Branded glassware fails in a completely predictable way, and the failure is always the decoration rather than the glass.

Sand-etching

A mask is cut and the exposed glass is blasted, so the mark is a physical change to the surface. There is nothing on top to wear through, which is why an etched glass looks identical after two years of nightly service.

The cost is colour. Etching is always a frosted white mark and always will be. Any supplier offering a coloured etch is describing something else, usually a coating applied into the etch, which fails like any other coating.

Kiln-fired ceramic ink

Pigment printed onto the glass and then fired, which fuses it to the surface. It gives you full colour, including fired gold and platinum, and it survives commercial washing.

This is the option to insist on if colour matters. It costs more than the alternatives, and the gap is exactly why the alternatives exist.

Vinyl and air-dried inks

Both are coatings. Vinyl lifts at the edges; air-dried organic ink crazes into a fine network of cracks, then ghosts, then flakes. Domestic dishwashers are survivable for a while. Commercial glasswashers are not.

If a quote for printed glassware is dramatically cheaper than the rest, this is almost always the reason, and it is worth asking the question directly.

How to test a sample

Ask for a decorated sample and put it through your own glasswasher thirty times before you commit to a thousand. Any supplier confident in their method will encourage this. We do.