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5 Tips When Ordering Festival Wristbands
I recently received a webchat request from a woman enquiring about our fabric wristbands and whether she could order some for her daughter’s eighteenth birthday party. While I answered her enquiry, it got me thinking of the most frequently asked questions we get everyday about the ‘festival wristbands’ and how we can help you create your own fabric bands.
1 Know Your Options
When I get asked if we offer ‘festival bands’ the simple answer would be ‘yes’. But my answer doesn’t stop there, my next question would be ‘what type of fabric are you interested in?’
This often has people stumped because we don’t necessarily think of the type of fabric we want, just the fact that we want a fabric band.
There are two main fabric wristbands:
Woven
- is the most popular choice for festivals and is the cheaper option. Woven bands can include up to 8 colours and feature images, patterns, logos and font in any of your chosen 8 colours. So, if you’re looking for a birthday band with your loved one’s name, date of birth and their age, the woven would work nicely.
Dye-Sublimated
- these wristbands are a satin material and can feature several colours, but are the dearer of the two fabrics. Much like the woven, dye-sub bands can have images, patterns, logos and fonts on them but are thinner and smoother as there is less fabric involved. The inside is blank, whereas you can see the weaves on the inside of a woven band.
That being said,
2 Don’t Limit Your Design
Just because the woven fabrics can only feature up to 8 colours, don’t restrict yourself; a lot can come out of eight colours. It’s all about the detail. If you want logos, images and font, then have those things. We have woven designs that have several images on them with shadowed font, background flower patterns, and multi-coloured sections. It’s all about you and your vision. Dye-sublimated bands can have space, flowers, marbled or confetti backgrounds.
Just be weary of,
3 Visibility When Choosing Your Clip
You want your bands to stand out. Whether you’re using them for a large event or a birthday party in your back garden, it doesn’t matter. Your bands need to be secured somehow and a fact that often escapes us is, whichever clip you choose can affect your print space.
Plastic Clip
- the plastic clip is 245mm x 15mm.
- while it may appear smaller than the template for the sliding bead and metal clip options (here), don’t be deceived. The bead and metal clip band have areas which will not be visible when secure.
Sliding Bead or Secure Metal Clip
- the size of the band for both these options is 350mm x 15mm.
- though this appears longer, certain printing space is unreadable due to the nature of the clip.
- don’t forget, metal clips need a crimping tool to secure.
Now,
4 Check Your Quantities
A common question on webchat is ‘can I have x number of bands?’ Our minimum order is 50 wristbands. While this quantity is fine in most cases, general birthday parties can be smaller, so please bear the quantity in mind when enquiring about fabric bands.
And most importantly,
5 Allow Yourself Plenty of Time
Once you’ve decided on your fabric, design, clip and quantity, the next logical step is to order. Great. Oh, wait. Fabric wristbands take 2-3 weeks to deliver. It goes over your deadline…
It is often the last question asked, but the most important: Lead Times.
Fabric bands have a 2-3-week lead time. This doesn’t include the time spent conversing with the sales office or when the design on your band is being worked on by the graphics team. Production and delivery comes 2-3 weeks after payment and art approval, so it is best to get in touch sooner rather than later.
I hope these points are useful and answer your questions on our fabric bands. More information can be found on our fabric wristbands page and there’s always webchat. Let us know if we’ve missed anything.
