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How do you decipher between all of the choices?  When sourcing heat transfer vinyl for your business, you’ll come up with commonly used brands such as Spectra, Thermofilm, Thermoflex and Hotmark.  You’ll also come up with a number of distributors for each specific brand.  Now, you can order in samples of all of these brands from a number of different distributors or you can qualify the brands first by going through some of the characteristics that you are looking for. 

This 3 part guide is created to serve as a general guide to help you along when selecting a heat transfer vinyl to use for your business.

Part 1 of this guide will take a look into deciding factors such as Price, Delivery & Quality. 

Part 2 will cover production factors and finished results.

Part 3 will cover a list of specific brands and sub-brands, along with a pricing breakdown.

PART ONE: Examining Price, Delivery and Quality.

Price – The first thing to look at is the cost per yard.  Find out where the quantity price breaks are for the material.  See if price breaks are contingent upon an annual volume or a minimum order.  Once an actual cost per yard is established, find out the width of the material and break the cost down to a cost per square inch.  This will give you an actual number to compare between different material styles, since a lot of materials come in varying widths.

Delivery – Of course this involves locating an actual distributor for the brand you are considering.  After locating the distributor, ask about shipping rates, surcharges and the like.  Also find out the delivery time, and make sure that they keep an active stock of materials.  In the Heat Transfer Vinyl world a lot of mom and pop distributors exists.  This type of distributor usually does not stock all colors of material and rarely has bigger rolls available.  A major, reoccurring problem is distributors being on backorder for materials, so pay special attention to this when selecting a source for material.

Quality - Color to color accuracy can be a major concern when choosing a distributor for heat transfer vinyl.  This problem is not always contingent on the manufacturing of the vinyls, but moreso in the sourcing process.  Make sure that your distributor sources their supply of vinyls from the same manufacturer every time.  Other common problems with quality include splicing, adhesive inconsistency, damaged cores, uneven edges and the like.  Be sure to find out what preventative steps the distributor takes to limit these common problems.