Brother in Christ, it’s been a long time since I wrote something about merch reviews, but I’m coming back slowly to my routine. A few months ago I was browsing inside a discord group for Artist Alley and saw someone reviewing their recent purchase with PawPrint Merch. I decided to give it a go with @Xenohybrida and see what new adventure awaited us.
UPDATE: I noticed that with time the printed areas started to build up small air bubbles for no reason, if you have the opportunity to seal with something, especially with resin, do so. If you don’t seal the area, even tho you can pop the air bubbles carefully, you will run the risk of getting the printed image damaged or scratched off.
Pawprint Merch is a printing service with custom merchandising created by artists for artists, with a variety of products such as acrylic charms, wooden pins, heart-shaped buttons, tote bags, colored mugs, and more. They also have specific materials and processes such as sublimation, vinyl, gloss varnish finish, epoxy finish, and epoxy glitter finish. Their workshop is located in Reus, Tarragona, and have a small cat alchemy workshop in Barcelona. They also have a Spanish version of their website for non-English speakers.
They offer a variety of products for acrylic such as acrylic standees, charms, pastel colors, and clear. In this case, I chose the acrylic pins 1.5″, and they came with various options for finishes such as varnish gloss, epoxy, and epoxy glitter. I ordered mine with varnish glossy and with several designs. The more you order, the more flexibility you’ll have when providing more than 1 design without additional price.
I was also able to choose different rubber clutches/clasps for some designs, this was a bonus for me since there isn’t much flexibility in some local manufacturers. The best part was that it didn’t have an additional cost.
I remember paying in pounds and thought they were initially located in the UK, so perhaps I had been confused about this detail. Nonetheless, Now, I have to warn everyone about converting their dollars to pounds, especially if you are sharing a group order and the only thing that can be split in half accurately is the shipping. Never use any currency conversion displayed in the browser, you’ll have a miscalculation. Instead, use the one PayPal provides you in the system when paying. What I did was a breakdown of the costs of each product in the conversion, and asked for the correct amount for @Xenohybrida’s order. If I didn’t do that, I would have lost tons of money due to miscalculation.
I think it is great to buy different merchandise and compare the material’s quality, durability, and type of service to choose the best option or simply buy it for special occasions. In my personal opinion, I always strive to upgrade the quality of my products for a more memorable and impactful purpose with the clients and manufacturers.
My Chocolate Mint Bunny acrylic pins look blurry due to being pixel art (I’m responsible for it), Sticker Mule team made me aware of it. Not many companies will bother to email you about any quality issues during the pre-production process. Most of these manufacturers have systems that can auto-detect any issues by displaying small warnings. Still, it is always a great feeling to have a human behind the screens supervising quality control.
This special offer of the acrylic pin (Chocomint Bunny) was made a long time ago, so perhaps a lot of things have changed since then. If you are in a rush with affordable pricing (including free shipping on orders over $20) and fast shipping in the USA, PawPrint Merch is not for you. But, just because it is cheap, doesn’t mean you’ll receive a high-quality end result.
They provide you with additional information such as documents with templates, explanations of the services with breakdowns, soft proofing for color quality, cut lines, and confirmation pre-production. I can’t forget the t-shirt charts with their different materials and palette colors. Did you know they also have a newsletter and complete a detailed request for estimates within 24 to 48 hours?
I completely love the color quality of the tote bag, and since it was initially white, there was no need for white-spot (areas with no white will look translucent by default, contrary with a white layer under the colors will look bright, and solid). Meanwhile, the colors of the t-shirt weren’t that saturated, still, I can understand that tote bags and t-shirts are different materials even though they could have the same DTG (“direct to garment”, which means that it’s printed directly on top of the fabric) process.
This is the gift I received in my order, which I believe is their original design, but I’m not sure if this was due to a special occasion or for paying an amount for the order. Regardless, it was a sweet gesture, and at the same time, they offer you new products when in need of a new experiment.
Pricing for the products was actually affordable. When it comes to shipping, fortunately, is not the same as Vograce, I was able to pay off the order due to having the order shared with @Xenohybrida. Shipping cost around $30, but it could’ve been more If I ordered more t-shirts and tote bags.
The quality is great with many options to choose such as styles, coatings (protection), and processes (sublimation).
They don’t have MOQ, but if you manage to buy in bulk you’ll get a discount, for example in the t-shirt area.
We had a constant back and forth due to some missing information, mistakes on the website and me getting confused when there was not enough information provided for comparing products visually. They are very prompt, detail-oriented, and patient. I was pleased with the process and the content of the package.
If you are looking to invest in something new in Europe, with a friendly and attentive staff, Pawprint Merch is the right choice for you. The total cost was easy for me to cover due to having the order shared and split with @Xenohybrida. If you want to afford the shipping price from an international manufacturer, then a group order is a good plan. I’m looking forward to having them as a long-time manufacturer.
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