Creating custom roll cones can be a daunting process because there are so many things you must take into consideration. Taking the time to understand this process is important if you want to get the best deal possible.

Paper Type and Quality

Smoking quality determines just how good a cone is. You don’t want a harsh tasting paper as it’ll negatively impact your cone regardless of how beautifully designed it is otherwise. This is why you should choose a paper with a low GSM (grams-per-square-meter) rating (somewhere under 15GSM). Doing so is important because the more paper that’s smoked the harsher it is.

Pre-Rolled Cone Length

Besides choosing the type of paper it’s also important to choose the length of paper. This can range 54 mm – 1.3 grams. These differences in sizes will allow you to be able to create any size you want for everything from multi-packs to giant cones for special occasions, even limited edition products.

Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs)

This is something that’s important for you to understand because it’s the lowest quantity you can purchase. Typically these are at the highest price points. By increasing your quantity you’ll decrease the price-per-unit. Sometimes you can split the MOQ into various designs but you may need to pay a split design fee for this.

Lead Times

By knowing what a company’s lead time is you’ll be able to know how much to order and when you’ll need to reorder. When the lead time is excessively long you’ll want to carry more inventory – something for which you’ll need to spend more money. Typically a lead time will range from 4 – 8 weeks. You should try to avoid anyone with a lead time of 8 – 12 weeks, which is something that’s also common in the industry. This means the company can’t quickly complete custom orders because they specialize in generic cones.

Air-Freight vs. Ocean-Freight

Since you’ll need to have your custom roll cones shipped to you it’s important to decide whether you want them air-shipped or ocean-shipped. While air-shipping is faster (1 – 2 weeks), it’s also more expensive than ocean shipping which is slower (3 – 4 weeks) but less expensive.

The Bottom Line

There really are a lot of important things you must take into consideration whenever you’re designing customized rolled cones. Hopefully, now that you know what they are you’ll be better equipped to make them.