Has anyone found a vendor who sells bumper material in bulk?
I’ve seen all kinds of upholstery and exotic fabrics sold by the bolt, but I can’t seem to find Cordura 1000D in quantities much larger than what is sold by AndyMark or RoboPromo.
I’ve never purchased from alibaba before so I’m not claiming this is the way to do it. But it looks like they’ll sell you as much as you want
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If what you’re looking for is 1000d Cordura, then one of the best bets as a supplier in bulk is Seattle Fabrics (an outdoor fabrics supplier.) They have what you’re looking for in 60" width, selling by the yard at $17.95/yard. They even have the red and blue colors designated as “FIRST Robotics Red” and “FIRST Robotics Blue”.
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Fields Fabric sells it in person and online. You can buy it by the yard online or call and get the whole bolt.
J Ennis Fabrics in Mississauga Ontario carries it. I’ve always bought it by the yard but I’m sure they’d sell you a bolt of it if they have that much. Cordura 1000 – Ennis Fabrics
I have a wholesale account with Ripstopbytheroll and have ordered Cordura from them many times. Their customer service is excellent, pricing is very good on 50 yard bolts, thought it looks like at the moment they’re out of red and blue rolls.
Just curious why you want to order a full bolt? I’ve had luck from other sources- Cordura is odd, it seems like retailers use all different names for the same color. I’ve seen red also called barn red, and mariner blue is also sold as royal blue.
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Bumping this. I’ll also add in the topic of bumper making that Siser Easyweed is just about the best stuff we’ve found for putting numbers on your bumpers and having them still look good at the end of the season. Everything else seems to start peeling off really quickly.
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I emailed Fields Fabrics and they said not only do they not carry it but they don’t have a supplier for it.
Every year we order just enough to make bumpers and I thought it might save us some money to buy it in bulk since it’s something we can always use. Also, it would be nice to have extra just in case someone cuts a piece too short, etc.
This is what we have used in the past, but it does peel eventually from what I’ve seen.
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I have found bumper fabric at Walmart, JoAnn’s Fabric and Hobby Lobby. Easy to find every year.
More heat may help you get it to stick better. We ended up buying a heat press a little while back because an iron alone wasn’t quite enough, and our last few years’ bumpers are fine. I had to use some Cricut brand heat set vinyl for a couple numbers this year, though, and they were peeling after a week.
I’ll take a second look at those places. In the past I’ve found similar fabrics but the colors weren’t right. Usually they have ripstop nylon that’s closer to the 200D type but much thinner and presumably less durable.
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Regarding the peeling numbers, we use Stahl’s CAD-Cut Premium Plus and a heat press, and our numbers do not peel. I also don’t get too fussed about color, since such a wide variety of “red” and “blue” is acceptable to the inspection team; this opens up many other possible fabric options. You may have a different opinion, and want only the correct red and blue.
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If you apply it properly, the only way it will peel is if you apply heat to break the bond with the fabric. Sounds like you might be light in the pressure of the heat press process if you’ve had it come loose on you. Are you using a press or an iron?
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We use a heat press but it might be an issue of pressure. I’ll look into that at bumper time.
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Just to note, a bolt of fabric is typically 50 yards, wholesale that’s around $500 and enough for many many years of bumpers.
If youre looking for continuous length quantities, I ordered 10 yards from ebay this year. You may want to verify the color is what you’re looking for, as I said above the name of the color varies from seller to seller. Andymarks pricing is really good for the continuous length, but I found the height produces a lot of waste for our methods and it’s easier to just order yardage. Also a very minor pet peeve- it really should be stored rolled and not folded.
For numbers we’ve used Stahls vinyl. It is a cold peel vinyl, so make sure you read instructions for whatever lettering you’re using.
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