Gift Wrap, Fabric, and Wallpaper
Spoonflower has long reigned king of the customizing game. I’ve designed a ton of fabric (all kinds—cotton, fleece, you name it) and gift wrap with this service, and the quality is always on point. If you don’t want to waste time designing your own DIY, they have a marketplace where you can purchase designs from members of their community as well.
Gift Wrap, Fabric, and Wallpaper
VistaPrint offers some basic but useful customizing options for your very own mug. Prices are also pretty affordable, with one mug starting at $11 and 10 mugs costing you only $103.
Photo Blankets
Wal-Mart of all places offers customizable photo blankets. The uses they’ve shown here revolve mostly around using your own family photography, but you could also upload your own pattern designs and create your own line of bedding.
Enamel Pins
A lot of companies make these today since enamel pins have become so trendy, but PinMart seems to be pretty good. They offer a variety of types of pins (from Die Struck to Cloisonné) and have quick turnaround times.
USB Drives
I recently discovered this company that offers completely customizable USB Drives. You can choose a material, storage capacity, quantity, and design a USB drive to your heart’s content.
Temporary Tattoos
Have some art, a picture of your dog, or a retro “MOM” you want on your bicep? It’s now super easy to get a custom temporary tattoo made. StickerYou and Straytats are two good options.
Books and Magazines
Blurb is the most-popular option for producing books in low-print runs. I used them to produce a run of books from my shit project in 2016, and while the quality isn’t archival (the spine has since fallen apart), they’re fast and reasonably priced.
Smartphone + Laptop Cases
Case App is a great place to turn your awesome Instagram photos into an inspirational case.
Playing Cards
Make Playing Cards can do basically any custom order for card-shaped things you want. So, you can design the back of a deck of regular playing cards, or you could design your own tarot cards, or you could even design Atlanta-themed trading cards! The prices have all gone up recently, but they’re still pretty affordable. The nice thing about MPC is you can just order one deck at a time.
Almost any kind of apparel
Print All Over Me is this weird service I totally love that will, well, print your pattern or design all over a piece of apparel. From dresses to button-ups to socks and bags, you can be covered head to toe in palm fronds if you so choose. The prices are definitely high and I haven’t experienced the quality, but I’m guessing every piece is custom-made to order, which can hike up the cost quickly.
Boxes and Packaging
I ordered a sample kit a few months ago from Packlane and they outdid themselves—they sent me several different styles and shapes and designs, and had me so excited to design custom boxes I couldn’t even think of where to start. The quality is great, the sizing is flexible, and I love all of the different options they offer.
Four Pack Bottle Carrier
Fantastapack makes a ton of crazy types of packaging, but the most interesting option to me was this bottle carrier – like giving out homebrew as presents? Want to spoil a friend with a ton of wine? You can customize the size, add whatever imagery you want, and design what kind of material you want (white, kraft, gloss, etc). They also do small minimums – you can get just one of your design!
Coffee Sleeves
You’re always grateful to have something to shield hot coffee from your hand, and you may not even think about it when you reach for some kind of weird branded coffee sleeve in the bin of your local shop. Well, if you wanted, that coffee sleeve could have your own design on it, courtesy of the fine folks at Coffee Sleeve Mojo!
Napkins with foil stamping
I came across these napkins in a shop recently with cute foil quotes on them. After hunting around, I figured out For Your Party was the company who produced them. Really nice addition to any gathering, and the online designer gives you a lot of flexibility.
Pencils
Always a hit, whenever I see these pencils I like to snag as many as I can and hold them dear. You can fit up to 36 characters and the price is per 144, which means you better like what you wrote! Order some custom pencils here.
Beach Towels
I’m not sure why brands always use family photos as their example and not a designer’s patterns, but, custom beach towels via Collage.com will be extremely cool to have this summer.
Cookies
Yes really—add your favorite Instagram photos, your dog, a pattern you like, and snack away! Thanks to Wicked Good Cookies.
Hotel Keytags
Ever get one of these vintage keytags along with your hotel room key back in the day? You can get ’em imprinted just like you remember them, except with your own design and phrasing. They’ll be a hit!
Photo Jigsaw Puzzles
You could use a jigsaw puzzle to announce an engagement, give away at a vendor event, or even just make some for fun to surprise a friend or loved one. It could be a photo, your own artwork, or even a fun pattern! Try out your own puzzling idea here.
Trading Cards
I wrote about playing cards up earlier in the list but later I found these super fun trading cards from Printer Studio. They look and feel much more like trading cards than the others did (even down to the halftone printer pattern in the detail) and that makes them so much more fun.
Glass Mugs
I have this weird affinity for glass mugs—I love the way light shines through when you’re drinking tea, or the way you can watch the creamer flow through coffee. Discount Mugs has a ton of different options for custom glassware, from coffee mugs to pint glasses.
Foam Fingers
Heading to a bachelorette weekend? Football game? Funeral (just kidding)? Get some custom foam fingers (in a variety of hand positions) over at Discount Favors.
Koozies
No longer a bastion of frat culture, koozies can keep your beer or your LaCroix cold. They’re even great in the winter for keeping your hands warm. I hang on to all of my favorite ones, almost like a koozie museum in my house. Totally Koozies can do small minimums for pretty agreeable pricing, and Deluxe can do house-shaped, denim, and burlap koozies if you’re into that.
Rubber Bands
So you made some super cool swag and you’re ready to get it out in the world—how do you package it? Possibly with some complementary rubber bands? The folks at adbands can help.
Webcam Covers
If you’re like me (and Mark Zuckerberg), you cover your computer’s webcam just in case. I have a piece of tape on mine, but I remove and replace it so much that it starts to lose the stickiness. Why not instead have a small cover you can toggle on and off as much as you want?
Fortune Cookies
I had a friend who used to make these by hand in high school and added her own quotes and phrases. Fancy Fortune Cookies not only does the classic shape, they can also do different flavors of cookies, gluten free, chocolate covered, and more.
Matchboxes
I usually find it tacky when a company leaves their name or logo on a custom product without permission—but I’m glad The Match Group did or else I would have never found them. They can do matchbooks and matchboxes, in a variety of shapes, sizes, and finishes. They even offer templates for each style so you know you’re getting the design just right.
Socks
Has anyone else noticed cool socks are the new cool ties? I’ve seen so many brands creating incredible socks, from MailChimp to Slack. Sock Club is the best company I’ve worked with on custom socks, because not only do they offer a great selection of customizing options, but they even have a Sock of the Month club. I love wearing the best and most designy socks all year round.
Custom Folders
Company Folders, Inc. has more than one hundred presentation folder styles and also the largest selection of die cuts, imprint methods, coatings, and stocks out there. We’re talking about millions of custom folder products!
Coloring Books (for kids or grownups)
These coloring books are a great way to kill some time offline, whether you’re taking a break during work, commuting, or traveling. There are a lot of ways to make these books (since they’re more about the content and less about the vendor), so let’s chat about your goals and find a vendor who’s a good fit.
Air Freshener
I’m all about trying to find useful things that can be made into something interesting – take air fresheners, for example. You could spruce up your car with a piece of modern art, a custom design, or a giant picture of your face. With scents from French Vanilla to Peppermint, you might not find a flavor profile like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, but you’ll certainly delight the recipient!
Cardboard Retail Displays
Okay, you probably know that people do this somewhere, but never imagined it would be so easy – The Box Maker (sister company to Fantastapack up above) makes these awesome retail displays. You can make displays for beer cases, weekenders, dump bins, and even a bunch of small countertop options. Minimums start at 25, so, make it count!
Packaging Tape
You’ve seen the Amazon boxes everywhere – stacked in USPS trucks, piled on porches. The boxes aren’t custom, it’s that tape they’re packaged with. Save costs on custom packaging and just go with a roll of packaging tape to seal your boxes. The tape from Packhelp is high-quality with a durable, waterproof print.
Notepads
I made city guides awhile back with my friends at Coco + Mischa on these notepads; the idea was you could tear a page off, draw on the map on the front and write down suggestions on the back. You could make large desk calendars with these or make funny checklists like they have over at Knock Knock. With a full-color option on the front and back, the opportunities are endless!
Tissue Paper
Do you give a lot of gifts? Do you wish you gave a lot of gifts? I’m always stuck buying crappy dollar store tissue paper when I’m stuffing a present, but now that I know about custom tissue paper from No Issue (which is cheaper and higher quality than Zazzle), I might need to start making my own.
Slap on Koozies
Are you tired of boring, old, regular koozies? Why not ones that you can store flat and slap on your can or bottle? If you’re into that, check out Great Online Promotions for some slap-on magic.
Buttons
The tried and true – buttons are an affordable, reliable way to share your company or your work. Featuring full-color design options that are possibly even Pantone-compatible and varying sizes, it’s hard to not find a good fit here. Busy Beaver is a great fit for buttons – women-owned in a solar-powered factory. (oh, and, good prices!)
Custom Softcover Notebooks
Denik makes 144-page softcover notebooks with the ability to do full color on the front and the back covers. The best part is, you can order just one at a time if you’re testing out a new idea! You can customize the interior once you order 100+.
4 thoughts on “70+ Things You Didn’t Know You Could Get Custom-Made”
What an amazing resource! You sourced everything that has been on mind for years. THANK YOU!
I found a number of items to put my ART on for selling. Your post is fantastic!
Denise
http://www.glamchicartgallery.com
These all type of products are awesome…
Wow! Thanks for sharing this information. Custom Made Boxes are also the best option for small to large businesses.