The Top 6 Back-to-School Items to Make with Sublimation

Back to school shopping – for kids, it’s the event that signals the close of summer and the beginning of a new school year. Finding just the right school supplies that reflect each kid’s individual personality is part of the fun; however, there is no need to limit yourself to items already decorated. There are plenty of ways you can decorate back to school items that fit your child’s personality as well as your customers' kids! The upcoming school year may have its challenges, but with challenges come creative opportunities. Whether you’re creating for kids headed back to the physical classroom or learning virtually at home, here are our 6 favorite personalized items to make for this coming school year!

Dry Erase Boards

You have seen the pictures on Facebook – a little one’s first day of kindergarten or pre-school proudly holding a “first day of school” sign. Those adorable little signs are so easy to make with a sublimatable dry erase board. Simply sublimate the child’s name, “grade,” “year,” and any other fun info that will change every year! Then, they can use a dry erase marker to fill in the information each year.

Sublimation dry erase boards also have many other functions! You can create personalized weekly and monthly calendars to hang in both the physical classroom and at home to help kids and parents stay organized. You can also print door signs/greeting boards for college students to hang on the entrance to their dorm so their friends can leave comments. The opportunities you have with sublimation dry erase boards are endless, and at Coastal, you will find a variety of sizes in both hardboard and steel options for whatever your project calls for!

Water Bottles

A quick search on Etsy for “personalized water bottle” will reveal over 24,000 results. With that much demand, custom sublimation water bottles are a no-brainer to offer your back-to-school customers. The beautiful thing about sublimation is that you are not limited in what colors you can print or how complex your designs are. In fact, you can decorate a water bottle with intricate, multi-colored school logos and personalized names in a matter of minutes!

While there are a variety of water bottles you can sublimate, you cannot go wrong with a water bottle with a clip to allow kids to easily attach to their backpacks to carry around. Now, you have a product that both parents and kids will love!

Kids' Face Masks

As you might have suspected, one of the top items to make for the 2020-2021 school year is kids' face masks. Indeed, demand for face masks has skyrocketed, and as of August 2020, you will find over 240,000 results for “kids face mask” on Etsy. With that many masks available, you may wonder if creating custom children’s face masks is even worth your time – it is! Something many mask sellers unfortunately forget is to create masks that kids will want to wear – because masks are only useful if kids wear them. This is where you can stand out by making masks with sublimation, which allows you to print colorful, fun designs that kids will be excited to put on. A plain blue mask just can’t compete!

Backpacks

Sublimation backpacks are one of our most consistent top sellers year after year, and you can be sure that custom printed backpacks will be a hit with your customers. This is because kids love having a backpack that they identify with, and you can’t always find the perfect backpack in stores. With sublimation, you can print fun, personalized backpacks with kids’ favorite characters and animals that they can’t wait to throw over their shoulders on their first day of school.

Lunch Bags

What goes great with a personalized backpack? Personalized lunch bags! Create custom lunch bags that your customers and their kids will love using sublimation. There are many decoration opportunities with lunch bags including school mascots/team spirit designs along with characters and animals. Plus, you can personalize with the child’s name or a monogram so that it never ends up in the lost-and-found. Pair these custom lunch bags with our canvas backpacks, and you can offer your customer a unique matching set that will have their kids be the talk of the lunchroom!

No-Contact Keychain

Now more than ever, parents are searching for ways to cut down on germs their child is exposed to. Door handles and elevator buttons in schools are areas where these germs can thrive. With the no-contact sublimation keychain, you can cut down on exposure to germs by using it to open doors and drawers and push buttons. The keychains are made of a durable polymer material that can be decorated in full color for your customers, and you can add fun designs that kids will love. Be sure to put their name on the keychain, clip the keychain onto a retractable lanyard and attach to their backpack and now they have identification on their backpack!

And that's our list! We hope this blog helps you find some inspiration in creating personalized products for back-to-school. As always, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to our Customer Success Team at 800-562-7760 or [email protected].