Pin manufacturer: PeaKeen VS GS-JJ

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In the world of custom pins, choosing the right pin manufacturer can make or break your branding. In the domain of pin manufacturer, custom pins, and custom badges, two names often brought into comparison are PeaKeen and GS-JJ. While both are known for producing custom badges, their manufacturing models, quality approaches, and customer experience differ in meaningful ways.

For instance, PeaKeen operates as a direct manufacturer, whereas GS-JJ primarily functions as an intermediary that connects customers to production partners. This difference has a major influence on customization options, speed, communication, and consistency. All of this starts to make sense when you’re dealing with elements like custom enamel pins, soft enamel pins, hard enamel pins, or custom lapel pins designed to represent your identity.

In this blog, we explore how both brands compare so you can choose the right fit for your next custom pin project.

Quality Custom Lapel Pins

Direct manufacturing has a profound impact on quality control. PeaKeen, managing production in-house, maintains tight oversight on every stage, from raw metal selection to plating, coloring, and polishing. This ensures consistent results whether you’re ordering enamel pins, custom acrylic pins, or fully personalized pins with intricate detailing.

GS-JJ, in contrast, works with external manufacturing partners. While they deliver good results for mass market needs, quality consistency can vary depending on the factory handling your order. For simple promotional custom lapel pin batches, this model works fine. But for detailed artwork, 3D relief designs, or unique shapes, having the manufacturer directly involved often yields sharper, cleaner results.

Variety of Custom Pin Options

Both PeaKeen and GS-JJ offer a wide catalog of custom enamel pins, but PeaKeen allows you to connect with their sales team to discuss your requirements in detail, making the process more personal as you design and they create.

Client visits the Peakeen's office room
Client visits the Peakeen's office room

Customization Choices for Pins

PeaKeen offers:

  • Pins de esmalte blando

  • Pins de esmalte duro

  • Printed pins

  • Custom acrylic pins

  • 3D molded pins

  • Glow, glitter, epoxy, and transparent options

  • Multiple plating styles (matte, antique, polished, black dye, rainbow)

  • Custom shapes, cutouts, and textures

Choices for Pins
Choices for Pins

GS-JJ offers a wide variety too, with different colors, shapes, textures, but some advanced customization types may depend on the capabilities of their manufacturing partner.

Unique Materials for Pins

PeaKeen works with zinc alloy, brass, stainless steel, and custom metal pin combinations, all controlled directly by their workshop, ensuring quality custom lapel pins for every order.

Design Your Own Enamel Pins

A major difference appears in the design-to-sample process.

PeaKeen uses a consultation-based approach. You speak directly with a designer or sales expert who reviews artwork, plating styles, material choices, and production feasibility. A sample (digital or physical) is approved before manufacturing begins. This reduces errors and produces more accurate enamel pin results.

designer with soccer lapel pins

GS-JJ offers an online design tool and a more automated order flow. This is convenient but less personalized. For simple promotional pins, it’s fast and efficient. For high-detail artwork, some customers prefer the deeper design involvement PeaKeen offers.

Personalized Pin Production Steps

The production process also impacts the final product.

design step

PeaKeen’s Direct Manufacturing Steps:

  1. Design consultation

  2. Artwork refinement

  3. Pre-production sample

  4. Mold crafting and stamping

  5. Coloring (for enamel pins)

  6. Plating and polishing

  7. Final finishing and QC

  8. Secure packaging

GS-JJ’s Production Flow:

  1. Online design placement

  2. Artwork approval

  3. Order assigned to manufacturing partner

  4. Production & QC by the partner

  5. Delivery

This GS-JJ’s model is efficient but it comes with a lot of third-party dependencies.

Eco-Friendly Pin Manufacturing Process

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important these days, and custom enamel pins can play a role in promoting eco-friendly practices. PeaKeen’s in-house control allows them to maintain environment-friendly practices more consistently, while GS-JJ promotes custom pins, but sustainability levels can vary due to multiple partner factories involved.

Competitive Pricing for Custom Pins

PeaKeen clearly mentions that they have a minimum order quantity limit for their custom lapel pins. Since they design and manufacture in-house, they need to produce a reasonable batch size to manage overhead costs effectively. This approach creates a win-win situation for both PeaKeen and the customer. In contrast, GS-JJ claims no minimum order limit; however, when you select a single product, such as an enamel pin, the quoted price can be excessively high. For example, one lapel pin may cost around $50, which does not present a cost-effective option for customers looking for affordable custom enamel pins.

Customer’s Perception on Reddit

In a Reddit thread, we found some really disturbing comments regarding GS-JJ, most of the users were claiming that they were not satisfied with the quality of the products they received. Some of them were even trying to get a full-refund since the quality was not as they expected.

However, on the other side, PeaKeen is fairly a new player in the market, and they’re making sure they’re putting their right foot in every domain, because one wrong move and your reputation goes down. And once your reputation on such discussion forums like Reddit goes down, it just stays there no matter how hard you try to improve your quality. At PeaKeen, we’re very much conscious and concerned about how our potential clients would presume about our product quality and presence on the internet.

How to Choose Custom Pins

Here are the top factors to consider when selecting a pin manufacturer:

  • Do you need deep customization or basic promotional pins?

  • Is sample approval important?

  • Do you want direct communication with the maker?

  • What’s your preferred material, soft enamel, hard enamel, acrylic, or metal?

  • Is sustainability important for your brand?

If your priority is premium quality, artist-level detailing, and worry-free communication, working directly with a manufacturer like PeaKeen has clear advantages. But if you want fast, large-scale promotional pins with minimal custom involvement, GS-JJ is a practical choice.

Final Thoughts: Which Pin Manufacturer Wins?

Both PeaKeen and GS-JJ serve different types of customers. GS-JJ offers convenience, mass-production pricing, and fast online tools, ideal for basic promotional pins personalizados or large corporate giveaways.

PeaKeen, being a direct manufacturer, offers higher customization depth, stronger quality control, eco-friendly consistency, and a human-guided process that results in more premium, artistic, and durable enamel pins.

The better choice depends on your goals, but if you value craftsmanship, personalization, and a collaborative design journey, PeaKeen naturally becomes the more reliable partner for creating memorable custom badges and custom lapel pins.

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