Recently I spoke to a business owner who was preparing to order new uniforms for his delivery staff. He was trying to decide whether to straight embroidery for the company logo and employee names or use embroidered patches instead. The initial cost for both was relatively the same so his decision had to be one of practicality rather than price. The following are some of things he considered:
Looks - From his perspective straight embroidery looked better than patches. I neither agreed nor disagreed with them. If he thought straight embroidery look better than patches that's fine; it's his business.
Versatility - Next, he had to consider versatility in terms of re-issuing uniform shirts to new employees. Since straight embroidery is a permanent solution the shirts of former employees would not be usable unless new employees had the same names. With embroidered patches, that's not a problem. All he had to do was buy stock patches of the most popular names and special order ones that were so popular. When one worker was let go or quit, the patch could be removed and replaced with one for the new driver.
Shirt Replacement - The last thing he had to think about was what to do when it came time to replace the shirts themselves. Again, permanent embroidery is a one-time solution. With patches, they can be removed and re-used when a shirt is worn out. In all likelihood he'd get 2 to 3 times more life out of his patches than the shirts he was purchasing.
In the end, despite his preference for the aesthetics of direct embroidery this business owner decided it was more cost-effective to use embroidered patches. He used stock patches for the names and had custom patches made for his company logo.
