Archive for April, 2010

Nowadays there is hardly a biker on the road who doesn’t show his (or her) affiliation to some club or ideal.  The way they do this is through the insignia, or patches they wear on their clothing.  You could be forgiven for thinking that bikers buy wholesale patches, as they often sport quite a large array of them.  And of course there is a great variety to choose from.  Buying wholesale patches is a good idea, providing you know exactly what you are looking for.  If you are thinking of starting a new MC club, or just wanting a variety of meaningful patches for a specific community, it’s worth spending a little time browsing online for the best deals and designs for your needs.

There are numerous companies out there who manufacture wholesale patches to unique custom-made designs.  You just need to send in your logo as a rough sketch or design and select from a wide range of background colors and threads.  But choosing the logo or design for your wholesale patches is something that deserves much more thought.

Bikers are pretty discriminating people and they don’t just wear any old patch.  They know the complex language that surrounds patches and their meanings and will generally affiliate to a club whose patches represent their personal ideals.  These members don’t just wear their club’s insignia as a patch; they often tattoo themselves with the same emblem to show their commitment to their beliefs. When you buy wholesale patches for a new club, therefore, you need to think about how your members will adopt the values and ideals of the club.

Just think about the most famous biker group of all: Hell’s Angels.  They started as a group of Californian bikers who wanted to make a stand about life in the restrictive post-war years, which is why their patches resemble military insignia.  The crescents or ‘rockers’ above and below the famous angel wings depict the name of the club and its location.  It has become a globally recognized patch and everyone knows what it stands for. It has probably been the most copied or adapted patch ever.   If you want your MC club to be recognized, you therefore need to choose a striking and memorable design, which your members will feel proud to wear for the next sixty years!

Lone Bikers’ Club patches are usually easily identifiable by their designs.  They might have one of the lone wolf symbols, or show the silent skull or full moon design to make them immediately recognizable.  To draw attention to your club, you need to come up with a strong symbol like any one of these to get your club’s message across and make buying wholesale patches worthwhile. You’ll know you’ve got it right when demand suddenly outstrips supply!

Once you have decided on your club’s patch, you can order wholesale patches from as little as $1.00. So whether your club is military, Christian, hero or Jesus themed, you can order unique wholesale patches for your members at next to no cost.  Shipping prices on patches are usually negligible.

Bikers wear their patches with pride, because they don’t just represent the ideals of the club to which they belong, but they make a certain statement about the wearer’s beliefs and affiliations.  Patches need to make clear statements to the outside world.  The biking community is proud of its beliefs and ideals, so if you are designing a new patch for your club, you need to make sure it’s one that your members can wear with a sense of honor and pride.

The roots of bikers, and, by extension, the patches they wear, go back to the Second World War.  American GIs, returning to their tame civilian lives, soon began to miss the thrills, excitement and sense of brotherhood and shared adventure they had grown so used to during wartime.  To recreate some of the heightened emotions of impending danger, they turned their motorcycles into symbols of power and freedom, forming groups to try to recapture the sense of adventure for which they yearned.  As a symbol of their fraternity, they adopted patches as an outward display of identity and solidarity.

US army patches date back to 1942 or before and many of their origins are now unknown, but they are clearly symbolic – for example a knife represented clandestine operations.  Not all of them received official approval but they were adopted locally to inform others covertly of the wearers’ affiliations.  The famous ‘victory patch’ was created for personnel involved in fundraising campaigns using live weaponry to denote the military strength of the US Army.  In 1945 an earlier Hungarian Allied Control Council shield design was adapted as a US army patch by the addition of gold lettering; while later in 1945 the Trieste white fleur-de-lys design on a red shield was taken up by officers and enlisted men to identify American troops serving in that area of north-east Italy.

A vast array of US army patches exists and these were a great source of pride and accomplishment for soldiers helping to create brotherhood and solidarity and in the post-war years, this did not change.  Nowadays US army patches are worn to express that continuing sense of national pride.

This is even more the case with Vietnam patches.  The Veterans of Vietnam Motorcycle Club is dedicated to honoring the Vietnam veterans and keeping alive the memory of those who gave their lives in the Vietnam conflict.  The Warlocks was an infamous biker group founded in Philadelphia in 1967 which attracted a large number of members after the end of the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam patch is a three part design with the upper rocker bearing the club’s name and the lower rocker bearing the wearer’s state.  In the middle is the embroidered outline of Vietnam and the dates of this long, terrible war.  Of course there are numerous other Vietnam patches – all of them making a poignant statement about this 16 year war and the massive toll it took on human lives.  One particularly effective Scouting Vietnam patch bears the starkly simple message:  “All gave some: Some gave all”.  Vietnam patches are worn equally by veterans and sympathizers alike to commemorate a war that should never have happened.

Military patches and insignia are a sensitive part of every country’s cultural history. They cover every aspect of a country’s military and law enforcement services and invariably instill a feeling of national pride in the wearer. The United States Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force patches are some of the most striking military patches around.  Just as war has become a part of modern life, so military patches have evolved and Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and freedom patches are growing rapidly in number and popularity as demand increases.   And it is no longer only bikers who choose to wear these patches.

Military patches have been a part of the recognized uniform of the armed forces since the 1600s and they have always been worn with a sense of pride and honor as a distinction of the service.  Because they are instantly recognizable by others and make strong statements about the wearer, it is hardly surprising that biker groups (amongst many others) have adopted them for the same purpose.  Whether they are whimsical, colorful or stark and simple, patches serve a unique role in modern society.  And they are almost certainly here to stay!