The Unexpected Story Behind The Sublimation Guys
Some of the best things in life happen by accident. Ours started with a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Three people who had never met ended up in the same city, at the same time, with the same obsession: sublimation printing. What started as casual conversation quickly turned into a shared frustration – and then, a mission.
Ted Silverman is a Vietnamese-American print engineer who has spent over 20 years inside large-scale commercial printing facilities across the United States. He knows sublimation machines the way a mechanic knows engines – down to every wire, every roller, every pressure setting. Glenn Schneck has spent that same stretch of time as a color specialist and ICC Profile expert, making sure what you see on a screen is exactly what lands on a substrate. Together, they’ve seen it all – and they’ve seen what bad information costs a business.
Then there’s Rhonda Mattson. While Ted and Glenn were deep in industrial print shops, Rhonda was at her kitchen table, falling in love with sublimation from the ground up. Over five years, she’s handcrafted hundreds of personalized pieces – gifts for family, custom products for her Etsy shop – learning through patience, experimentation, and more than a few ruined blanks.
Three different journeys. One shared passion.
In Hanoi, sitting together over coffee, we started swapping stories – and quickly realized we were all bothered by the same thing: there was too much conflicting information online. Outdated tutorials. Untested advice. Product reviews written by people who’ve never actually run a heat press. Beginners being led astray by content that sounds authoritative but isn’t grounded in real-world experience.
We decided to do something about it.
Right there in Hanoi, we founded The Sublimation Guys – a space built around one core promise: real tests, real results, real talk.
Every printer, ink set, blank, paper, and workflow we recommend is evaluated through hands-on testing whenever possible so you don’t have to guess. We share the knowledge and techniques we’ve accumulated across decades of professional work and hands-on hobby experience. And we give away design files – freebies and full collections – that we’ve built up over the years, because we believe the sublimation community grows stronger when good resources are free.
No hype. No recycled advice. Just real-world testing, honest opinions, and practical recommendations from people who genuinely love this craft.
Whether you’re making your first sublimation mug or running a growing business, our goal is simple: help you make better products, avoid costly mistakes, and enjoy the craft as much as we do.
Welcome to The Sublimation Guys – where real testing meets real creativity.