Archive for February, 2010

Embroidered Patches are a great way to show others that you have served in the military or you have a thing with skulls and motorcycles. Fortunately for you guys that are interested in patches I have quite the selection. Well don’t let me exaggerate the collection, but I do have some of the cleanest patches out there in the market. Surely there are cheaper people than me out there. How do they afford to sell them that cheap? Well I can sell all my small items at a $1 a piece too. All I have to do is knock down my quality. Remember, you get what you paid for. Not all patches are the same. They may look the same when you buy it brand new, but are they durable is the key question. Once you iron it on or sew it on, is it going to start peeling off on you, or are the embroidered threads going to start coming off when you are riding in the wing on a motorcycle? Who thinks about these kind of things when they are buying a patch though? Well I’m here to educate. I can’t say I’m an expert in the patch business. I finished college and was on my way to working for Boeing as an aerospace engineer. Right before going off to Seattle I was invited by a friend to help him out in his patch booth during the Sturgis Rally in 2006. My Boeing job came to an abrupt end as at the time I was lacking the necessary paperwork to walk in through their doors. This opened up an opportunity for me to get into the patch business with my friend. After 4 years of working together we split our ways for reasons I don’t really want to discuss under this thread. Perhaps some other time I will tell you the story.

As I mentioned, I’m no expert with 30 years experience in the business. However, I did jump into manufacturing my own patches about 3 years ago. Took a trip out to the Canton fair. Found a nice small manufacturer of emblems.  I stuck to working with a single company for over 3 years now.  I love the quality of patches I get from them. I’ve never bothered to look to see if anyone else would do the same thing for cheaper. Why you might ask. Like I said before, you get what you paid for. Perhaps its a little more than the garbage others are selling. You know not all patches can be ironed on. Just because there is a plastic backing on a patch does not mean you can crank the iron up and press it on to a shirt. What that will do is melt the plastic on to your shirt, but after a was or two it will come off as if it was never stuck on in the first place.

With my patches however, I have my manufacturer use the only Japanese iron on glue that actually works. Yes there are cheaper so called iron on glues as well. I’ve tried to lower my costs by asking whether there would be a cheaper alternative. But my manufacturer, who have been doing this for a second generation now have informed me that if you don’t put this Japanese stuff on the back then don’t even bother with making your patches iron on. I’m not willing to cut quality to increase my margins. I make an okay living with what I do. I’m not a greedy person. Why change something that works.

Yes there are vendors in my world that complain to me about my wholesale prices, that they can get them cheaper else where. Sure, but would they be getting the quality I’m offering? It’s not for me to answer but for customers to see and decide themselves. For one thing, my patches do not have merrowed borders. Although it is easier to manufacture. I use die cut borders, which means for every patch shape a die is made which cuts the borders and seals them. I think it makes the patches look a lot cleaner and I have had customers agree with me on this.

I just wanted to take a little time to explain to patch buyers, that there is more to a patch than just some embroidery work over a piece of fabric. If you cut corners than you end up with a half ass job. It isn’t my strategy here. I don’t make an income ripping people off. I make a live-able income by working day and night putting 110% effort into what I like doing (making patches for people). If you have an idea for a patch, if it is something I can sell to other people then let me know. Just today a visitor of mine asked if I could make my Irish eagle patch with the Zimbabwe or the South African flag. I told him I would design something up in the theme of a South African flag. I also told him that I was currently busy with Daytona Bike Week promoting my site and selling vendors Daytona patches and also letting them know about my wholesale patches I carry. So be it written here, in 3 weeks I intend to have a patch made up of a South African eagle patch. Perhaps I should make one for the Englishman as well. Anyone else has ideas, should I make some more of these eagle patches with different flag themes on them? Please write a comment if you want to see it in a different theme. I already know from a distributor of mine that my eagles are so popular people have already knocked them up North. So I should sit here spend hours perfecting a patch so I can make something everybody is going to love. And all you have to do is buy one for $25 and steal my design? Mate why don’t you call me first, find out the price, see if it is worth it to go knocking it off? Here my number is +1 386 383 8992. I suppose it was my mistake of not copyrighting them in the beginning.  Good thing though you can still copyright your own designs even after you publish them. And I certainly hope no idiot has gone to file a fraudulent copyright claiming it’s their own design. Mind you but if you ever file a copyright claim you will find that at the beginning of every filing it states there is a $3000 penalty for knowingly claiming a design as yours when in fact you very well know someone originally came up with that design. I already know the ones knocking them off. I just want to kindly ask them to stop. If you want to make money off of this design than give me a call. I’m sure it will end up costing you less in the long run because eventually if you continue I’m going to have to add a copyright protection department in my company and hire lawyers to go after bootleggers. It’s really an added expense I do not want to face but Harley Davidson has one for a reason. You end up loosing money in the long run and it is a good investment to protect your original designs. There is a reason bootleggers can afford to sell lower than you, they don’t have to spend hours or dollars designing something new. All they have to do is buy a copy. I too get ideas from things other people originally thought off, but at least I sit and design my patches from scratch. That is the only way you are going to have the cleanest embroidery work. By really drawing out the design on the computer rather than trying to copy it off an already embroidered patch.

Enough said, call me and we’ll discuss a price and you will have the opportunity to see what I can do for you. My services and prices combined together would probably beat your per unit cost plus the overhead you spend dealing with copying and distributing.

I just want to close off with the new Gadsden Don’t Tread on Me Patch I designed. A visitor again asked whether I had the Gadsden flag. At that point in time I didn’t know what the Gadsden flag was. I mean I new the design but I had no idea it was a Gadsden flag. So I decided to make a large patch out of it outlining the Snake and put the words in a rocker style arch underneath it. You can see it on the picture below.  Well it was my visitors idea. I told him I made it up and it was up on the site. I don’t remember if he was able to buy one as he said he really needed to spare the money to get his brat daughter everything she wanted for Christmas. Well his idea, I made over a hundred of them and I now have 2 of them left in my entire stock. Yes it is a good seller. And again before you go knocking it off, why don’t you call me to discuss a price for a large quantity of them. Below see the picture of the Gadsden flag design (Nov 2009) and the different eagles I’ve originally came up with at the December 2008.

Buy Lone Wolf Patches from the online store

For Bikers who want to distinguish themselves away from clubs and motorcycle gangs. Sew a lone wolf patch on the back of your jacket or vest and stop people asking you what biker gang you belong to. These are some of the most popular Biker embroidery designs.

Buying patches on the internet can sometimes get difficult as it is almost impossible to judge the size of the patch from just a picture. I try to have my patches all sized for my customers, however, I realized it makes things a lot easier for people to judge the sizes of these embroidered patches when they are lined up on the back of a vest. So this is what I did. I took my patches and placed them on the back of vests. Soon I will be offering leather vests on my online retail store. You will get to pick out a vest and add patches to be sewn on over them. Enjoy these pictures of patches on biker leather. It was not possible to get all of them photographed under a day so be sure to follow this thread for more vest pictures. If you would like to buy some visit my online stores embroidered patches category.

As spring is just around the corner it is a great time to start getting prepared for the new riding season. Decorate your vests with some patches. Here are some pictures of what you can turn your vest into with patches. You can get these patches right here at the online store. Click for leather vest patches.

Just got back from one of my suppliers who showed me to some great new patch designs from Good Sports. I couldn’t resist so I added a few of them to my online stock. Buy these new Biker Patches at guaranteed low prices from my online store. At the moment I ship all orders over $30 for free. Even if you are an international customer, I only charge you guys $1.99 for shipping out anything that sums your order to over $30. These new embroidered patches are only available for retail. Here are some pictures of the new items I just added a few minutes ago.