8 tangible products (under $400) to throw your logo on that are more original than... well, pens and mugs.
Don’t get us wrong, we love ourselves some pens and some mugs. Can you imagine if we didn’t? We’d be like Batman, making our fears into our identity... Whoa, did that just somehow become kinda cool?
Either way, we can’t deny our love for coffee cups and writing utensils. But as promotional products or employee gifts they don’t inspire much enthusiasm, and the order minimums are often huge. If you’re a smaller company, large minimum quantities for custom orders will either break the budget or leave you with WAY more [type of custom product here] than you know what to do with.
If you’re in the market for custom products that add a sense of legitimacy to your brand AND you’re on a mission to keep the quantities and costs to a minimum without sacrificing quality, here are a few of our favorites:
The best looking heavy-duty weatherproof vinyl stickers, magnets and more. If you want a sticker that feels more substantial in your hand and can survive on a car or in a dishwasher, these are the ones. You can also get a 10-count "sample size" pack of your custom die-cut stickers for just $9.
Custom notebooks with no minimum order that feel great AND support a good cause? Sign me up. If you can live without a bookmark ribbon or a pocket in the back, these have everything else. My current notebook is a custom Denik book and I’m loving it.
A large catalog of beautiful print products. Even their “standard” matte paper weight for business cards and postcards gets “wows” every time. And if you go thicker than that... watch out.
Custom neon signs at unbeatable rates.
Custom old-school apparel, felt banners/pennants, and embroidery.
Custom enamel pins are a hot item, but they can be a daunting purchase if you’re not prepared to order in bulk. We use Lapel Pins Express, who make an excellent quality product and will let your order multiple designs in one order of 100 pins (for a small extra fee).
100 pins will run you around $200-300 if you're bargain hunting, but if you have a few different pin ideas in mind and can’t afford/expect to sell 100 of each design, you may be hesitant to pull the trigger. With Lapel Pins Express, you can order 25 each of four different designs, or 30 of two designs and 40 of another, etc., to reach the 100 pin minimum order. If the color counts for your designs are all roughly the same, you’ll just pay the (minimum order) 100 pin price + a mold fee of about $50 bucks per design, rather than spending $300-ish and getting 100 pins of each design. It's a great way to get started in the pin game!
If you are ready to order 100+ of one pin design, Lost Lust Supply and Brewery Outfitters are also great production options. Or if you'd prefer acrylic pins, Sticker Mule has you covered with pins, stickers and more.
Custom hats with a more rugged feel than embroidery. We've worked with these guys to make our own best-selling Pen & Mug hats and hats for several of our clients, and can't recommend them enough!
MPC gives you full control to customize every aspect of your deck, including the fronts and backs of your cards, the number of cards per deck, custom game boxes, etc. You can make your own deck of traditional playing cards or design the next trading card game to rival Pokémon. And the thing that really sets MPC apart: you can order as little as one deck.
I hope this list is helpful to you and gets you excited to produce some custom products for your own brand. If you do, please share photos with us on the socials or email – we'd love to hear!
Austin
Pen & Mug
