Why would your business benefit from using sublimation blanks for gifts and promotions?
Your name is your brand, in many cases. When you hear a first name, you immediately think of at least one person with that name.
Now think about how many business names and team names you see each day. What businesses first come to mind? Likely the ones you have seen or heard over and over, with unique logos, mottos, or monikers.
Business names and company logos, personal names, and even “Taco Tuesday” marketing using personalized products are popular and are almost a necessity for small and large businesses. Customers have come to expect custom freebies as loyalty gifts or as add-ons with large orders. And personalized items are often used for wedding, employee, and business gifts.
Sublimation blanks to the rescue! Drinkware, t-shirts, hats, keychains, and other small and large items are easily customizable and marketed using sublimation. How can your business jump in and provide products personalized for your current and future customers? Meeting the need for personalized items is easy with sublimation.
Okay, What's Sublimation?
Sublimation is well known to hobbyists and crafters, but professional sign makers may not be as familiar with this type of kind of printing. Basically, sublimation is a way to transfer a design onto fabric or objects using heat and ink. It transfers the design by sublimating, or vaporizing the ink into the polymer coating on the substrate.
This type of printing has a long-lasting effect because the ink is not resting on the top of the item; it is embedded in the fabric or ceramic. Think of it as being a tattoo-artist, except your designs are on non-living subjects.
In reality, sublimation has been around for decades. Popular with hobbyists and some t-shirt providers, the method is now being used on wood, ceramic, metal, and other substances which have a coating to accept the ink transferred. Repetitious designs, photography prints, text, and advertising are just a few ways to use sublimation printing for your business or personal use.
Is Sublimation Worth the Effort?
You may be wondering if expanding into this facet of business is worth learning something new. The fact is, the increase in requests for personalized items – especially insulated drinkware and tumblers – over the past ten years demonstrates how much growth there is in this industry. Eco-conscious individuals have increased the market for imprinted, reusable drinkware to an ever-greater degree. The global tumbler market alone is expected to reach an estimated $2.5 billion by 2023, per a recent survey by globalnewswire.com.
Offering this option for your business won’t deplete your budget, and is a sure way to expand products offered by your business. SignWarehouse has various starter bundles which include printer, ink, and startup substrates, that will help you get into this profitable line of work.
Experienced Professionals and New Crafters
From professional signmakers to new crafters and hobbyists, from schools annually needing team t-shirts to newbies trying their hand at making a fancy tumbler for their friends, customized drinkware and wearables are some of the simplest and most affordable ways to create gifts using sublimation printing. Add names, designs, logos, or special phrases on items from trucker hats to different types of drink tumblers. Sublimation allows for creativity and experimentation.
Using the right “blank” for the sublimation ink is key to creating lasting products for professional and personal use. SignWarehouse offers a variety of items that are sublimation blanks for gifts and promotions that can be personalized. With over two dozen choices of sublimation blanks so you can experiment with what works best for your hobby or business.
Popular Items, Sure to Please
Travel mugs and tumblers have gained popularity in the last decade. Some even people collect them as a hobby. Having them around your business, or even offering them to a few loyal customers, is a way you advertise your business and show off your abilities. A gentle warning is called for: Don’t dare personalize a cup for just one of your family members or friends, or even just for yourself. Once the rest of your circle sees just how creative you can be, requests will start pouring in.
Which cup should you pick? Ever-popular are mugs and tumblers. One option SignWarehouse offers as sublimation blanks are glossy mugs in silver and white. These 14-ounce mugs are polymer coated specifically for dye sublimation.
Other popular options include 16-ounce conical tumblers and 20-ounce skinny tumblers, which both come in a variety of colors. These items are often used by businesses as employee gifts. And who hasn’t seen the “Bride Tribe” versions of these tumblers among a group of bridesmaids?
Of course, t-shirt personalization has been around for decades, and continues to be a top request for company logos, team sports, and tourist souvenirs. Offering customized t-shirts for women or men offer a profitable way to expand your business. They are almost a given for sports teams, organizations, and school clubs.
Think of other situations where customized t-shirts are likely to be wanted. What about annual family reunions? Prior to, during, and after reunions, people wear matching t-shirts to unite them with a slogan or family “crest”. It’s always good to think outside the box, or outside the shirt in this case. Customized t-shirts are fine (and profitable), but think of the market for other items for members to take home after that long, exhausting family togetherness weekend is over.
What Would You Like?
Why not expand on your talents as a hobbyist or your product line as a business by offering sublimated personalized products? SignWarehouse has many sublimation blanks for gifts and promotions available for you to try In a variety of types and colors: Along with all the tumblers, there are also caps/hats, apparel, face masks, and more items. SignWarehouse offers over two dozen choices of sublimation blanks, so jump right in and experiment with what works best for your hobby or business. When you look through all the choices of these profitable, low-cost, polymer-coated sublimation blanks you’re sure to find an item...or two…or three…that you would like to add to your products and services. Viewing all the options can help you decide to either offer multiple personalized item choices to customers, or start with just a few items at first, perhaps building later.
A great way to decide where to start with adding sublimation to your products is to think about what personalized items you already have or would like to have. A “Best Dad Ever” t-shirt or coffee mug? A picture of an adorable grandchild on your keychain? A hat that calls you out as “Grumpy” among the Seven Dwarves?
Where to Start
Sublimation skills can be easily mastered and taught to others. You may see your business increase so much you need assistance to fill all the tumbler orders. Or start your kid on a profitable hobby. Who knows – they may become such a successful summer job entrepreneur you can retire early and sip on wine from your own personalized wine tumbler.
