# Sport Team Pens, need ideas



## Mortalis (Oct 2, 2014)

I have a friend that would like for me to make her some pens that are themed or logo'd for a couple specific football teams.

I was at first thinking I could just get the pocket clips with the team logos on them but I havent been able to locate a source for them. Then I thought I would just use team colored blanks and the decal a logo onto them.

Problem is, I have tried several times to decal pens with no luck. I've wathced the tutorial that is on YouTube and read the tutorial that is in the library here but still I seem to be missing something.

I am looking for any other ideas.

Thanks in advance for your input.


----------



## Brooks803 (Oct 2, 2014)

NFL Pen Blanks


----------



## wood-of-1kind (Oct 2, 2014)

Brooks803 said:


> NFL Pen Blanks



These are real "winners". Thanks for sharing the link. Roy has some real
nice offerings. Wonder if he will offer NHL logos at a later point?


----------



## lyonsacc (Oct 2, 2014)

Here are two links to pens using some of the blanks from Classic Nib

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/chicago-bears-football-themed-pen-105761/

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/now-time-baseball-119063/


----------



## rd_ab_penman (Oct 2, 2014)

Brooks803 said:


> NFL Pen Blanks



How do you get authorization to use Trademarked/Copyrighted NFL Logos for resale?

Les


----------



## KenV (Oct 2, 2014)

rd_ab_penman said:


> Brooks803 said:
> 
> 
> > NFL Pen Blanks
> ...




You don't --- your buy Budweiser beer with the desired caps and pay for the licensing with the price of the beer.    

Secondary use of a licensed product has generally been held appropriate in US Courts with some limits.   

Jim does very well as making beer bottle caps into cast pen blanks.


----------



## Dave Turner (Oct 2, 2014)

rd_ab_penman said:


> Brooks803 said:
> 
> 
> > NFL Pen Blanks
> ...



Provided the manufacturer of the blanks is licensed to use the trademarks, the first sale doctrine should protect you. As long as the goods have not been altered so as to be materially different from those originating from the trademark owner, you have the right to resell it.  Since the pen blank is intended to be made into a pen, you are not significantly altering it and legally have the right to sell the pen.

Now if you take a trademarked cigar band and use that to make a pen, you are making a significant material alteration to the cigar band. You cannot legally sell the cigar pen without obtaining permission from the trademark holder.

Personally, I don't think many trademark owners are concerned with a few pens and I doubt that many of the blank makers have bothered to obtain a license to use trademarks. Unless someone starts selling thousands of trademarked pens, I think this craft will stay under the radar. That being said, I'll just give my cigar band pens away as gifts.


----------



## Edgar (Oct 2, 2014)

The simplest & least expensive route is to just use a blank with a team color theme. If it's a slimline, you can add a football clip.

Printing your own decals or stickers, as you have already tried, is another option. Doing so for your own use should not cause any problems, but I wouldn't try to sell them.

Best option in the decal/sticker arena is to purchase licensed stickers or some licensed product that you can recover a logo from. As KenV noted, secondary use of licensed products is generally ok.

The NFL beer cap blanks that have already been mentioned are a great medium price range option.

For a high end pen, you can buy a team watch and get one of our watch pen parts gurus to disassemble it & make you some blanks like these that Mike Hirsch (Indiana_Parrothead) made for me.


----------



## Mortalis (Oct 2, 2014)

Oh man!
You guys are great.
I like the beer bottle cap blanks, I also really like the clay football blank.
My friend has asked about a couple Patriots and Florida State (Orange and Blue) pens.
Do the clay blanks require finishing, like CA or something?
I like the Chicago Bears pen. I am thinking that would a good way to go.
I'm also thinking that I need to buy some molds and put together a vacuum system and start making my own acrylic blanks. That way I can incorporate just about anything into the blank.


----------



## lyonsacc (Oct 2, 2014)

Mortalis said:


> Oh man!
> You guys are great.
> I like the beer bottle cap blanks, I also really like the clay football blank.
> My friend has asked about a couple Patriots and Florida State (Orange and Blue) pens.
> ...


 
When I got my baseball blank from Classic it did not require any additional finish, however I believe they have a different artist now that makes them - so it would be best to ask Roy about the need for a finish.  I asked Brooks to make some team specific color blanks for me and they were spot on.


----------



## navycop (Oct 3, 2014)

I know you said decals didn't work for you, Here is a decal pen I did for a nurse at work. She is a Red Sox fan.. It is an Atlas with a couple coats of CA.


----------



## navycop (Oct 3, 2014)

navycop said:


> I know you said decals didn't work for you, Here is a decal pen I did for a nurse at work. She is a Red Sox fan.. It is an Atlas with a couple coats of CA.



Sorry. Said it was an Atlas.. I didn't have any pictures of that. I made another which is a sierra...


----------



## wyone (Oct 3, 2014)

If you are artistic, you can create your own using clay.  This was my first try and I have some ideas, but was looking for something using orange and blue for the Denver Broncos.  I do not think the actual logo is as important as the logo for what I was looking for.


----------

