Get to Know Ntensity Customs

As I’ve mentioned before, Paintball is much more than a sport, it is a culture all its own. This means that our community is an entity that exists slightly outside the realm of the mainstream. Commercial sporting goods stores rarely cater to the distinct needs and desires of the Paintball community. As a result, those who share the passions of the players have ventured into new territory-opening businesses that meet the specific needs of our culture. Shawn Jean, a proud member of the paintball community, and owner of Ntensity Customs has made it his mission to design and distribute various paintball-related products at affordable prices. Read on to learn more about Shawn’s awesome company and some of the exciting products they have to offer! 

•    How did Ntensity Customs originate?

“I’ve been a paintball player both competitive and otherwise for more than 20 years. I started Ntensity Customs in 2005 as an offshoot of a previous company I had run that provided communication strategies and campaigns for all sorts of businesses. I was involved with a couple of paintball teams (Ntensity and Chop Shop) and found I was always in the market to have apparel made. One of the things I didn’t like was the fact that I needed to have a large volume to make a print run worthwhile, so I looked into getting the equipment to do it in house. Our initial start-up allowed us to do cut vinyl and heat press it on, and was soon augmented by a 2 color screen press. As things expanded over the next few years our equipment grew allowing us to do some high volumes as well as the low volume runs that helped us succeed initially. Over the years we’ve added new products (headbands and barrel wraps) as well as new processes (embroidery, hydrographic printing and vinyl printing). I’m really proud to say, that at this point the only thing I can’t do in house is large format sublimation, and we have an amazing partner that helps us with that.”

• Do you have a mission or a vision for the future of the company? 

 “What I love about my company is that we still haven’t forgotten where we came from. The bulk of our work comes from low volume or highly specialized requests from the paintball community.  It would be easier to do the high volume (and high profit) jobs, but we pride ourselves in our products and providing services to those people who might not otherwise be able to afford to get custom clothing or stickers for their team. It isn’t uncommon for us to be banging out a last minute order of 10 shirts on a Friday night before an event weekend. Our goal for the future is simple, to keep providing top notch service, reasonable prices and to grow through the referrals of our customers.”

• Tell us a little bit about some of the products that you have to offer. What are some personal favourites?  

“There isn’t anything we can’t do and as I mentioned earlier, 99% of it is in house. We can do screen printing, embroidery, custom apparel, banners, jersey design, stickers, table covers, embroidered ID patches and much, much more. I think, right now, the product I’ve been most proud of is the headbands we make. We took two years to refine them and with input from some of the top players in Ontario and the US, we finally came to a product that I was ready to sell.  We only sell about 200 headbands a year which makes us a very small player in the market, but it is nice to see people with the first generation of headbands (2008) still wearing them and having them look at good as new.”

• Do you have any exciting plans for future designs or products that you can share with us? 

 “Our newest process is Hydrographic printing, and it offers some amazing customization options for paintball gear. It’s new to us here, so I’m putting a lot of time into it right now. We have a new barrel wrap rolling out in the next two weeks. While not revolutionary, it has some changes that will make it safer, easier to customize and much better (no more stupid toggle to lose). We also have at least 4 more products in development that the guys from Canadian Express have been testing in the NPPL. Once I’m happy with those products we’ll start to release them.”

• Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

 “Thanks for taking an interest in our paintball community. We are often misrepresented outside of the circle of people who know us, and it’s a great help to have people be able to access blogs such as yours and get an inside view of the sport provided in a refreshing way!”

Shawn, Thank you for taking the time to educate me on the vision and efforts of your company. The paintball community relies on businesses like yours to support the very unique needs of our player and fan base. Thanks for being such an encouraging part of our culture! 

Shawn recently surprised me by creating some Outside the Mesh T-shirts that I can sport at events. He also provided me with some stickers for blog-supporters to plaster on hoppers and gear. Also, thanks to Ntensity Customs, you are about to be involved in Outside the Mesh’s first ever super sweet giveaway! All that you have to do is “like” Outside the Mesh and Ntensity Customs on facebook AND share a link to the blog on your timeline. Post a comment here on the blog once you’ve done so and you will be entered into a random draw for a super slick Outside the Mesh headband designed and provided by Ntensity Customs! Contest runs from now until Saturday August 4^th at 7:00 pm. The winner will be chosen that evening and can collect their prize at Central Event 3 on Sunday August the 5^th. Thanks for playing! 

 This one-of-a-kind Outside the Mesh headband could be yours!!! 

Don’t forget to contact Shawn Jean and Ntensity Customs for all of your custom paintball requests! 

Signing off,

The Paintball Wife

P.S. If you'd like to support the blog by sporting a sweet Outside the Mesh sticker, come find me this weekend at Flag Raiders! :) Thanks for the love!