BUYING
Private Label Heat Transfer Vinyl: A Step-by-Step Guide for Craft and Apparel Brands
How a private-label HTV program runs from brief to shelf—formats, packaging, compliance documents and realistic timelines.
Why brands private-label HTV
Craft retailers, e-commerce brands and print-supply houses put their own label on heat transfer vinyl for three reasons: margin, control over the colour range, and a product customers reorder by name. The film itself is a small part of the work; packaging, documentation and consistency are the rest.
SHINHAN manufactured glitter iron-on for a top-tier global craft brand — from the glitter layer to the retail pack — until 2022 and has supplied glitter film to a leading European heat transfer film maker. The steps below are the same ones those programs ran on.
Step 1: the brief
Target retail price point per sheet or roll
Film families: glitter, PU, flock, puff, foil, TPU
Colour range: stock shades, Pantone matches or a mix
Formats: 12 × 12″ sheets, 12″ or 15″ rolls, multi-packs
Packaging: header cards, sleeves, boxes, barcodes
Markets and the certifications they require
Step 2: lab-dips and samples
Custom colours are matched from a Pantone code or a physical swatch and returned as lab-dips in about 5–7 business days. Approved colours go into a pilot batch so you can test on your presses, photograph products and build listings before the first production order.
Step 3: documentation
A retail program needs paperwork as much as film: technical data sheets, press-setting cards, OEKO-TEX certificate copies, lead and phthalate test reports for children’s products, a Proposition 65 statement and a REACH SVHC declaration where relevant, plus origin documents for FTA duty benefits. SHINHAN assembles this file per program.
Step 4: production and reorders
Stock colours ship in about 7–10 business days; custom developments take 2–4 weeks. Retained batch samples and production records mean a reorder next year matches the first run. Minimums are set per colour and per format after the brief—ask for the current schedule.
Start with a sample kit
See the films, the sheet packs and the packaging options before you brief a program.
