Custom Embroidery Clothing Manufacturer

Custom embroidered clothing starts at 150 pieces per style, per colour, and stitched embroidery does not raise that floor. A navy and a grey hoodie with the same chest logo are two runs of 150, because each colour is its own run. Digitising is the one setup charge: we convert your artwork into a stitch file, the machine's instructions for each stitch. You pay it once per design, the file is yours, and every reorder reuses it; changing the artwork means digitising again. At 150 pieces that fee is a visible share of the unit price, and at 1,000 it almost disappears. Woven patches are made separately and sewn on, so they carry their own minimum, which we confirm when we quote. We don't go below 150 because of hooping: every piece is clamped by hand for each placement, so handling per garment hardly falls with volume, and a smaller run would cost you a sample rate for production.

It depends mostly on the design: the embroidery line is priced separately from the garment, and a design's size and fill density move its per-piece price more than anything else. We quote that line for your order, built from stitch count, placements, technique, thread colours and backing. Stitch count leads: machine time and thread follow the number of stitches, so a small left-chest logo runs in a fraction of the time a large, dense back design takes. Each placement is another hooping and another run, so a chest logo, a sleeve mark and a back design mean three runs per piece. Every thread colour adds a colour change and a trim, which makes a simpler palette the cheapest saving that keeps the design's size. 3D puff, appliqué and woven patches add materials, and caps are priced on their own because they hoop differently and run more slowly. Our pricing calculator shows the margin your full unit cost leaves at retail.

Five: flat, 3D puff, appliqué and tonal embroidery, plus woven patches, and we recommend one from your artwork rather than defaulting. Flat is the baseline and suits logos, wordmarks and left-chest marks. 3D puff stitches over a foam layer so the design stands proud of the surface; it suits bold block letters and simple, chunky shapes, and fine detail collapses under it. Appliqué cuts a fabric shape, tacks it down and then stitches the edges, so a large area stays lighter and softer than a solid fill and usually costs less than stitching every millimetre. Tonal embroidery matches the thread to the garment colour, the quiet mark many premium labels prefer. Woven patches are made separately, with their own minimum, and sewn on as an extra operation. 3D puff, appliqué and patches each add materials or an extra pass, so we only suggest one when your design gains from it.

Usually, if it is built from bold shapes and a limited colour count, and we tell you before you commit rather than after you have paid. Thread has limits that print does not. Detail below roughly five millimetres closes up whatever the file quality, and lettering under about four millimetres tall stops being readable, so small taglines are the usual casualty. Hairline strokes vanish. Gradients can only be suggested with blended thread colours, and photographic detail cannot be reproduced in thread the way a print can. Large solid fills turn heavy and stiff, and appliqué usually handles those areas better. The fabric matters too: stretchy jersey needs a cutaway stabiliser that stays in the garment, firmer fleece can take tearaway, and without backing a knit puckers around the design. If your artwork is borderline, we digitise a test rather than guess, and if thread is the wrong tool we will say so and suggest screen printing or DTG instead.

Both, under one roof, and that changes what is possible. When embroidery is subcontracted, the embroiderer receives finished garments and has no say in how they were built — so if a seam runs exactly where the design needs flat fabric, or the knit is too loose to hold dense stitching, nobody finds out until it is too late to change. Because we specify the fabric and then cut, sew and embroider it in the same building, the placement is planned alongside the garment: we keep seams clear of the embroidery area, choose a fabric that supports the stitch density you want, and can embroider flat panels before assembly when a design sits across a seam. It also means one supplier is accountable rather than two pointing at each other.

Vector artwork is best: an AI, EPS or PDF file with clean outlines, because those convert to stitch paths without guesswork. A high-resolution PNG can work when its edges are crisp, but a blurry or screenshot-quality file has to be redrawn first, so the stitched logo becomes someone's reading of your mark rather than a copy of it. With the file, send three things. First, the thread colours, ideally as Pantone references. Second, the finished width in centimetres, rather than leaving the scale to us. Third, the placement: left chest, centre back, sleeve or cap front, since each has its own maximum size and backing needs, and the destination changes how the file is digitised. If the logo sits near a seam, tell us so we can plan the placement around it. Putting all of this in your tech pack keeps artwork and garment in one brief.

Embroidery suits a bold logo stitched straight into the garment; a woven patch suits a logo with fine detail, or a mark you want to read as a separate badge. Stitched thread loses fine detail and small lettering first. A woven patch is made on a loom from much finer thread, so small text and thin lines hold better, and it lies flatter than a dense stitched fill. The trade-offs are look and process. A patch sits on the garment rather than in it, and it is made separately, with its own minimum, then sewn on as an extra operation, so its production has to fit inside your order plan. On soft fleece, a patch also avoids the pucker a large dense fill can cause. Send us the artwork with the finished size and we will tell you which suits it, and why.

It should, because the parts that decide the look are fixed after the first order. The stitch file from your first run is reused, so stitch paths, density and underlay stay the same unless the artwork changes. Write the thread colours into your tech pack by the thread maker's shade numbers rather than by description, and keep a sealed sample from the first run as the reference for the second. The part that can move is the garment underneath. Each garment colour is a new dye lot at a partner mill, so a navy body can come out slightly lighter or darker than last time. That matters most for tonal embroidery, where the thread is matched to the fabric, so it is worth checking the thread against the new lot before bulk. A reorder keeps the same minimum of 150 pieces per style and colour.