Hoodlines & hustle: Q&A with Sean Heffner, founder of Chicago Wrap

Not many sign pros can say they began customizing vehicles as a 7-year-old. Sean Heffner can. He and his sister, Ashley, would spend weekends with their dad, learning to print graphics and pinstriping on his car. They would often accompany him to car dealerships where he applied pinstripes and other graphics to vehicles on the lot. One day, his dad bet a manager $100 that Sean could freehand a pinstripe. His dad won the bet.

Now, Sean is president of Chicago Wrap in Aurora, Illinois, and Ashley is the administrative manager. Together, they’ve built a thriving graphics business and training center. We talked with Sean to learn what steps
he took in building the business, how he chose his production equipment, and what lies ahead for this talented and energetic duo.

Q: How did you decide to start Chicago Wrap?

A: The foundation for me was my dad letting us play with his plotter and make stickers on the weekends. My sister went to college, but I bought a Roland DG printer/cutter at age 18 from Sign Outlet Store Graphics. They really took care of me — they came to my house and showed me how to use the machine and templates.

Wraps weren’t very popular at the time, but when you did see one, it was really exciting. Designing wraps
caught my interest. I started the business in 2003.

My sister graduated cum laude from Southern Illinois University. She became a teacher and did that for quite a few years, working with me part time. As her kids grew up, she evolved to working here full time.

Q: How did demand for your products grow?

A: We wrapped vehicles at home for years. Back then, the demand was about one vehicle per week. As the business grew, at one point I had four or five vehicles in the driveway, and neighbors started taking pictures and reporting us to the city. Our machines were quiet, so there was really nothing they could do, but I thought, “Hey, we’d better get a shop.”

Our first location was down the street in Burr Ridge. Later, we expanded to two other locations and started our training program, and in 2023, we bought our current location in Aurora. Now we’re in a 10,000-square-foot building, with 6,000 square feet for the shop and 4,000 square feet on two floors for offices, etc.

We have eight installers and two designers, along with me, my sister, and my dad. I’m lucky to be able to say that most of our employees have been with us for 10-15 years.

Q: What production equipment do you use?

A: I used my original Roland DG SOLJET printer/cutters forever — those machines were outstanding, reliable workhorses and made me lots of money. Now we have three Roland DG TrueVis XG-640s and a VG-640. We also have a small cutter and a laminator.

Acquiring the first XG-640 was a great change — the time savings due to its speed has allowed me to grow my business. What used to print in eight hours now takes four hours. It was a big step up in productivity. I bought one after the other for a total of three XGs in the last six months.

The new wider color gamut has also been a big positive change. There was a bit of a learning curve, but the colors are great.

Q: Who are your clients? What services are they looking for?

A: Approximately 95% of our business is comprised of printed commercial wraps. Most are for roofing contractors, plumbers, and heating and cooling professionals. We really focus on the smaller shops, car dealerships, and local contractors. A lot of our business comes from word of mouth, and we have a lot of repeat customers. One of my bigger accounts has 100 vans that we’ve rebranded twice. We also provide design, printing, and installation for other branding elements, like window and wall graphics.

Q: When did you begin offering wrap installation training?

A: It started in 2018 after I went to an Avery Dennison class. Since then, I’ve taken seven additional classes conducted by Avery Dennison, where I learned a lot. There are always opportunities to keep on learning.

I said, “Let’s start a school.” At first, we offered a two-week class, then dialed it down to five days. We’ve trained about 400 people. My dad does all the training. It’s really rewarding to see some of our trainees start their own shops or even come work for us.

Q: Have you brought AI tools into your shop? If so, have they benefited from your operation and/or workflow?

A: Over the last six months, we’ve noticed that more customers are coming in with AI-designed artwork. These designs can be hard to work with — you can’t print them, and they are difficult to recreate. We’re figuring out how to explain what we can do and what we can’t do. I’m sure the technology will advance as it goes — right now, it provides a good starting point for our discussions with clients.

Q: How has the pace of work changed over the years?

A: These days, almost every single request is “now, now, now.” We have to respond quickly, or they go somewhere else. This especially applies to our fleet customers — for them, it’s all about how long the vehicle is sitting in your shop.

The superfast print speeds of our XG printer/cutters really help us meet the demand. We’ll get a call at 3 p.m. saying “I can bring the van in tomorrow.” We’re able to have the graphics printed and laminated within four hours, so we’re ready to install the graphics the next morning when our customer arrives. Plus, the prints are consistently excellent — which saves us money by reducing misprints or print flaws. And I am able to cut my production time in half by having four printer/cutters working.

Q: Why do you think your clients choose Chicago Wrap?

A: A lot of it has to do with being in business for more than 20 years. It’s all about service — we offer what they need, do a great job, and complete the jobs on time. We offer what they need. Everyone operates differently. We aren’t the cheapest, but we stand behind our quality. The bigger companies provide graphics that are not as high quality as what we provide. We try to make it easy for our customers to choose us.

Q: What lies ahead for Chicago Wrap?

A: We’ve been lucky to be able to grow the business every year since we started, and with our outstanding team and production capability, I’m looking to continue that growth. I have four kids at home, time left in my career, and I really enjoy what I do. Right
now, we’re looking to add a new designer to our existing staff. I’ve learned that growth takes time and the right people — we grow as a team, one step at a time.

My oldest daughter, who’s 9, comes to the shop a lot in summertime. After watching the students install vinyl on our training wall, she started putting vinyl on it too. It was one of the most inspiring things I’ve seen. She watched and learned, just like we did back in the day.