DIRECT-TO-OBJECT TECHNOLOGY SCALES PREMIUM PROMOTIONAL PRODUCT DECORATION

In today’s promotional-products market, customers are looking for more than functional branded merchandise. They increasingly want products that feel premium and personal, making decoration quality a crucial part of the overall product experience. The Global Advertising Impressions study from ASI Research found that 74% of international consumers would keep an item because it is useful. This helps explain why brands are leaning towards retail-style products over novelty giveaways. PPAI’s Product Power 2026 report sheds more light into what consumers consider ‘high quality’. Durability is cited at 70.4%, design 65.2% and material quality 58.2%. 

Spector & Co is a Montreal-based trade supplier of promotional products including journals, pens, bags, drinkware and lifestyle products. The company supplies brands, marketers and organisations across North America. For the company, this shift has made it more important than ever to deliver greater visual impact, enhanced customisation and high-quality finishes across an increasingly diverse product range. 

Straightforward logo application on a product is often no longer enough. To remain competitive and meet evolving customer expectations, every finished product must deliver a clean, professional and consistent appearance. 

Seeking to expand and modernise its digital decoration platform, Spector & Co turned to Inkcups. The company’s reliable, high-quality DTO technology offered the flexibility, consistency and production performance needed to meet these evolving customer expectations.

Delivering high-quality decoration at scale, while keeping production efficient, can be a challenge. For Spector & Co, DTO printing offered the opportunity to expand possibilities without compromising on quality or workflow.

As demand grew for higher quality, retail-inspired decoration, Spector & Co invested in Inkcups’ technology to complement its existing decoration capabilities. The company identified Inkcups as a ‘natural partner’ in its evolution. 

Alan Meinstein, CEO, Spector & Co, explains, “Traditional methods are very effective, but they can have limitations depending on the product, design complexity or run size.” He continues, “We were looking for ways to increase flexibility, particularly for full-colour decoration and more complex or variable applications.” 

When evaluating potential solutions, Spector & Co focused on print quality, flexibility and reliability. It also looked at how well the equipment could integrate into the live production environment. The company started out by investing in X2 flatbed UV DTO technology from Inkcups in 2015. It later expanded its capability with X5 flatbed systems as image quality and production speeds advanced. Meinstein comments, “It’s not just about what a machine can do in a demo, it’s about how it performs day-to-day.” He goes on to say, “Inkcups stood out because we already knew the technology, trusted the platform and felt it aligned well with our operational needs and long-term direction.” 

More recently, Spector & Co added the XJET Switch as it expanded into new applications. The XJET Switch is a specialised flatbed UV printer for full-colour direct to reusable bag applications. Meinstein reports, “The XJET Switch is particularly well suited to bag applications and other flat or semi-flexible items. While the X5 platform gives us flexibility across a range of hard goods including our pens, journals and travel accessories.” He concludes, “It really comes down to using each piece of equipment where it performs best.”

Today, Spector & Co operates an Inkcups XJET Switch alongside X5, X2 and cylindrical Helix® systems. Each machine plays a key role within its growing decoration platform. They broaden the range of applications that the company can offer. 

With any busy production environment, installations and updates to the machines being used can cause downtime and disruption. Spector & Co operates a structured production environment with strong process discipline. As a result, new technology can be incorporated in a way that fits into the company’s existing workflow without disruption. Meinstein also credits Inkcups for providing solid support on installation, training and ongoing service for smooth installations during updates to production.

Meinstein highlights the flexibility, full-colour capability and simple setup of Inkcups’ technology. These factors enable Spector & Co to efficiently produce both short-run and complex jobs while maintaining a high level of quality. Being able to produce vibrant full-colour decoration with good opacity – including white ink – opens up opportunities across a much wider variety of products and colours. The result is high-quality decoration that helps customers create products with a more polished look and feel.

“The company identified Inkcups as a ‘natural partner’ in its evolution”

By expanding its decoration capabilities, Inkcups’ technology has enabled Spector & Co to pursue new opportunities. Meinstein says, “It gives our team more ways to support our distributor partners.” He adds, “The feedback we hear is around print quality, consistency and overall presentation, which are key drivers of satisfaction.” He concludes, “We are well known in the industry for having a high quality decoration on our products and Inkcups is a strong part of that offering.”

These investments have also strengthened Spector & Co’s position as a trusted partner to promotional product distributors. The company gives customers greater confidence to sell higher value decorated products while reinforcing the company’s reputation for quality. Meinstein explains, “It reinforces our value proposition around quality and execution, which supports both sales and long-term relationships.”

Demand continues to grow for promotional products that offer greater visual impact, more personalisation and premium, retail-inspired finishes. As a result, Meinstein expects DTO technology to play an even greater role in Spector & Co’s decoration mix. Brands are increasingly looking to differentiate themselves through higher-quality merchandise. DTO technology provides the flexibility, full-colour capability and versatility to meet these evolving expectations. 

Meinstein ends by saying, “We view Inkcups as an important partner and will continue to assess opportunities to expand that relationship as the business evolves.”