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I recently had the opportunity to speak with a traveling nurse at one of our local hospitals. This young lady is an RN who works for a staffing agency, taking temporary assignments that typically last between three and six months. She travels to various cities around the country working at hospitals, doctor’s offices, and schools.

As we were talking, she mentioned wanting to begin collecting something in her travels that she could catalog to keep track of all the states and cities she’s visited. She wasn’t into postcards or shot glasses, and she wanted something small enough to be portable. After thinking about it for a few minutes I realized The Cheap Place has the perfect item: state name patches.

They have an entire collection of small rockers bearing the names of the individual states. These are stock patches usually purchased by motorcycle clubs to put on their vests or jackets, to help identify where their club chapter is from. But there’s nothing that says bikers are the only ones that can have them. Being that they are stock patches, anyone can purchase them from a retailer. They seem to be the perfect solution for this traveling nurse.

She could purchase a photo album or a scrapbook and mount them in place using a little bit of glue. They’re small enough that she could collect all 50 and barely take up one album. If she were real creative she could incorporate them into a scrapbook with photos and some other personal effects for an eye-catching display she could show her future children and grandchildren. The best part is that wholesale patches at The Cheap Place are extremely inexpensive.

I’m not sure what the young lady though my suggestion. But I sure think it’s a good one!

When a biker attempts to join a motorcycle club, there are generally two ways of becoming a “patched” member; i.e., one who wears the club’s full colors on the back of his vest or jacket. In clubs like the Patriot Guard you are given the club’s patch as soon as you’re approved for membership. On the other hand, a club like the Laffing Devils requires that you earn your club patch through various acts of service. In the latter case these new members are called prospects.

To outsiders it might seem strange that some clubs require members to earn their colors. But it’s actually not so unusual. There are plenty of other non-motorcycle club organizations that do similar things. As an example, let’s talk about the Boy Scouts.

New Boy Scouts are initially given a handful of stock patches to sew to their uniforms. Those patches include, among other things, an American flag. They will also be given the patches which designate the council, troop, and patrol they belong to. But rank patches have to be earned as do merit badges and skill awards. The patches and medals for these accomplishments are a way to motivate the boys to do their best and to honor them when they do so.

Motorcycle clubs that use the prospect method are accomplishing much the same thing. They want members to earn a custom club patch as a means of motivating them to be loyal to the group and being serious about the club’s business. When the patch is finally earns it becomes a symbol of honor which most bikers are not willing to part with. In fact, many would be willing to die rather than part with their colors or act in a way that’s disloyal to the club.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you know The Cheap Place offers wholesale patches at reduced prices to resellers. Those resellers then turn around and sell them online, at biker rallies, and at local festivals. It’s a great way to put some extra money in your pocket part-time, or even earn a living if you’ve got a good head for business. But for the new entrepreneur, inventory can be an issue that either makes or breaks your business.

For example, it’s normal to assume you would only want to stock patches your customers are interested in buying. With thousands of different patches to choose from how you know which ones will become great sellers and which ones are likely to flop?

There’s really no easy answer to that question except to say that practice makes perfect. The more experience you have as a patch retailer the more you’ll come to instinctively know what’s good and what’s bad. Even when you do learn how to stock patches you’re still likely to have some flops, so don’t get too hung up about it. In the meantime, here are some helpful tips:

• pay attention to seasons – e.g., concentrate on rally patches in the weeks just before and after a given bike rally
• avoid redundancy by offering too many patches that look the same
• track customer buying habits throughout the year

Most of all, don’t give up if you’re not making money hand over fist after your first season. It’s a common rule of business that it takes 2 to 3 years before breaking even, let alone making a profit. If you can stick it out for a few seasons you should be well on your way to making a good go of it.

The other night I was watching a TV program about a motorcycle club from San Diego. I won’t mention their name, but they are a three-patch club that’s been around for about five years. Most of the guys are ex-military or cons who joined to regain some sense of stability after returning to the civilian world.

During the show I made a concerted effort to look at the patches club members were wearing on their vests. They had the colors on the back and that’s about all — except for the officers who had been rank patches on the front. I admit I was expecting to see a few more generic stock patches on some of the guys. But perhaps this club has strict rules against it.

Anyway, I wanted to know more about the group and its colors so I did some Internet research only to find quite a few bikers bad mouthing them as not being a “real” motorcycle club. From what I could tell these individuals were upset that the club had agreed to be part of a television program. Having never been part of a club myself I can’t say for sure, but I would think the positive portrayal of the club would be welcomed by others.

If the image presented means this group is not a “real “motorcycle club I’m curious as to know why. From what I can tell these guys ride together, play and work together, and are loyal to the brotherhood just like any others. In fact, their loyalty to one another is one of the things that struck me as the final credits rolled. I must admit I’m already looking forward to next week’s episode. In the meantime I’ll keep on digging and see what I can find out about their patches.

The other day I was watching the news when a story about a Colorado teenager and her prom dress came on. Apparently this enterprising young lady spent two years creating the dress of her dreams made almost entirely out of tabs from soda cans. Most of the dress was silver, but she used colored tabs in strategic places to give the dress a few splashes of color. It was rather impressive. But then I found out through a Google search that this young lady is not alone. There have been dozens of others who have done the same thing.

That got me to thinking; why not create some unique clothing entirely out of embroidered patches? Just an example, The Cheap Place has an inventory of thousands of stock patches to choose from — and they are only one company! Imagine all of the different pieces you could find spanning everything from sports teams to the military to biker patches. You could make a vest out of skull and cross bone patches, a shirt from flags and other similar pieces, and a jacket made entirely of rectangular patches with funny and/or crude sayings. The possibilities are limited only by the imagination and the budget.

What would be the purpose of such clothing? Well, it would probably be a single-use item similar to the young lady’s prom dress. But from there it would certainly become both collectible and a way of displaying all of your favorite stock patches. Imagine hanging up the pieces of clothing in your basement bar or wherever you keep your patch collection. It would certainly be the talk among your friends, that’s for sure. And if you’re a collector that goes to shows, the clothing could be the centerpiece of your display.

Don’t you love it?

One of the best things about the modern embroidered patch is the fact that most of the time it comes from the manufacturer with an easy to use iron-on the backing. This backing allows the patch to be mounted on just about any fabric with just a hot iron. A couple of exceptions to that rule include leather and vinyl; the glue does not adhere well to these surfaces but does a very nice job of leaving stains and burning the surface.

When you do mount iron-on stock patches to cotton, denim, and other fabrics, most of the time they will remain very secure for years. But if you have an exceptionally large patch — a 12 inch back patch would be one example — it’s a good idea to reinforce the iron-on backing using a needle and thread. But before you panic, it doesn’t require you to stitch all the way around the patch until your fingers fall off. You can apply just a stitch or two in strategic locations and you’ll be set to go.

If the patch is circular put just a single stitch or two at the twelve, three, six, and nine o’clock positions. If it’s a square, rectangle, or triangle, you can put your stitches in the corners. If it’s a die-cut patch of no particular shape just pick four or five strategic spots around the perimeter and apply your stitches.

By using the needle and thread you’ll reduce the amount of movement the patch makes when the fabric moves and thus, reduce the likelihood that it will fall off. If the patch ever does come loose from the glue the thread will at least keep it in place until you can apply a more permanent solution.