I'm a screen printer but not necessarily looking to get into printing cups and other little promotional items. Is there anyone here who does that I could network with? Or maybe a larger business you use? I'd like to keep prices competitive. Not necessarily looking to make a large profit or anything. I find about 25% of clients inquire for more than just shirts.
Thanks!
Posted Apr 5, 2017, 4:59 PM UTC
There's a trade channel for promotional products that helps distributors and suppliers connect on a job-by-job basis. It takes a membership to get into that part of it, but you could probably find a distributor starting there if you have needs but don't want to get deeply involved in that business. They seem to put together catalogues for distributors that represent the whole spectrum of what's available from the suppliers so that the distributors act as a cut-out and have things drop-shipped straight from the printer to the end customer.
There's a different, but similar, association in Canada, and I'm sure every other region has one as well:
We do promotional stuff. PM me, would love to do contract work for you!
We are just getting into printing mugs, pint glasses, etc. we can also do a few other things. We just got in a small auto press. PM and we can touch base about things. I am in NYC so I don't know if that works for you geographically.
I've used discount mugs in the past. However, I ordered some customized koozies from them last month for a client and they did not turn out very well. The ink was suppose to be a matte grey but instead it was a flakey metallic silver.. the design was also smaller than it should have been.
I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM! I got 50% of them crooked as all hell too. I called and complain and they sent me another batch and they were metallic ink and still crooked as hell. Luckily, I got my money back but I never did give my client the koozies because they looked like shit.