Over the years we have spent a lot of time at walk in love. searching for well designed wholesale products and good sources for those products. I'd like to help save you some time and share some of my favorite suppliers for different products we order. I also share a few ideas on how you could incorporate some of these products into your company.
1. Printing T-Shirts / / THREADBIRD
I could go on and on about Threadbird. They are the best of the best. They provide excellent printing, awesome customer service and after a while they will even let you stay at their house when you go on vacation (Thanks Scott!) A top notch company with a top notch team. I cannot recommend them enough. If you need t-shirts printed go with Threadbird!
Ideas for T-shirts:
Photographers - Give a shirt to every client. We use to give Brooke Courtney Photography clients shirts that said "Brooke Shot Me"
Subscription Companies - Give a shirt to anyone who signs up for a year subscription. My mother -in-law just started doing this with her company Yoga Bird. The amazing non profit Men of Iron also does it when anyone signs up for one of their donation campaigns.
Any other company - Give away shirts to your best customers. Everyone loves SOFT t-shirts so reward good customers with them!
2. Buttons // PUREBUTTONS
Buttons are such an easy way for customers to buy into your brand. They are cheap, convenient and anyone can use them (except babies...please don't give a button to a baby). Purebuttons does all of our buttons and they do a great job. Easy to order and super quick turnaround. They also have things like keychains, coasters and magnets.
Ideas for Buttons:
Wedding DJ - I always thought it would be awesome if a wedding DJ had a bowl of buttons at a wedding with phrases like "I love the bride", "The bride is a total babe", "The groom is hot." or maybe even cheesy photos of the bride and grooms face. I bet by the end of the night everyone would be wearing a button which would add energy and fun to the party. You put your website on the inside edge of the button and every guest just willingly took a business card!
E-Commerce Business - Add buttons to your store but also throw them in with the occasional package. Everyone loves getting free things and buttons are a cheap way to do that.
Any business - Give away buttons! They are cheap, easy to ship and everyone loves winning things. Use snarky or funny statements. People will love them. Use your social media to give them away. I always recommend giving away things in pairs so someone can win it for them and for a friend.
3. Stickers // STANDOUT STICKERS + GOT PRINT
We have two sticker providers for two different types of stickers. For die-cut stickers like the walk in love. one above we go with Standout Stickers. They are really easy to work with, have great turn arounds and are very helpful. We use Gotprint for square or rectangle stickers. They aren't as high of a quality of Standout but the price is great. We like to keep the price point of a sticker around $1 and that's much easier with Gotprints pricing for rectangle and square stickers. If you want die cut, which are way cooler go with Standout for sure!
Ideas for stickers
Any company - Good for giveaways and freebies.
4. Temporary Tattoos // TATTOO SALES
Who doesn't love a temporary tattoo? We use Tattoo Sales for all our temporary tattoos. We try to throw a free one in with every order. It's a great little add on and people love to post them on Instagram which is huge for our brand!
Ideas for Tattoos:
Companies at Festivals - Whenever we do a multiple day festival we give away a new free temporary tattoo every day while supplies last. That means that people come back to our booth every day to get the tattoo of the day. The more people come back the more chance we have to sell something to them
Any company - Good for giveaways and freebies.
5. Postcards + other printed material // GOTPRINT
Gotprint does more than stickers. In fact they do almost any type of printing and do a great job at all of it! We have printed business cards, postcards, stickers, window clings, posters and banners with them. We loved all of it. They are cheaper than other printing companies out there and do better work! Win Win!
E-commerce business - You should have a postcard or business card in with every order. We like to put one of our designs on one side so if people want to hang it as art they can. Don't make them too informational. Use it as a potential freebie like art and for the love DON'T PUT A DORKY QR CODE ON IT!
Ideas for postcards:
Any company - Even though we live in a digital world it's always good to have a few printed items so people can touch and feel something.
6. Shipping Supplies // ULINE
Uline has anything and everything you'll need to ship and if you order before 5pm you'll get your order the next day. That is service! We use them for all our packaging materials. Every now and then we use their gold glamour mailers to spice up our shipping.
Ideas for shipping:
Any company that ships anything - Your packaging will usually be the first hands on interaction a customer has. Make sure it's consistent and not crappy. We don't have custom packaging but we make sure the label is on straight and the packaging is clean and simple.
BONUS // ONLINE STORE PROVIDER // SHOPIFY
We run the walk in love. e-commerce store through Shopify. They are the best of the best when it comes to e-commerce. They are such a great platform for selling products! So easy to use, easy to update and easy to add new features. You will be able to instantly make a professional website for your product in minutes! Sign up here - SHOPIFY SIGN UP
Well, that's it. I hope it helps. If you have any great companies you use let me know in the comments because I would love to check them out! Thanks!