Need opinions on occasional printing/stamping

[SumpinSpecial]

Hi all,  I have an online pet supply shop and one of my products is a plastic greyhound muzzle that has leather padding over the top of the nose.  I get these muzzles from a supplier in Ireland who makes them.  They're high quality and come pre-stamped/printed with the name of the muzzle on the leather nose padding.  A few months ago the supplier advised me that he would be happy to print the dog's name on the padding instead of the product name, at no extra cost.  So I've listed that as a customized product in my shop.

This month someone ordered one for the first time.  And I've had zero response from the supplier, despite several emails and two phone calls.  When I called them both times the response was only that they'll find out and email me back... and then don't.  My customer is patiently waiting for his order, but this is not the kind of shipping response time that I want to become part of my business reputation. 

I'm going to remove that customized product from my shop, but it really is a cool offering so if I can find another leather worker who can do the printing/stamping for me and who is more responsive, that would be ideal.  Or, perhaps do it myself.  So I have a few technical questions before I solicit for actual help.  Keep in mind that I'm not a leatherworker, even at the hobby level, so please keep your answers somewhat basic.

The leather seems to be dyed because it's usually either black or blue.  I don't know exactly what this supplier uses, though.  Are there inks that can be stamped over dyed leather?  If so, are they pretty rain-proof?  (Dog's often wear the muzzles outdoors or stick their noses into water bowls to drink.)

If the supplier refuses to sell me muzzles without the product name printed on them, am I stuck or can we print/stamp over the top of it? 

What other issues are likely to prevent this from being a viable product?

I know it's hard to answer without seeing what I'm talking about, but I don't want to post a url as my first post ever and look like a spammer.  But if you need it, I'm happy to post a link to my product page so you can see it.  If you want to reply offline, you can get me at "sharon" at SomethingSpecialPetSupplies dot com.

Edited March 22, 2017 by SumpinSpecial

[Brianm77]

You can get rubber stamps and ink pretty cheap from hobby lobby or the like.  As far as color fastness all I could say is you would have to try it. I would tend to think that it would be pretty good

 

and someone else doing it, unless they are local, is probably cost prohibitive. Adding shipping twice to the cost of customization would probably make it more than someone would want to spend. 

Edited March 23, 2017 by Brianm77

[RockyAussie]

8 hours ago, SumpinSpecial said:

I know it's hard to answer without seeing what I'm talking about, but I don't want to post a url as my first post ever and look like a spammer.  But if you need it, I'm happy to post a link to my product page so you can see it.  If you want to reply offline, you can get me at "sharon" at SomethingSpecialPetSupplies dot com.

There are tons of different ways to do this but I would say a picture of the product and where it needs to go would be the best place to start.Just had a look online and from what I see you could just replace that strap. I am surprised that they offered the dogs name at no extra charge as that would need be set up each time which would take some time doing. I make products for a lot of different brands and that costs no more as the stamps are made up once and reused sometimes hundreds to thousands of times.That time is then no more than any other. I would suspect that foil stamping would be the answer on firm chrome leather. This could be done locally no doubt by someone who has 1. a clicker to cut the shape out repetitively and store and 2. an embosser with a font style you think acceptable. This would take an experienced person around 10 to 15 minutes per time. As a one off I would not touch it myself as it would take too long. If you paid for the clicker knives and prepaid for 20 or 50 leather pieces to be made ready for stamping I think you may interest someone. If you check my website you will see where I offer free monogramming on my products. The foils can be gotten in all sorts of colours. Hope that helps some. Regards Brian

[RockyAussie]

Just another thought... They may be willing to supply the leather piece separately unattached and that would save a lot of mucking around perhaps.

[SumpinSpecial]

Here is a picture of the muzzle that shows the default printing (product name).  What I'm thinking is to print the dog's name instead - or somehow remove the default printing and put the name over the top.  This one has red leather so I suppose they use whatever dyed leather they happen to have on hand (I haven't received anything other than blue or black so far).

7 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

I am surprised that they offered the dogs name at no extra charge as that would need be set up each time which would take some time doing.

It seems to be a small family operation where the patriarch does the manufacturing and the ladies in the family do the office work.  From the little bit I've spoken to them over the phone about this, it seems like they do all manual paper-and-pen record-keeping, so they may not be the sharpest in terms of cost accounting or analyzing profitability.  In fact, I haven't been able to get the lady who's been put in charge of handling email to send me an invoice!  One would think they'd like to be paid for their work.  But this is why I'm looking at alternatives....