trending colors makes your PR boxes and branded apparel shine. Picking the right colors for the right pieces creates the connections to draw in the audience you're looking for. But this is only one aspect to consider for your merch.
Shop the Boundless 2025 Trending Lookbook to see how to make your branded merchandise stand out this year.
If this feels like a lot to remember, don't worry. Boundless is here for you — just get in touch and we'll be happy to help you produce trendy but purposeful promotions that resonate with your audience.
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