Printwear & Promotion 2010

[bms]

Hopefully see some of you if you're at the NEC tomorrow. I'll be wandering round with BMS Sublimation in neon green all over the back of my black polo. If you see me then please say "hi"

[Karen.]

We went yesterday and will be returning tomorrow. Martin - I will look out for you. I would imagine I will have a hoodie on (either black or Sapphire blue) with our name on the breast of it.
It was the first year we have maneged to get there and although I a use to doing the huge NEC shows (car and bike etc taking up many halls), thought it was ok. I would have liked to have seen a few more non embroidery stands, but at the prices the NEC charge it is understandable. Good to talk to our main supliers face to face though and see what is 'new' for them in the flesh.

[bms]

I'm taking a bag of our latest products with me - mobile phone/ MP3 holders, animal keyrings, European mug, pastel blue printed t-shirt, promo tote bag, teflon oven pads. Might feel like one of those London traders that quickly sets up a stall on the corner of a street

[Karen.]

I will look out for some shifty looking bloke then in a rain mac with a huge bag under his coat
hattime you planning on going? We were done in a couple of hours yesterday, but I may stay a bit longer tomorrow. Am taking my son with me tomorrow on the hopes he gets a little more enthusiastic and I can get him doing more. I am thinking that I may have to look at taking someone on soon and if he can earn something from the business as well then it may as well be him.

[bms]

hattime you planning on going?

Had to read that several times before working out the question was 'what time you going' rather than some wierd form of head wear . We're leaving Bournemouth around 8:45 in the morning so should be arriving at the NEC around 11:00/ 11:30

[Karen.]

Lol. I am extremely tired at the moment, so my typing is worse than usual.
I may bump into you there then. Will look out for you.

[Andrew]

I spotted Martin in his BMS polo but was busy on a stand chatting. I think he was spying on TMT at the time. I then also spotted him sitting down outside of the hall as I was leaving but I was outside so didn't get to chat then either. Oh well, might be next time. Did you enjoy the show Martin? Anything interesting you saw?

[bms]

Hi Andrew, sorry we missed each other. I was disappointed in the show - thought it was small compared to others I'd been to. Wasn't spying on TMT - we resell TMT papers so I was waiting to see Jim Nicol to find out what was new. TMT were obviously pushing their WOW papers and the rehersed demos worked well. There's not much else out there that compares to WOW.

The new Ricoh GXe3300 was being demo'd by a couple of suppliers - prints nice and quickly and looks compact. Price wise at around £260 +vat for the printer and a set of cartridges it's good value, but the cartridges are low capacity. It's a cheap option to get started in sublimation though.

Some interesting acrylic items - like photo blocks. There were some small domed carriage clocks being shown probably standing about 6 inches tall made of clear acrylic with a sublimation backing. Looked very good printed, but at a price of £13.95 +vat (£16.39 inc vat) for the blank product I wonder if end customers would pay £22 - £25 for a final printed product.

Saw some interesting polyester based products like sashes, pennants, material key fobs (white polyester with emboirdered edges) in circles, rectangles and mini v-neck shapes. I think hometogifts currently resell the material key fobs - they're a cheap product and IMO look cheap as well. Do many people print sashes or pennants? I had an interesting conversation with one company about possibly making patches - rectangles, circles, shields which would be laser cut (don't fray) and would have a heat activated glue backing so you could print full colour patches for garments. Would this be of interest?

[Andrew]

I do some pennants but not really the patches as they are a bit old school. Pennants have limited options on choice so I don't really push them myself. I did see the acrylic which looked very nice printed but was heavy on the cost. They had a nice range of mugs on offer on that stand as well but I think they learned the hard way that most small format users who they were aiming at didn't have the printing capabilties on the slightly different sized mugs.

I still like the laser and direct jet print machines that the likes of Identify do and get tempted at every show. Considering I have a hot foil machine and pad printer gathering dust I am currently resisting.

I don't like the material keyrings myself and do look cheap. It was a smaller show this year and were sharing the hall with another show which I also called into so suited me. Nothing really new but glad I went.

[Karen.]

I looked out for you Martin, but didn't see you.
We have never managed to get to previous years shows, so had nothing to compareit to. I was disappointed with the size of it, but wondered if that was just because I am use to the huge shows at the NEC.