Custom Shrink Sleeve Printing · Farmingdale, NY
Custom shrink sleeves are a popular option for brands looking to maximize marketing space on a product with 360 degree utilization. We print and seam a film that shrinks directly onto your container, taking on its form to give the product a seamless, direct printed look.
A sleeve is printed flat and then made to become the shape of something else. Everything that goes wrong with sleeves goes wrong in that transition.
Distortion
Film shrinks unevenly. It moves most where the container changes diameter, which means a shoulder, a waist or a taper will stretch type and bend a straight rule unless the artwork is built to compensate before it prints. This is prepress work rather than design compromise, and it is the difference between a sleeve that looks like a printed container and one that looks like a sticker that gave up. We check and recheck each design against its container placement so it comes out exactly as intended.
Coverage
Full body coverage gives you the most print area and hides the container completely, which is right when the container is plain and the brand is doing all the work. Partial coverage leaves glass or metal showing, which is often stronger on a premium product where the container itself is part of the appeal. A neck band or a tamper seal does no marketing at all and exists purely to show the package has not been opened. All three are the same process, and the choice is about what the container is worth looking at.
Everything below runs at 24 Baiting Place Road. Send us a container and we will work the sleeve to it.
| Spec | What we run |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Full body, partial coverage, neck bands or tamper seals. |
| Substrates | Clear substrate or white substrate. |
| Finishes | Gloss finish or matte finish. |
| Embellishment | Spot UV varnish and spot foil, plus specialty foils and varnishes for a more premium look. |
| Full color graphic print, black wording only, or a pattern. Four color process with extended gamut and specialty spot colors. | |
| Unprinted | Cut and seamed sleeves with no printing at all, used as an added layer of product security. |
| Containers | Ready to drink cans, beer and wine bottles, plastic and glass bottles and jars, and beauty containers. |
| Recycling | A perforated tear line and a message advising the consumer to remove the sleeve before recycling the container. |
Shrink sleeves are chosen for one of three reasons, and they are worth separating because they lead to different specifications.
Anything with a compound curve, a waist or a taper is difficult to label and easy to sleeve. A pressure sensitive label on a curved surface either wrinkles or has to be small enough to sit on the flat part. A sleeve conforms to the whole form, which is why beauty containers, sports bottles and shaped glass tend to end up here. We print and seam the film to the container itself, so the shape stops being the constraint it is with a pressure sensitive label. This type of packaging decoration is popular in the beverage market, with ready to drink cans, beer and even wine bottles, and it is used often for certain food products and in the beauty space.
A full body sleeve gives you every square inch of the container and no interruption. For products with heavy ingredient decks, multilingual copy or a strong visual identity, the difference between a label panel and a full wrap is the difference between editing the message and printing all of it. It is also why sleeves are common on variety packs, where each flavor needs a distinct full container look without a new container. Digital printing means the whole variety pack can run together, and the price does not move because one flavor has more colors in it than another.
A neck band or tamper seal shrinks over the closure so the package cannot be opened without visible damage. Some clients run cut and seamed sleeves with no printing at all purely as an added layer of product security. It is the cheapest tamper evidence available and it does not require changing the closure or the container. Neck bands and tamper seals run on the same equipment as full body sleeves here, so adding tamper evidence to an existing line is a specification change rather than a new supplier.
Each design and its correlating container placement gets checked and rechecked so it comes out exactly as intended. That work is where sleeve jobs succeed or fail.
Top of the line digital printing makes shrink sleeves a workable choice for anything from a small run limited release to your top selling SKU.
For a more premium look we offer specialty foils and varnishes on sleeves, not only on paper labels. Contact us for samples of the high end products available.
Labels, sleeves, pouches and cartons for the same brand come off the same floor in Farmingdale, which is the only reliable way to hold color across different substrates.
As much or as little as you like. Shrink sleeves range from full body to partial coverage down to just neck bands or tamper seals, and all of them are the same process.
Sleeves conform to the container, so shape is rarely the obstacle. They are popular in the beverage market with ready to drink cans, beer and even wine bottles, and they are used often for certain food products and in the beauty space.
Not if the file is built for the container. Film shrinks unevenly where the diameter changes, so the artwork is compensated in prepress before it prints. We check and recheck each design and its container placement to prevent distortion.
Yes. Sleeves are available in clear or white substrate with a gloss or matte finish, and you can add spot UV varnish or spot foil on top of either.
No. Some clients use cut and seamed sleeves with no printing at all as an added layer of product security, which is a straightforward way to add tamper evidence without changing the closure.
A sleeve is easy to remove completely before the container goes in the recycling bin, which is why they suit recyclable containers well. Many companies include a perforated tear line and a message on the package advising the consumer to rip the sleeve off first.
Shrink sleeves printed, seamed and cut on our own equipment at 24 Baiting Place Road in Farmingdale, New York.
Container type, height and diameter, and how much coverage you want gets you a price.
