Custom Embroidered Caps: Flat Embroidery VS. 3D ...

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In the world of custom embroidered caps, there are two types of styles that have become popular over time: flat embroidery and 3D embroidery. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to know which one will work best for your needs before you commit to a technique or company. First, let&#;s define what custom embroidered caps are. Then, let&#;s take a look at what each style entails!

What are Custom Embroidered Caps?

Custom embroidered caps are a popular style of headwear that can be created with any design or text and have the added benefit of being made to order.

You might see custom embroidered caps worn by athletes when they compete at competitions nationwide. These garments were carefully designed and customized for their clients in hopes that they will help them stand out from the masses.

Custom embroidered caps are made through embroidery and stitching. They&#;re perfect for people looking for custom caps that are detailed and durable.

Custom embroidered caps are perfect for:

#1 Those who are looking for a custom cap to express personal style.

Custom embroidered caps are one of the best methods of expressing your personal tastes. The personalized colours and designs are great for self-expression.

#2 People who are looking to promote their brand.

Custom embroidered caps are a great way to promote your brand or logo. One of the best ways to do this is by getting custom hats as giveaways during an event. You can also release them as merch.

#3 Sports team looking for uniformed caps.

Custom embroidered caps are perfect for teams who want to create a uniform look. It&#;s especially great because you can put the team logo on the caps, and people are going to recognize what team you are in right away. It&#;s also nice to see your supporters in the crowd wearing the same custom caps design during a game.

#4 Friends and Families looking to have matching caps.

Custom embroidered caps are a great gift for friends or families to have the matching cap. It&#;s fun because you can use them on a family trip or family gatherings.

#5 Couples who want couple caps.

Custom embroidered caps are a fun way to show the world that you are a lovely couple. Wear them on dates or feature them in pictures!

Now that you know what custom embroidered caps are, let&#;s dive deeper into the two techniques of making them.

What is Flat Embroidery?

Flat embroidery is the most popular technique in embroidery because it&#;s a quicker and cheaper option.

The design is sewn onto the fabric with thread, which usually results in less detail than other techniques like hat bands or stitching. Flat embroidering leaves enough space for an iron-on backing that will help keep your custom caps looking their best after repeated washings.

How are Flat Embroidered Caps made?

There are two ways to get the design onto your custom caps: heat transfer or direct embroidery. The first option is cheaper but less durable. The second can last for years of wear and tear in comparison to flat-stitched caps.

Advantages of Using Flat Embroidery

#1  It&#;s inexpensive.

Because you don&#;t need expensive materials or machinery, flat embroidery can prove to be a cost-effective option for creating custom caps.

#2  You have more freedom with the design.

You&#;ll feel excited with the liberties of deciding your design. That&#;s because, with flat embroidery, you don&#;t need to worry about distorting your desired design or logo during the process.

#3 You can use it on any type of fabric or garment.

Whatever fabric your custom caps are using, you can use flat embroidery. There&#;s no worry because the technique is compatible with any fabric.

Disadvantages of Using Flat Embroidery

#1 It&#;s not as bold looking as

custom 3D caps

.

Although you can achieve any design you want, flat embroidered caps don&#;t have the boldness effect as custom 3D caps.

#2 They can be common.

Using flat embroidery on custom caps is the most common and preferred method by many. Hence, if you value uniqueness or standing out from the crowd, you might want to use a different technique.

What is 3D Embroidery?

3D Embroidery is a technique that gives you a three-dimensional finish for custom caps.  It takes embroidery beyond the flat layer while employing a variety of stitches and threads to create a raised or dimensional effect on caps, hats and other apparel items.

How do you perform 3D Embroidery?

To perform 3D Embroidery on custom caps, you need to insert a foam underneath the embroidery. This results in a 3D effect making the design bold enough to stand out. This method is perfect for brands who want their logo and symbols to catch attention.

Advantages of Using 3D Embroidery

#1 3D embroidery is a great way to highlight your designs.

3D Embroidery can add more depth and texture to the design of your custom caps.  That&#;s why people who want to highlight their designs tend to lean towards using 3D Embroidery.

#2

3D Embroidered custom caps

look more professional and high-quality.

This is because 3D embroidery offers a wider range of stitches, which allows for detailed designs that other stitching methods cannot offer. The 3D  effect of this design also leaves an impression of being high-quality.

Disadvantages of Using 3D Embroidery

If you have more complicated designs, then this method may not be the best option for you. That is because extremely complicated designs are difficult to stitch with a raised 3D effect. This method is best for those with simple designs like letters, initials, logos and symbols.

Have you decided on which custom caps you&#;d like?

Whether you&#;re looking for custom embroidered caps, custom 3D caps, or custom logo caps, we can help! Send us a message today.

Are you shopping for custom caps for your brand, business, or team? Is cost comparison through different dealers and manufacturers confusing? We think it is. If you're looking for custom caps, you may have found that once you add up all the charges for the hat, decoration, artwork, and shipping they are more expensive than you expected. So what is a fair price? We've researched more than 100 hat and cap suppliers to try to shed some light on how much you should be paying for different types of orders.

Average Retail Prices for Hats

For a good quality cap, it is now common to see prices from $25-$40. The price will depend on brand (certain premium brands command a higher price) and style (certain embellishments are more expensive than others.) This is all fairly easy to confirm by shopping at some of your favorite brands, but the tougher job is to figure out how much you should pay for your custom design when buying several dozen or even several thousand caps at a time.

Ways to Order Custom Caps

When ordering custom caps, you have a number of options. We like to break them into a few broad categories.

1. Pre-defined Stock Embellishers - this could be your local screen-print or embroidery shop or a regional company that specializes in caps, but the business model is generally that they will decorate products selected from a set catalog. They usually have an account with a large wholesaler that stocks different blank caps that they can quickly receive and decorate. The advantage of having the blank product already in stock nearby is that it is fast to receive them and there is usually a low minimum order quantity. The disadvantage is you need to pick a style and color from a set offering without full customization options.

2. Dealers and Wholesalers - this could be a local small business that facilitates merchandise and apparel purchasing or a large national brand, but these companies work directly with factories (usually overseas) that will make your products. They probably have a local sales rep who can help you with a design and they probably also have some quick-to-order in-stock options and a slower-to-order full-custom offering. They are prepared to fulfill larger quantity orders and offer more unique customization options, but you probably have to wait longer and may have to manage larger minimum order quantities.

3. Manufacturers - these companies either are or own their own factories that actually make your caps. Most good quality caps in the North American market come from factories in China and Vietnam. You can find tons of options online, but sifting through them to find a good quality service provider can be challenging. You get the best price by buying directly from the manufacturer, but communication can be challenging and lead times and minimum order quantities can be long.

So, what should you pay when using each category? We were curious, so we interviewed and secret-shopped over 100 companies. Some of the interviews were with brands that buy from one of the three categories and some were interviews or secret shopping directly with the supplier. Here are the results.

How Much Should I Pay?

Your price will obviously depend on the order quantity and type of cap. In our research, we asked suppliers for their price of an average, fully-decorated cap. The prices do not include shipping, import duties, or sales taxes. This data is from mid-, so now in , we can assume that all the prices will have gone up about 15% with inflation.

Link to Hebei Etenal

The average price for different quantities by type of supplier is shown below. Not every supplier replied with pricing at every quantity level, so our data for some quantity levels are limited. Overall, we see that:

• the market pricing is fairly close across the different kinds of suppliers

• going direct to the manufacturers gives the best price, but it does not factor in shipping or import taxes which may be less with the domestic suppliers

• The Pre-defined Stock Embellishers was most expensive at low quantities, possibly because they tend to deal with less experienced customers who don't know what price they should be paying

• At larger quantities, Pre-defined Stock Embellishers offer prices competitive with the Wholesalers and Manufacturers

Although the average prices at different quantity levels were quite close together, the actual spread of prices quoted to us was quite large. The charts below show the number of suppliers who offered prices in the given price ranges when we inquired about different quantity orders. We assumed common orders might be 24, 48, and 100 pcs.

Overall we found that:

• At all order quantities, there were some very high and very low outliers for price offerings. This shows the benefit of shopping around before deciding on a supplier, but remember to double-check the quality of cheaply priced caps before committing to any large orders.

• No supplier type stood out as consistently cheaper or more expensive than others.

• We were surprised that factories sometimes quote very high prices. It appears that suppliers will quote as high as they think they can get away with and that industry experience is important to understand what is a reasonable price.

How Many Do I Have to Order?

You'll find the three different supplier categories set quite different minimum order quantities (MOQs). The MOQ in turn has a strong effect on the price. The graph below shows the distribution of MOQs we found through our research. Obviously Pre-defined Stock Embellishers can offer the lowest MOQs because they are working with in-stock blanks and the Manufacturers demand the largest MOQs to make processing your custom order worth their time.

When Will I Get Them

There are obvious trade-offs between price, quantity, and speed. But on average, we found that the Pre-Defined Stock Embellishers could deliver faster. We were surprised that Manufacturers were often faster than Wholesalers. We think this is because Wholesalers were more likely to quote lead times, including shipping times, whereas Manufactures just said time until dispatch. Large batch shipping by sea will add at least 45 days.

Getting Great Caps at a Good Price

All of this data should be taken in the context of your specific design requirements. More customization control of the base hat will definitely take longer because it needs to be made to your specs. More decorations, especially embroidery size and placements will increase costs.

At Purnaa, we specialize in sublimation printed caps where any of the fabric can be fully customized with any image and color. When we shopped specifically for sublimation printed caps, our pricing was definitely competitive and we found that we can offer the fastest lead time and lowest MOQs of any of the suppliers we researched. If you have a unique cap design that you'd like to investigate, please get in touch at .

Read more about cap manufacturing in our other blogs

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