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It is a great time of year for name labels suppliers with the new school term starting in a few weeks, (Scottish schools are already back).  We get calls, mail and web orders from all kinds of parents in the UK, all with one thing on their minds….school name labels…..

Some customers have fantastic regional accents from deepest Devon to the north of the north, it is sometimes difficult to work out the exact spelling of the names we need to print. The phonetic alphabet strides in to the rescue, most people do not know it and to be honest it is much more fun making up your own.

We had one customer who spelt out the entire names of their children using alcholic drinks, and another who did it with makes of cars. I think these people had already made up and learnt their own personal phonetic alphabets and reveled in ordering our name labels.

But soon, the name labels suppliers can rest until next year, because like a seasonal migration  thousands of Kids will make their way back to school in their new school clothes with name labels attached.

The obvious reason why these name labels are called STIKINS is because they simply stick onto the wash care label of school clothing, i.e. they stick-in.

However there is another more subtle reason…if you look at the letters then the two capital “I” form the same shape as the garment labels in the Stikins originals label sets…I I….the capital “I” is the same as a rotated capital “H”.

In June the name-labels.com site was launched.

We had decided that with the growth of our Name Labels business it was better to have a dedicated site rather than just a few pages on the Label Planet site.

The site is now visited by thousands of parents who are buying our Stikins Original and the Stikins new labels. The back to school season is here again and we will get busier and busier as the start of the new school term approaches.

The new site has a detailed FAQ section, download pages for instruction leaflets and brochures, and a school section, as well as two great sales pages for name labels.

For the first time schools and PTA’s who are working with us can log in and see the commission they have earned in real time!!! Participating schools have been given their user names and passwords, and they earn 15% commission.

I have been asked to do an update on our new name labels product so here goes…

Clothing Name Labels that stick into clothes have been sold in their millions by Label Planet over the past 6 years. STIKINS “H” shaped labels have a huge following amongst parents who do not want to sew in labels or iron on labels.

We have been developing a new multi-purpose stick on name label product for 4 years and finally managed to get a product that passed the stringent independent laboratory wash tests  early this year. We launched the new product in the UK at the start of June.

The new Name Labels product simply sticks onto the wash care label in school garments, but the same label can be used to label shoes, dishwasher items and general items. So it is great value for money, because ONE set of name labels is all you need for this years back to school labelling.

The new product has taken off very rapidly in the UK and is also Loved by American parents. We are proud that our UK product is competing so well in the American market place.

We had long discussions about what to call the new product. In the end we decided to call it STIKINS New, and the existing “H” shaped product STIKINS Original. We are manufacturing both products in several production batches every day, and despatching first class post every day.

Well that’s pretty much it for now, I will be doing an update on the new features on our web site later this week.

WithAugust starting today the back to school name labels season is with us once again.

Stikins name labels will sell well this year because there is a new advanced name label which just sticks in and also a new web site www.name-labels.com. We are continuing to sell the original “H” shaped name labels which have a huge following.

Back in April 2008 we supplied the first name labels to one of the largest care home groups in the UK, and yesterday we made and dispatched their 100th name label order, each order contained up to 120 individual names.

Stikins name labels were chosen because of their ease of use and durability. Staff and residents can easily apply them to the wash care labels in clothes and onto other possessions, and the labels survive well in the laundries.

I an moment of creativity I wrote a name labels short story for our web site, I was hoping it could be a kind of pilot for a novel…

“Its not that gym vests are unimportant, but I did feel that their value must be a little lower than my happiness. Dragged to the school lost property room by my mum in full view of my friends, and then forced to search amongst the boxes and bags of clothes until we found a box marked “Lost Gym Vests” by some long gone PTA hero, it was the start of a realisation that name labels may play some kind of useful role.

The vest box was huge and of course contained hundreds of identical unlabelled vests, the stress of containing all this misery had split the box at one corner and layers of different coloured garments could be seen like the fossilised remains of past kids.

“David there is no need to dig down in the box, your vest will be on the top if it is here”,
I decided to get out as soon as possible. “Found it” I cried in jubilation and stuffed a gym vest the same size and colour as the missing one into my pocket and made a dash for the door.

Later at home the prodigal vest was of course rejected, “It can not possibly be yours, because it does not have your name label on it” and with a terrible realisation I knew that the interrogation would start all over again.

It is so annoying that he can not look after his school stuff, it’s not just the money, it’s the inconvenience, and stress it causes when something gets lost. I have to ask him over and over again to look in lost property, so we have both come to the school like a couple of guilty scavengers.

I have put school name labels in everything for him, from the look of this vest box lots of mums don’t bother, there must be thousands of wasted pounds here, and now he is starting to rout around in the box “David there is no need to dig down in the box, your vest will be on the top if it is here”. Oh good he has got it now, I just wish I could dash out like he has.

Now I really am annoyed! well he can just wear this oversized vest for a bit, may be it will teach him a lesson, and now the phone is ringing, hi- yes- great- thanks-they can swap them back tomorrow then –me too- bye. Good job that I had name labels on the gym vest and yes here is Garry’s vest….. in David’s bag all the time.

I am still waiting for responses from publishers, can’t think where I went wrong???

Well In think it depends what you want and what is important to you.
Woven name labels with embroidered names look fantastic and are the most durable, but you have to sew them all in. Writing names in with a pen is fast and cheap but looks terrible and will fade. Some iron on name labels are good but others just fall out after a few washes. Stikins name labels offer a fast and durable solution….but remember you are reading the Label planet blog and we make them.

But they really are good.!!!

Earlier today, following an early start for grooming, Harvey, the star of the Label Planet Stikins publicity campaign, visited a studio for his photo shoot.
With his typical enthusiasm he wore us all out as we tried to get the right photograph. In the end he got bored playing with us and sat down looked straight at the camera and posed!!!

Pictures of the name labels dog will be on press wire next Wednesday and on the www.name-labels.com site later this week.

Many thanks to Simon J. Newbury Photographers of Nantwich.

We are running Stikins Name Labels production at least twice a day, every weekday in July and August. Normally we run at 8.30 in the morning and again at around 1.00 in the afternoon.

All our products are packed same day and posted out first class post so this means that for many parents their personalised name labels will arrive will arrive next day.