Start to finish
How it works, and how long it takes
For most tournaments, count back 49 days and that is when to order. Late-season tournaments are the exception — winter production schedules pull their deadline a long way forward, so check your tournament rather than doing the arithmetic. Here is where those days go, and what we need from you at each stage.
You get in touch
Tell us what you know. A logo, a photo of last year’s pin, or a picture of your player’s drawing all help. No artwork yet? Describe what goes on the pin and we draw it from that. As soon as you send it, your team gets its own secure order page, where you see your proofs, talk with us and follow your pins every step of the way.
What we need from you: Roster size, the tournament, and your artwork - or a sentence or two describing the pin.
Design and proof
about 7 daysWe turn what you send us into a production-ready design and you approve a proof. Our part is usually a day or two. The rest of this week is yours — it is the round of changes, not the drawing, that decides how long this stage takes.
What we need from you: Approve the proof, or tell us what to change.
Production
about 21 daysYour pins are made. Nothing starts until you have approved the proof, so this clock begins the day you say yes.
What we need from you: Nothing — this one is on us.
Delivery
about 14 daysDelivered to you, not to the rink. How fast depends on how much time is left: when a date is tight we ship express and it moves in a few days; with room to spare we use a standard service, which is slower and costs you less.
What we need from you: A delivery address, and someone there to receive them.
Safety margin
about 7 daysHeld back deliberately so your pins arrive the week before tournament weekend rather than during it. This is the week that absorbs a delay instead of you absorbing it.
What we need from you: Nothing. This week exists so you do not need it.
Pin Tracker Online
Every order gets its own page
When you start your pin with us, your team gets its own secure page. Your pins, your proofs, your price and your dates live there, in writing, from the first drawing to the box at your door - no phone tag and no digging through old emails.
- See every proof the day it is ready. Open it full size, then approve it with one press - or leave a note on the pin saying what to change.
- Your price, right beside it. One price per pin, shipping included, so there is nothing to work out.
- Follow each pin. From drawing to production to shipped, with the date you need them in hand.
- Change it while you still can. Adjust a quantity until you approve, add artwork or a note to any pin, and tell us where to ship.
- Bring in your team. Add a co-manager - or next season’s team manager - so they can open the page too.
- Order again next season. Reorder an approved pin with a new quantity and tournament. Same art, no starting over.
It opens with a link we email to your address - no password to remember, and only your team and ours can open it. Lost the link? Find your orders.
The proof
Nothing is made until you approve it, and once you do, the design is locked and it goes into production.
Two things are worth knowing before you get there. Decide in advance who signs it off — a proof waiting on a committee is the most common reason a timeline moves. And send every change at once rather than one at a time; each round costs a day or two, and one round of six notes is faster than three rounds of two.
Revisions are included. There is no limit and no charge for them.
Order early, pay less.
Every tournament has an order-by date, and ordering by it gets you our standard price. After it there is often still a way: fewer than five weeks before your tournament the pins have to ship by express, which costs more, and the price we quote includes it. Fewer than four weeks before it, we cannot make custom pins in time, so we stop taking orders for that tournament.
Find your tournament’s order-by date on its page, or start your team’s pin and see your price for the date you need them. Ask and you will get a straight answer — we would rather say no than take an order we cannot deliver on time. The smallest order we make is 50 pins, rush order or not.
What happens next
We reply by email within 3 business days — usually sooner. Send artwork or an AI concept with the form and your quote comes back faster. A pin specialist reads it — not a call center, and not a bot.
Design, proofs and shipping included. Nothing is made until you approve.
More questions? We have answered the usual ones.