Marvelpress

[Jimbo]

Just seen that sublimation supplier Marvelpress has closed down. Hardly surprising as they had a dismal range of items at prices which were way above those of other suppliers.

They had 2 divisions, supplying printed items and the blank supplies half of which someone has taken over and opening on 1st. Dec.

[UK Printed Mugs]

Always sad to hear of a company closing down. Although I wonder if they are just clearing their debts and will magically re-open as Marblepress? :-)

[Jimbo]

Apparently someone named Sole Juice have taken over the blank supplies part. If they are the same owners of Marvelpress I have no idea.

[UK Printed Mugs]

Well pretty normal to shut down and re-open as another name so be interesting to see if they trade from same location as that is the give-a-way. If they supply blanks at decent prices then thumbs up. There are certainly three levels of suppliers in the UK we find. Those that supply supplies at ok cost, those regular supplies (normal cost) and those suppliers who sell mainly to people doing single photo jobs at stupid blank prices. I think shortly we are going to source directly from manufacturers as quite frankly prices are now getting too dear.

[Jimbo]

I agree, some sublimation blanks are way overpriced that's why I like having the Oki white printer, bought a water spray bottle from one of the Poundshops recently and using CPM paper it printed great and at 1/4 the price of a sublimation one.
Seen other items in Wilko which are too thick for my press, however I have just thought of a way to press just about any thickness item but so as not to deviate too far from this thread I'll post in a new one.

[Jimbo]

Always sad to hear of a company closing down. Although I wonder if they are just clearing their debts and will magically re-open as Marblepress? :-)

Now named Sole Juice and although different location it appears to be same owner.

[Justin]

I've received notification and clarification about this and have asked Sole Juice for a response to this thread. In fairness they posted a detailed thread last week explaining but I've had to moderate it as they are not yet a recognised forum supplier and the thread contained self promotion.

[Sole Juice]

Hi All




Just thought I would introduce myself to the forum and try and give a little clarification to a couple of posts on here.


I was one of the co-founders of Marvelpress several years ago. Marvelpress was formed to offer blanks, develop new products and to provide large scale fulfilment services. Without getting into too much detail a couple of years back I sold my stock in the company to my USA partners, a rather large company whom I am sure you are all familiar with.


I then left Marvelpress to work on a couple of projects one of which was to develop a process for decorating footwear which you can see here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye8MVv2zNRs
I sold this process a number of months ago and at about the same time I was then notified late September that the owners of Marvelpress did not see the business as being core to them and they were going to exit the market.


For the record Marvelpress did not and has not gone bust, they have not gone into administration or a voluntary arrangement the owners believe me have extremely deep pockets, they have paid ALL THEIR SUPPLIERS, sold the inventory and equipment and moved on. They simply did not see the business as being part of their plans any longer.


Not one to miss an opportunity and having some spare capacity I decided to re-enter the business and have spent the last several weeks setting up our facility and stocking up with inventory.


For those that do not know me, here is some history


I was the developer of ArTainium sublimation inks, I was the owner of Tropical Graphics in Florida and was involved in a very bitter law suit with Sawgrass for about 3 years regarding patents in the early 2000's. That case never made it to the end and Sawgrass bought Tropical Graphics and I returned to the UK and set up Sawgrass Europe. I was the MD of Sawgrass Europe for about 5 years before moving on to other projects and ultimately Marvelpress.


Projects of note that I have either developed or co developed:


Sublideck 3D
ArTainium Sublimation Inks
Picta Leather
Subli Crylic
Sketcha Floor
Digi Coat


Hope that helps bring some clarity and when I get some time in January I hope to be able to contribute on here more often

Merry Christmas


Paul Hirst
Sole Juice

[webtrekker]

Hi Paul. Interesting post.

I'm relatively new to sublimation and never knew Marvelpress, however, what brings you back into the business? From what I can see, there are already loads of sublimation suppliers selling much the same thing for much the same prices? Are you just going to be 'yet another extortionately-priced sublimation blanks supplier,' are are you planning on bringing something new to the market at realistic prices?

[Sole Juice]

Hi Paul. Interesting post.

I'm relatively new to sublimation and never knew Marvelpress, however, what brings you back into the business? From what I can see, there are already loads of sublimation suppliers selling much the same thing for much the same prices? Are you just going to be 'yet another extortionately-priced sublimation blanks supplier,' are are you planning on bringing something new to the market at realistic prices?

Hi....

I have been involved in sublimation for over 20 years now and one thing I have noticed are there are many different types of customer. There are large conglomerates that print 1000's if not 10's of thousands of personalized products per day and it is imperative for them that products and processes are consistent and scalable much more than being at a lower price point. There are many clients that do not want to touch production such as some artists and brand owners that simply want to outsource their production to fulfilment companies and then there are people who frequent forums like this one who, to quite honest are the most entrepreneurial people I find. I was on one of the first forums in the USA http://www.dyesub.org/forum/ when I lived over there and some of the best idea's I have seen came out of discussions on that forum, so it takes all types.

I don't want to go into promoting any stuff we are working on here as I have not signed up for a supplier pack yet, but it's fair to say we do have plans to introduce quite a few new products over the coming months.

Also I feel that the photo gifting market is becoming somewhat saturated now and it is starting to be a race to the bottom on price and like it or not its a tough call to bring out a new product that is suitable for gifting, another mug another mouse pad ??? theres only so many products one can develop.

I certainly see new opportunity in homewares and furnishings, custom interiors etc which is backed up by the fact that Fespa last year opened a new sector called Printeriors based around this exact concept. As you can see in the video in the last post we spent a lot of money trying to break the footwear market and even though the process was good there were lots of issues especially around sizing !!!!! A custom size 8 might be a 7 or a 71/2 an 8/12 etc that was a real issue

Still lots to go at, lots of opportunity and remember "you can be wrong as many times as you want you only have to be right once"

Later..

Paul Hirst