Gemline was founded in 1958 as a promotional products distributor. The company began selling inflatables, such as beach balls, cars, and characters to gasoline stations to use as service station premiums in 1968. In 1974, the company began to import travel bags. Gemline has a screen-printing department to print bags and a more than 90,000-square-foot facility in Lawrence, Mass. In 2001, it moved to its facility in Hong Kong, a more than 55,000-square-foot facility in southern China. Its headquarters in Lawrence has expanded to more than 155,000-square-feet, and has over 600 employees worldwide.