Band and Music Merch Patches
Patches are one of the best items on a merch table. They are light, they do not need sizes, they do not go out of fashion, and the margin is good. They are also the item most likely to be ordered badly by a band doing it for the first time.
Sizes that actually sell
Three to four inches is the standard merch patch. It fits a sleeve, a vest front, a bag. Price it as an impulse item and it sells to people who were not going to buy a shirt.
Eight to twelve inches for a back patch. This is the premium piece, and for a certain audience it is the thing they actually came for. It costs more to make and it should be priced accordingly.
Most bands do best with one of each: a cheap small patch that moves in volume and one back patch that carries a higher price.
Woven is usually the right answer
This runs against instinct, because embroidered patches feel more substantial. But most band artwork is detailed: fine line work, illustration, a logo with a lot of character in thin strokes.
Embroidery thread has physical width. Below roughly a sixteenth of an inch, detail closes up. A detailed illustration at 4 inches in embroidery loses exactly the parts that made it good.
Woven patches use much finer thread, so that detail survives at the same size. They are flatter and less tactile, which is a real trade, but for intricate artwork it is the correct one.
Use embroidery when the design is bold and simple and the raised texture is part of the appeal. Logos, block lettering, heavy shapes.
Artwork
Band artwork tends to arrive as a JPG someone was sent years ago. That is workable but it is not what gets made. At patch size every soft edge in a low-resolution image is a decision someone makes on your behalf, and usually not the decision you wanted.
Supply vector if your artist has it. If not, have it redrawn as vector first. It is a small cost against a run of several hundred patches, and it is the difference between your artwork and an approximation of it.
Two things to decide before artwork goes anywhere:
- Border shape. A simple outline, rectangle or shield survives being sewn onto a sleeve. An intricate die-cut outline looks great flat and frays at the thin points.
- Colour count. Fewer colours generally reproduce more cleanly and cost less, and most strong patch designs use four or five.
Ordering a first run without wasting money
Setup is a one-off. It is charged once, and every patch after that is cheap. The consequence is that spreading a first order across several designs is the expensive way to do it: three designs means three setups, and a third of the volume discount on each.
For a first run, pick the strongest single design and order properly of it. Add designs once you know what sells.
On quantity, be honest about the room. A band playing to a hundred people a night does not need two thousand patches, and patches do not expire, but cash tied up in stock does matter. A few hundred of one design is a sensible first commitment.
Backing
Sew-on for anything going on a denim or leather jacket, which is where band patches live. Iron-on bonds to cotton and lets go of everything else, and the audience for patches is disproportionately the audience with jackets covered in them.
Some bands offer both, with iron-on for people who want them on a tote or a cotton shirt. If you do, say clearly which is which on the merch table.
Send your artwork with the finished size and we will tell you honestly whether it should be woven or embroidered at that size, and what detail will survive.