Advice needed: Printer for quality/durable stickers for hard hats and construction site equipment.
Hi everyone first off thank you for taking a look. I've been making customized stickers for my brother's blue collar coworkers for 2 years now. I started off just making 1 to 2 color permanent vinyl stickers using just my cricut. That is simple enough even now. Upon making more for my brother he started asking me for multi color custom Meme-type stickers for his hardhat. The more I made the more his coworkers wanted some. So I started getting custom sticker requests. I had to start organizing orders and pricing out materials. I fumbled through at the beginning but now have the process down. I use an inkjet printer, printable vinyl sticker paper, Cricut for cutting, and manually add a ORACAL lamination.
The problem: I'm hearing back about the lack of quality in look, sticker material, and adhesion of the stickers. These guys are often plopping these stickers on their hard hats which is already a difficult curved surface. They're working in rough environments. And they know the stickers will get beat up but would like to get some value out of them.
At this point I'm getting an order of 20 stickers or so a week. I've been asked to look into how I can make my stickers better. I've researched what I can do and I'm not quite sure what is tangible for a very small creator like myself.
I've looked into different ink types, printing materials, durability, and adhesives. The quality seems to lean towards commercial equipment. I've somewhat lost hope in being able to make perfect stickers like the big companies. If me buying from a custom print site for large runs is the best answer I can handle that. But every once in awhile a buyer just wants 1 or 5 or 10 stickers. I want to be able to make something with higher quality than what I am now.
I've gotten an investment offer to help buying a better setup and want to get the best bang for my buck. I've looked at DURABrite pigment printers like the Ecotanks. I'm just not sure if inkjet is going to give the "quality sticker" look I'm searching for. My budget is under $750. Any advice is much appreciated
My current setup:
-Canon Pixma MG 3620 (printing to 8.5x11 vinyl sheets out of Cricut Design Space)
-Cricut Explore Air 2
-Cricut Design Space
-JANDJPackaging premium printable vinyl sticker paper
-ORACAL High Gloss Self-Adhesive Clear Lamination Vinyl Roll
My goal: Small runs of Quality/durable stickers for adhering to hard hats, tool boxes, and coolers. Perhaps this becomes a small business and I can reach those great qualities soon. For now I just want to be moving forward and provide a quality product I can be proud of.