All About Us

Superbowl 2014

Seahawk players Marshawn Lynch and Golden Tate with a classic Jeff pose - Crazy & Toothless!

The countdown is on!  The game of the year, Superbowl XLVIII, is only a few days away.  The Seattle Seahawks face the Denver Broncos this Sunday, February 2nd,  in New Jersey.  The hawks are  making their second appearance in the championship, hopefully bringing home their first Lombardi Trophy.  For a city that has never won a Superbowl, this is epic to say the least.

What an amazing NFL football season it’s been!  The Seahawks have been HOT all year, with 13 wins, 3 losses, clinching the NFC Championship game vs. San Fransisco.  Our city and fans have responded.  Yes, the Hawks have been to the Superbowl before in the recent past, but the hype this time is much stronger. Not only are the Seahawks players local heroes, but the Pacific Northwest is seriously sick with 12^th Man Fever!!!!  12^th Man signs, flags, and jerseys are everywhere you look.  It's super exciting!

Our Lombardi-style trophies in our showroom are ready for a Seahawks win!

Check out this ESPN blog post for a quick take of the game:

http://espn.go.com/blog/seattle-seahawks/post/_/id/3806/quick-take-broncos-vs-seahawks

My family will be spending Sunday with many friends, plenty of food and beverages, kids running a muck, dressed in our Blue and Green 12th Man finery.  We are thrilled to be living in the PNW, cheering our team on to victory!  Enjoy the game and GO SEAHAWKS!

Cheers,

Jessica

One of CIP's designer crystal awards, the Silver Blaze Award.

Since we don’t manufacturer our awards directly, but assemble and engrave pieces of awards, we rely heavily on our suppliers to provide excellent products at good prices in a quick time frame for our customers.

As part of our yearly recognition, we award an outstanding “Supplier of the Year” to recognize our vendors who have gone above and beyond to help our business during the past year.  For 2013, we are excited to be awarding CIP Creation Corp with this honor.  Based in Irvine, CA, CIP has been designing and manufacturing premium crystal awards since 1977.  Check out their website for more information about their company.

We Chose CIP For 2 Reasons:

1.  Quality.  They have beautiful, high quality awards with unique yet timeless designs.  All of their awards are gorgeous, and we are proud to sell them to our customers.

CIP Designer Crystal Awards on display in our showroom.

2.  Service. CIP provides us with great customer service.  When our Production Manager Tom places an order, their staff is polite, informative, and thorough.  This year they also provided us with engraved samples of their products to feature in our showroom, so our customers can touch and feel their designer awards first hand.

Located in California, we are able to receive their products within 2 days.  This helps us fulfill orders for our customers quickly, so they have the crystal awards in time for their event.

To see our full line of CIP Crystal Designer Awards, visit our CIP Crystal Designer Section of the Trophies2Go website.  Thank you CIP for your great products and service to Trophies2Go!

Cheers,
Jessica

The Honey Badger Trophy

This crazy nasty creature is our 2013 Product of the Year!

Eewww… what is that nasty thing? Why it’s the Honey Badger, the fiercest trophy on the Trophies2Go website! Honey Badger don’t care, he’ll just eat that cobra!

Pop culture icon, the Honey Badger was popularized by the YouTube video sensation. Click here to view the video (warning: contains profanity, not for young ears). This tenacious critter is a symbol for overcoming adversity and just going for what you want in life.

As part of our year-end recognition, we award a Product of the Year. This year our fierce honey badger wins the honor! Designed by our staff and created by JDS Industries, this little critter is full of color and personality.

Chosen by companies for a variety of office awards and by sports team for participation awards along with coaches’ gifts, the honey badger is an extremely popular and versatile trophy that can be used for any recognition. Funny and edgy, he brings smiles and laughter to any event. Made of resin, this spunky guy is hand painted in full color. Our customers give him 4.8 out of 5 stars – read the reviews to find out what others think.

We offer a honey badger alone, or as a perpetual trophy that can be passed around from person to person. Check them out!

Congrats Honey badger! You  rock!

Cheers,
Jessica

Check Out Our Team In Action!

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about behind-the-scenes at our Renton Production facility.  This week I'd like to feature our Issaquah Showroom and Customer Service Team.

Come visit our showroom located 15 miles east of Seattle, WA.

Our Showroom

If you would like to see samples of our beautiful trophies and awards, our Issaquah Showroom is the perfect place to browse.  Our spacious 1200 sq foot showroom offers samples of both our sports trophies and our corporate awards.  We have been serving the communities of Issaquah, Sammamish, Bellevue, Renton, Newcastle, Snoqualmie and North Bend since 1987.

Meet Our Customer Service Team!

When you come to our showroom, you will be greeted by one of our knowledgeable and friendly customer service staff. Learn more about them below.

Margene has been with our company for 10 years!

Margene has been with Trophies2Go for 10 years.  Not only does she help customers both in person and on the phone, but she also researches and writes descriptions for many of the products we offer.  A woman of many talents, Margene also does bookkeeping, billing and HR tasks for our company.  She also follows up with many customers after ordering to see if she can help with anything else.

Janice, who has been with T2G for 6 years, is our Customer Service Lead and resident Canadian.  If a detail needs to be added or changed to your order, Janice is the one to see it gets done.  She also runs our 'Awards for A Cause Program', where we donate a portion of proceeds from featured awards to charity each quarter.

Mika on the phone helping a customer.

Mika works part time in customer service and has been with Trophies2Go for 3 years.  In addition to taking care of our customers, she also runs a successful real estate business.  She is passionate about giving great service and her customers love her!

Have an old trophy that needs the newest winner etched onto it? Mike is our go-to guy.  He engraves most of our perpetual trophies and plates.  He's also our "work husband" who does all of the odd-and-end chores we need done to the showroom.  He has been with us for 7 years.

Our President Jeff is the company's strategic thinker and resident goof ball.  He's a fun loving guy who works harder than anyone I know but doesn't take things too seriously (unless he’s in a competition, then he's pretty intense!)  If there’s a fire to be put out, Jeff's our man.

Janice & Jessica at the 2012 Seattle Komen 3-Day Walk.

I, Jessica, also work in Issaquah, as the Social Media and Marketing gal.  With Margene and Jeff's help, I also bless new products and ax old ones from the website and showroom.

That's the Issaquah Trophies2Go Team in action!  We love helping you create the perfect memory with an awesome award! Whether it's trophies for a team, a longest drive award a golf tournament, a fantasy football championship trophy, crystal awards for an annual Gala, or a plaque for an ongoing Employee of the Month program, our Issaquah staff can help you choose the perfect award in time for your event.  We are experts in our field, as you are in yours, and take great pride in creating meaningful awards customized just for you!

Cheers,
Jessica

For Insider’s Only!

Where all the magic happens!

Have you ever wondered how your award is made? Come behind the scenes for a virtual tour of our production facility! After you press the “Place My Order” button on our website, your order goes directly to our customer service team, located in Issaquah, WA.  Many of our trophies contain separate pieces that must be screwed, glued, or taped together.  We check to make sure we have all of the necessary pieces in stock.  Janice, Mika or Margene looks at your order and double checks the inventory needed.    After that, your order is processed at our production warehouse in Renton, WA.

The Process At Our Production Facility

Paul engraves trophy plates on the rotary engraver.

It takes many caring hands to create your awards at our Production Facility.  First, the individual components of the trophies are “picked” by our production team.  All of the pieces of your awards are placed in a box and checked off a list.  Once completed, the order goes one of two ways.  It  moves to either our Rotary Engraver or our Laser Engraver.

Rotary Engraver
If the order goes to the Rotary Engraver, it is most likely engraved by our expert engraver Paul.  Since 2005, Paul has been designing and engraving awards with his diamond tip rotary engraver.  His machine engraves brass, aluminum and medallions.  He is extremely thorough and accurate, and he knows precisely how to lay out designs on metal. Most trophy plates pass through Paul’s machine before they are attached to an award.

Edzel assembling a medal order.

After the rotary engraving is done, the awards are assembled by master Edzel.  He is a whiz at building every kind of trophy, plaque or award imaginable!  Most often, he screws all of the pieces together, attaches the engraving, and cleans the trophy.  At this point the order is ready to be shipped to you!

Laser Engraver
If the order goes to the Laser Engraver, it is most likely engraved by Laurie.  She is an amazing artist with an eye for design.  Laurie programs your artwork and message into her computer, then runs your acrylic or crystal award through our laser engraving machine.  Many of our awards are then masked with tape and sandblasted, followed by cleaning and careful packaging.

Shipping
Once your order has been engraved and assembled, it is invoiced and passed to Chris, our extremely conscientious shipper.  She packs all orders with care to arrive to you safely.  Her goal is to make sure that your awards are in the same condition when they arrive to you as when they leave our warehouse!

Manager Tom & Oscar in Vegas!

All of this couldn’t happen without the oversight of our hardworking production manager Tom.  He sees that all pieces are there for every order, and that each trophy we make arrives by the guaranteed delivery date.

Our team at Trophies2Go cares about your order just as much as you do.  We know how important and special your event is, and we take the honor of making your awards seriously.  To see more of our staff in action, watch our ‘Day in the Life of a Trophy’ video.

Thank you for taking a virtual tour of our production facility!  If you or your group would ever like a real tour, feel free to contact me to schedule at [email protected].

Cheers!
Jessica