In the beginning (2015), I was using Bella+Canvas unisex tees. Everyone loved them because they were so soft, comfortable, had a great retail fit that was true to size, and in my opinion they were some of the best tees to screen print with water based and discharge inks, which is what I specialized in at the time. Unfortunately, when the world turned upside down in 2020, so did some of its products, mainly these Bella+Canvas tees - Sad Face! They were now running super small and the sizes were too inconsistent. And a lot of your feedback was that the tees were too small, so I started trying other brands to find a replacement.
I tried many different brands out and the winner is...Next Level Apparel. I've been incorporating this amazing brand into our EODStuff products for the past 2 years, and mainly use them for all of our custom unit orders.
Starting now, I'll be making unisex sizes Small through XXX-Large for all new future runs. For our "Essential" Tees that I try to continually keep made and in stock for our website and here in Niceville at Crab Zone, I will start making size XXXL for future runs.
Thank you guys for this great community. And "Thanks" to those of you who provided feedback! It lets me know what I'm doing right and what I need to change up, such as adding more sizes. ;)
If you have any questions at all, please email me at Kellie@BombBullie.com.
]]>Silicone Inks are 'where it's at' for screen printing on silkies (aka Ranger Panties). I've been screen printing with plastisol and water based inks on silkies since 2016, and synchronistically "stumbled" upon silicone inks Summer of 2020. I did my research, talked to a couple of different ink companies, and then made the plunge by investing quite a bit of my savings into silicone inks (they're THAT GREAT for a reason!).
I mainly wanted to make the transition to using silicone inks because I believed the quality, feel, look, and durability of it would be the best (it was).
And secondly, using silicone inks are a bit more eco-conscious as they are Non-PVC, non-phthalate.
Here are Some Perks of the Silicone Inks I use on our Silkies:
—> Extreme stretchability
—> Excellent soft drape & super soft Hand Feel (no tackiness here!)
—> Excellent coverage and opacity
—> high performance and eco-conscious silicone ink by Zodiac™
—> Inks are Non-PVC, non-phthalate
—> these durable inks can tolerate heavy washes for lasting strength
RESULTS! I watched enough YouTube videos and researched as much as I could on silicone inks and screen printing with them. It was time to act and actually test it all out. This here was my first time printing with silicone inks. I screen printed our No Step on Snek logo with hand-mixed silicone inks (matte base, yellow toner, and catalyst) on these silkie smooth Ranger Panties (I call them Silkies!) and my little screen-printing-world was turned "right side up" hahaha!
My screen printing process with silicone inks on silkies (made of 100% nylon tricot) was so much easier than when I previously used Plastisol or water-based inks. The ink was smoother, the flash time was quicker, and I was able to toss these bad boys on my conveyor belt dryer and presto...gold.
I did a wash and dry test and here is the stretch test.
CONCLUSION:
I'll definitely be making the permanent transition to using silicone inks on all of our silkies for a gorgeous look, an impeccably smooth feel (butter baby!), and a promise of longevity.
]]>I found this video from a few years ago when I first started playing with water-based and discharge inks...I only had a hand held heat gun to cure the inks, which had to be cured at 350 degrees F for at least 1 1/2 minutes. Yah I was seeing the chiropractor every couple weeks lol!
I wanted to share it so y'all could see the process of using discharge inks. It's pretty cool to see the garment change to the color you've dyed it in real time. Enjoy and don't make too much fun of me! ;)
]]>We love The Skeebb™! If you're not quite sure who The Skeebb™ is, read our short post about him HERE. But in a nutshell, Skeebb™ is our symbol of our EOD Techs, friends, and family. EOD can be a dangerous life, but amidst that we cherish and take care of each other and live life to the fullest. That got sentimental real quick! ;)
Back to the expansion of The Skeebb™...He has turned into one of our EOD community's favorites for screen printing on various apparel. We decided to do a couple different "versions" of him and have just introduced Skuba Skeebb™, NVG Skeebb™, and Molotov Cocktail Skeebb™.
]]>That's right folks, it's a Silkies-Crisis! The silkies (aka Ranger Panties) that we screen print our designs on (and do unit orders for) we get from our Soffe supplier. But currently, there's a shortage of silkies! Oh my! A lot of silkies colors and sizes are on back order due to Covid-19.
We just wanted to let y'all know that we aren't slacking here, but we've had to set pretty much all of our silkie products to only sell what we have already made, in stock. Usually we have our EODStuff.com Silkies set to sell even if we are out of stock because we screen print everything in house and usually have a lot of blank silkies in storage that we can screen print on when the orders come in. This is no longer the case unfortunately.
So as of now, we can only sell what we've already made. We hope this changes as soon as possible, but we are on a waiting list for most colors and sizes.
]]>If you want to be the first to know about new items, discounts, promotions, etc...please sign up to our EODStuff.com Email List. We HATE spam and promise not to spam you or sell your email off to 3rd-Party-Pesks!
Hello, y'all! We recently had a customer ask if we offered military discounts and I thought I would add it to our Blog Post/FAQ page.
Answer in short is "no", but also "yes"...
BombBullie, LLC is a veteran owned and operated company. Kurt is a retired USMC EOD Tech and helps me (Kellie) operate BombBullie, LLC (including EODStuff.com, BombBullieScreenPrinting.com, and BombBullie.com).
The majority of our sales and custom orders are for active duty. Our prices and work reflect a generally cheaper cost using higher quality materials and attention to detail than larger, automated companies.
We don’t do “military discounts” per se, but have worked with many units and people in keeping overall cost to a minimum. When we price each item that we sell, we have taken into consideration that the main purchaser of our "stuff" is our EOD Community and other various Military MOS's. With that said, each item is priced with a "discount" already built into the price.
We do small runs of most items and after several months, move the remaining items to the "Sales" page. And we do our best to offer discounts throughout the year.
And we donate a portion of our proceeds to the EOD Warrior Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation. So a huge thanks to y'all for helping us support our community.
Join our mailing list to hear about promotions and discounts...
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Skeebb stands for Skeleton, Booze, and Bomb Dude. He's our Fun, EOD infused play on Skelly from Social Distortion. We got the idea when we made unit shirts for the USMC EOD Techs over at Cherry Point, NC. The Skeleton dude they sent us to screen print on their unit apparel we felt had more of a Vietnam era feel to it. So Kurt suggested that we modernize our Skeebb a little bit. I had Kurt put on one of his old Mich helmets, took an picture, and we drew the new Skeebb's helmet from that picture onto this logo. We also completely re-created a new skeleton logo, bomb, and booze bottle making Skeebb a whole new little dude.
To us, Skeebb represents the fun side of our EOD community, family, and friends. Our EOD guys and gals work their assess off, and are often times either deployed or in work ups which takes them away from their family and friends. When we have our time together, we make the most of it living it up as much as we can, and cherish those good times and memories. Our Skeebb is a symbol of this.
*Update* - we expounded upon our Skeebb design and created a couple new versions of him (Molotov Skeebb, NVG Skeebb, and Skuba Skeebb). Check these guys out here
*Update #2* - On June 28, 2022 our Skeebb™ logo was officially trademarked.
]]>The Allied Forces Foundation is trying to bring the Yomp to the US. The Appalachian Yomp will be a 20, 40 or 60 mile ruck/hike from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia to Gettysburg National Military Park. The trail covering some of the most historic battlefields from the Civil War.
These plans are still in the works but they are looking towards it taking place this September. Who wants to attend with us as a team?! Email us at Kellie@BombBullie.com and we'll get more details for you.
We came up with the Never Forget EOD Logo to commemorate our EOD brothers and sisters who have fallen during the endeavors of their commitment. This idea came to mind as the date marking the memorial of a dear friend, by the name of Nick Sprovtsoff, came around again. We picked a semblance of the EOD crab, but inverted the wreath to appear as angel wings and replaced the Master Badge star and wreath with a halo and star.
Our respective intentions are to represent the life of sacrifice and courage that our EOD technicians and their families believe in. As the majority of us understand, even though some EOD techs may have moved on from this world, EOD techs make everlasting impacts on those they interact with. We hope that this emblem is found as uplifting as we find it.
Yes we love designing and screen printing...it's what I (Kellie) am so passionate about. However, a HUGE driving factor of EODStuff is that we get to help our our EOD Community by donating to the EOD Warrior Foundation. A portion of our EODStuff proceeds is donated to the EOD Warrior Foundation and to The Gary Sinise Foundation.
We currently make shirts, tanks, hoodies, hats, and stickers with our EOD Never Forget emblem. We can do custom Never Forget items for your tribute person. For more details, email us at Kellie@BombBullie.com.
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*These prices are estimates and are based off of using the Bella+Canvas Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Shirt. We don’t want to inundate you with too many numbers and what-ifs. So here is a simple breakdown. If you want us to use a specific brand shirt, we can do a quote tailored to fit your needs.
Base price is $12 Per shirt. This includes 1 logo, at 1 color.
We can do up to 3 colors per logo. We use eco-friendly waterbased inks that we mix up for each job.
Number of Logos |
Number of Colors |
Price Per Shirt |
1 |
1 |
$12 |
2 |
1 |
$13 |
3 |
1 |
$14 |
4 |
1 |
$15 |
For each additional logo, add $1. That logo includes 1 color. So if you wanted a shirt with 3 logos at 1 color each, that would be $12.
For every logo that you want to be more than 1 color, add $1 to that price.
For example, Bob Barker orders a shirt. He wants a White Chest Logo (1 Color/1 Logo), a Red Sleeve Logo (1 color/ 1 logo), a Yellow Left Sleeve Logo (1 color/ 1 logo) and a Red and Silver Back Logo (2 Color / 1 Logo). That is $14 per shirt.
_____________________________________________________
**This estimate does not include other fees that you may be required to pay such as shipping costs and artwork fees (if applicable). Please refer to our “What’s Included in the Price” PDF.
Some do not know either the meaning behind the EOD Badge, or the 3 different types of EOD Badges. Maybe you’re buying an EOD Shirt or Gift for your sweetie, your sibling, family member, or friend and you have no clue what EOD Badge Rank they are. And because you want to get them a gift, the last thing you want to do is ruin the surprise by asking. I hope this article helps you out and if you have any further questions, email us at kellie@bombbullie.com
THE WREATH is symbolic of the achievements and laurels gained by minimizing accident potentials, through the ingenuity and devotion to duty of its members. It is in memory of the EOD personnel who have given their lives while performing EOD duties.
THE BOMB was copied from the design of the World War II Bomb Disposal Badge; the bomb represents the historic and major objective of the EOD attack, the unexploded bomb. The 3 fins represent the major areas of nuclear, conventional, and chemical/biological warfare.
THE LIGHTNING BOLTS symbolize the potential destructive power of the bomb and the courage and professionalism of EOD personnel in their endeavors to reduce hazards as well as to render explosive ordnance harmless.
THE SHIELD represents the EOD mission, which is to protect personnel and property in the immediate area from an inadvertent detonation of hazardous ordnance.
For those who may have filled your busy minds with more and more information today, I just wanted to give a quick reminder of what is represented when one puts on their respective uniform and wears the insignia that defines us. For those who were possibly unfamiliar with the meaning of the EOD insignia all together, I hope the quick blog further illustrates to you what a service member wearing the insignia is capable of doing.
For those wondering about the variety in the badges, each badge is relevant to an individual’s time as an EOD Technician, level of experience, and responsibilities to those around them.
The Basic EOD Badge is the badge awarded to all basic EOD technicians and is worn by those brand new to the field and on average, up to around 4 years of experience.
The Senior EOD Badge is further awarded after an average of 4 years and represents a level of understanding and competence considered to be that of an expert. This potentially further implies that the wearer is possibly fulfills a leadership role.
On average, The Master EOD Badge represents around a minimum of 8 years experience as an EOD Technician. It is representative of someone who is considered a “master” of the craft. This badge is indicative of having mastered leadership responsibilities also associated with that of mastering one’s trade.
Note: Each service has slightly different rules and requirements for being awarded senior and master badges. For any further information, feel free to ask your nearest grouchy and smart assed EOD Tech.
I've held on to these amazing Baseball Tees made by NextLevel Apparel for about a year now. I hadn't found the perfect graphic to put on it, and I didn't want to just screen print any logo on them.
I ordered these baseball tees over a year ago. When I opened the box, I could not believe how damn soft these bad boys were! I know I use the words soft, comfortable, and quality to describe our shirts a lot, and it might be overkill. However, I can't think of any big or sexy words to describe how these shirts are without coming off as a Sesquipedalian (<---Ha! Used a big word there!) and using superfluous words to impress you.
We finally designed a kickass EOD Logo and our new and grittier USA Flag logo that became the worthy combination to screen print on this superior tee.
Kurt originally had me design the flag using thin lines. I felt like it was too "naked" and well, boring. I'm all about minimalism, but it lacked personality and needed edginess or "umph" to it. So we experimented with hundreds of variations of brushes and finally got that something we were looking for: Simple yet Sophisticated.
With the front EOD Chest Logo, I wanted to make each badge different from each other. So, I came up with the base design of the EOD logo, with the letter "O" being the EOD Badge. I used our version of the EOD Badge, some modern text, and then applied a bit of grunginess to the design.
And we made 3 versions: one is with our Basic EOD Badge, the other is with our Senior EOD Badge, and the last is our Master EOD Badge.
Hope you like it. You can check it out HERE.
Please don't hesitate to let us know your comments (unless you're an asshole or scammer...then just leave us alone ;) and if you have any ideas that you want to see on a shirt. You can email us at kellie@bombbullie.com
Screen printed with eco-friendly water based inks...the graphics literally become a part of the shirt. We used NextLevel Apparel's Tri-Blend 3/4 Sleeve Raglan Baseball Tees for this one.
Comes in Unisex XS, Small, Medium, or X-Large. Limited run, get yours while supply lasts.
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Whether you are buying an EOD Shirt, tank top, hoodie, long sleeve shirt, or even something for your dog to wear... we guarantee our quality. We put all of ourselves into our designs, quality of work, and customer service. However, we actually do not view any of you as mere "customers", we see you as family and friends and in kind we make quality stuff for our own.
When it comes to making EOD Stuff shirts, we make shirts how we would want to wear them. If we wouldn't pay money for it or wear it, we won't make it!
From the design, to picking out our quality apparel, to the process by which we make our shirts, we are laser focused on the entire process...from start to finish. We also value your opinion and do what we can to make you happy.
I taught myself Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop years ago when I first got into screen printing. I took classes in Los Angeles led by Ryonet Screenprinting. I continue to learn as much as I can to ensure that I'm on top of my game and can continue to make awesome graphics and apparel.
I design all of my own graphics, with the help and "supervision" of my husband, Kurt ;) From me to my husband to our EOD friends and family, all of our designs are made by EOD and screen printed by me.
After our design is made, we have to transfer it to the screen. First, we print out our designs onto waterproof film. We use an Epson 1430 printer with a BlackMAX output system and AccuRip Software to ensure the best quality for burning graphics onto our screens.
Next we prepare the screens. Think of screens as stencils. It's an in depth process and quite a work out if I do say so myself! We have to wash and degrease the screen. Then I "bake" the screens in our dry box with a dehumidifier all day long to remove all moisture.
That night, I will coat both sides of each screen with emulsion I use Murakami Aquasol TS Emulsion. My designs come out precise and clean, and it's very user friendly.
Then I put the coated screens back into the bake box to cook over night. The next morning, I burn the film onto the screen with my UV Exposure Unit. Then I race outside to the wash out booth and rinse out the screen before the sun can expose it any further. This is what really turns it into a "stencil" so to speak.
Then because I only use discharge ink or water based inks, I have to apply the screen emulsion hardener. And back to the dry box to bake for several more hours.
First, we'll give you a quick background on what type of shirts and inks we use.
We use Eco-Friendly Water Base Inks and Discharge Inks for our cotton garments and silicone ink for our silkies and synthetic material garments (ie triblend tees, solar tops, etc.). For more information on silicone ink, check out our short blog post HERE.
We use discharge and water based inks because they both yield unbelievably soft prints, and are better on the environment. We all love to wear soft shirts that look great. Neither Water Based Ink nor Discharge Ink, will compromise the shirt. Hence, it's left with a super soft touch and feel. You literally will not even feel the print on the shirt!!
If your shirt is a light colored shirt such as White or Ash Grey, we use Eco-friendly water based inks. Water based ink is a special type of ink that literally soaks into the fabric instead of sitting on top of it, like plastisol which is commonly used. My husband has so many unit shirts he's acquired over his military career, which were such amazing shirts, but he can't wear them anymore because the graphics are peeling off or are all cracked. Boo!!! This won't happen with discharge and water based inks. Well...perhaps 20 years from now if you wear it every day.
If the shirt is a dark color such as black or Dark Heather Grey, we use discharge inks. The Discharge Ink is made of a base, discharge agent, and the dye color(s). This process literally removes the original dye in the shirt during the printing process. Once the original dye has been removed, the discharge ink will then re-dye the image area with your desired ink color.
Apparel: We prefer to use Next Level Apparel, Bella + Canvas, and District. They are extremely comfortable and quality material. Their shirts are made of light and breathable fabric.They fit extremely well. They are not clingy or tight, but not loose either. You get what you pay for and we pay more for these shirts because they are definitely worth it.
Now it's time for the funnest part - making the shirts!
Each screen is one color and one design. So for example, if your shirt has say a front pocket logo with 2 colors and a large back logo with 2 colors, that is a total of 4 screens. If there are multiple colors, we have to make sure to perfectly line up the screens.
Thinking of the screen as a stencil again, you load the screen/stencil into the screen printing machine, level and register it in regards to where you want the logo to go on the shirt, load the ink on to the screen, and then you push or pull (I pull) the ink through the screen/stencil into the shirt.
Then you have to cure the ink. Currently, I use a hand held heat gun. I dry the ink with that and then I load the shirt into my Heat Press and press it for 3 minutes at 300-340 degrees Fahrenheit. I want to make extra sure that the ink is cured. If it's a discharge print, I wash the garment before shipping it out. It's just the right thing to do as discharge tends to be a bit smelly and I don't want to turn anyone off or tell you to "wash before you wear it"!
Well, that is about it on the process by which we do our shirts. Thank you for reading our blog. Below are a couple more pictures of our studio.
My supervisor, Homer approves of my shirt!
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We used to be hosted on our parent site: BombBullie.com, but we figured it would be a whole hell of a lot easier for you to navigate a website that is fully dedicated to Explosive Ordnance Disposal and the EOD Family and Community.
Here on EOD Stuff, you will find that we have something for every branch: US Air Force EOD, US Army EOD, US Marine Corps EOD, and US Navy EOD. We make things for the EOD Tech, his/her family and kids, and even their dogs! Please bare with us as we are working day and night to bring amazing products to each branch.
We are so grateful for all of the ideas that come our way and do all that we can to make them come to life. As we design everything in house, it does take a little bit of time to take an idea, turn it into a graphic, burn it on screens, and make apparel with it. We can tend to be perfectionists as we want nothing but the best for our EOD Family. If you do not see something specific to your military branch, please know we are on it. But don't hesitate to let us know if you are looking for something in particular and not seeing it. We'll work with you.
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