We get asked most weeks whether we can put a buyer’s logo on our products. The answer is yes, and the more useful question is which method suits your product — because the method decides the cost, the minimum, and how the finished item looks.
Logo on the product
The cheapest route and the most common. Your logo is printed or applied directly to the plastic, usually by pad printing or screen printing, in one or two colours. Pad printing handles curved surfaces well, which is most of a bubble gun.
With this route the product itself is unchanged. You are adding a mark, and the minimum per design rises to cover the setup — for printed production the plates and the machine setting are the same whether you want a hundred pieces or ten thousand.
Custom colours
Different from printing, and often what a buyer actually wants. A colour change means either a different batch of material through the same mould, which is straightforward, or a new mould, which is not — and cannot be justified unless the volume is serious.
For most buyers the answer is to work within the existing mould and change the colour of the material. Ask what colours are already run on the model you are interested in, because a colour the factory already makes costs nothing to specify.
Custom packaging
Often the most valuable customisation, and the most overlooked. A printed colour box with your brand, your artwork and your contact details turns an unbranded toy into your product, and it is the version a retailer can put on a shelf without repackaging.
It also changes the carton. A printed box is a specified size, and that size decides how many fit in a container — so a packaging decision is a freight decision, and it should be made before the order rather than after.
Bring artwork. A logo as a vector file and a rough idea of the box layout is enough to start; we will come back with a dieline to place it on. PDFs photographed off a business card are not enough, and they are the most common cause of a slow first order.
What raises the minimum
In practice, almost every customisation does, and the reason is always the same: setup. Printing needs plates, packaging needs a print run, a new colour needs a production batch. Stock items at 5 pieces per design are possible because there is no setup at all — we are shipping what already exists.
So the honest way to think about it: standard items for testing a market, custom items for a product you have already decided to commit to.
Lead times
The first custom run takes longer than a repeat, because artwork has to be approved and the setup has to be made. Allow for that in your season planning rather than assuming the standard lead time applies.
Tell us the product, the quantity and what you want changed, and we will come back with what it takes — customised items like this bubble bottle are made to a buyer’s brief rather than a fixed specification. WhatsApp: +86 173 4881 6397.