It’s basically a printed sleeve you slide over a tray (or over a box you’ve already got sitting in the stockroom), and soap and candle people use them a ton, chocolate and cosmetics too. Trays come in paperboard, kraft or rigid. Thumb notch? Window? Both easy, and you can swap sleeves each season.
Your time is very important to us so we have kept it short.
Pushing a tray out of a sleeve is weirdly satisfying. Slower than flipping a lid, sure, but that’s kind of the point. Custom sleeve boxes come in two parts, a printed sleeve open at both ends and a tray that slides inside, and we make loads of them for soap makers and chocolatiers, candle and cosmetics brands, clothing shops, usually people who want something that feels a step up without paying for a full rigid box.
There’s a budget angle too. The sleeve carries all the branding, so you keep one plain tray and only change the sleeve per scent, flavor or season.
Tray holds the product, sleeve wraps around it, and friction is the only thing keeping the two together. Getting that friction right is honestly the whole craft. Too loose and the tray drops out the moment somebody lifts the box by the sleeve, too tight and your customer wrestles it open and scuffs the print along the edges, so we usually leave a couple of millimeters of play across the width and then test it on a sample.
Add a thumb notch. It’s a little half-moon cut at each open end, and it makes pushing the tray out easy. Ribbon pulls look lovely on gift boxes too.
Soap, tea, small cosmetics? A paperboard sleeve over a paperboard tray does the job and it’s the everyday one. Put a printed sleeve over a rigid tray and it gets heavier, nicer for jewelry or watches or a pricey candle, and for natural brands we kind of like a kraft sleeve over a white tray, the contrast is nice. Our tray and sleeve packaging boxes show more pairings, and if you only want the tray, see custom tray packaging.
One people forget. You can put a sleeve over a box you already stock, so a plain mailer or a stock jar box turns into a branded product for way less than a fully printed box. Great for limited editions.
Think of the sleeve as your billboard. We print it on all four sides, usually, and the inside of the tray can go in a contrast color so there’s a little surprise when it slides open. Modern look, matte. Soft-touch when you want people to go “oh, nice” when they pick it up. We do a lot of foil logos, some embossing and spot UV, and now and then a window cut in the sleeve so you can see the product or a patterned tray through it.
Got a candle in a heavy glass? Our advice would be a sturdier tray, maybe E-flute corrugated, inside that printed sleeve. Not sure which board? Our guide on cardstock vs corrugated goes through the trade-offs.
Sleeves are cheap to print on their own, which is why holiday designs work so well on them. Order a big batch of trays once. Then just order sleeves in smaller runs as the seasons roll round, and our team sets up the dieline and lays out each design for free, with a digital proof every time.
Orders often start around 50 boxes depending on the style, and the price per box falls as you order more. It’s 10 to 12 business days after approval, with free ground shipping anywhere in the USA. More structures are in our packaging by style section, or just send us your product size for a quote.
It shouldn’t. We aim for enough friction that the tray stays put, while a thumb on the notch (or a tug on a ribbon) still slides it out easy.
Yep. Loads of brands order just printed sleeves to wrap boxes or trays they already have.
With a sturdier tray and an insert, yes. A thin paperboard tray on its own is better left to lighter stuff like soap or tea.
Building a full product line? Take a look at custom tray packaging, custom snap lock boxes, custom auto lock bottom boxes and custom tuck end boxes. Everything in this range is listed under by style.
