I’m wanting to sew tags onto hand knitted beanies, I would like to know what the best machine for this job would be so they can be machine washed? Thanks in advance!l

They look similar at a glance. Both are made separately and applied to the hat. Both give you a dimensional, tactile brand element that direct embroidery cannot replicate. But they are built differently and they perform differently and choosing the wrong one for your project is a mistake you will see every time you look at the finished hat. An embroidered patch is built on a twill or felt base with thread stitched on top. The coverage is partial, meaning the thread sits on top of the backing material and you can see the base between stitch rows if you look closely. The result is textured, slightly raised, and has that classic decorated apparel feel most people associate with varsity jackets and workwear. Detail level is limited by thread diameter. Fine lines, small text under half an inch, and complex gradients are difficult to execute cleanly in embroidery. A woven patch is made on a loom with the design woven directly into the fabric rather than stitched on top. The thread count is significantly higher and the result is smooth, flat, and capable of reproducing fine detail that embroidery cannot touch. Small text, intricate logos, photographic-style designs. If your brand mark has detail that gets lost at embroidery scale, a woven patch is how you put it on a hat without compromising the design. The use case breakdown is straightforward once you know the difference. Embroidered patches belong on workwear brands, blue collar aesthetics, vintage-inspired designs, and anything where the texture and handmade quality of the patch is part of the brand story. The imperfection is a feature. EFN hats with an embroidered patch on the front communicate something specific about craft and character that a woven patch would undercut. Woven patches belong on brands with complex logos, fine typography, or detailed artwork that needs to be reproduced exactly. Premium streetwear, technical outdoor brands, and any brand where the logo is the centerpiece of the hat rather than a supporting element. VANTA Collective with its needle-through-finger mark is a woven patch candidate because the detail in that logo at hat scale requires the resolution that weaving provides.

Walk into a Target, a gas station, a tourist trap gift shop, or a college bookstore. Pick up any hat with a logo on it that costs under $20. Flip it over and look at the label. Yupoong. The 6606 is an animal. Six panel, mid-profile, structured front, Permacurv visor, snapback closure. It sits in the same category conversation as the Richardson 112 without the Richardson price tag. For a decorator or a hat brand builder on a tighter margin, that matters. The fabric breakdown tells you exactly who this hat is built for. The standard colorways run 74/26 polyester/cotton. Camo goes 85/15. Multicam brings in a spandex component at 60/39/1 for stretch and recovery. Kryptek and Veil go full polyester. The mesh back keeps airflow moving. Every configuration is purpose-built for a specific end user and most of them are wearing it outdoors doing something physical. For embroidery the structured front panel performs well on flat work. The mid-profile gives you a proper embroidery field without the crown collapsing in the hoop. Puff is viable here in a way it is not on the unstructured 6606. The undervisor details are worth knowing before a customer asks. Camo and Multicam run black underneath. Heather colorways go grey. Kryptek and Veil get silver with the YP four-bar logo on the wearer’s right side. The 6606 Structured and the Richardson 112 are not identical but they are having the same conversation with different audiences. The 112 is the decorator’s blank, the brand builder’s canvas, the hat that signals craft. The 6606 Structured is the performance and outdoor market’s answer to the same shape, built for buyers who want structure and durability without paying for the Richardson name. Knowing the difference between the two is not trivia. It is how you match the right blank to the right project without guessing. What blanks are you currently working with or building on? Drop them below.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

My name is Michael and I have about 10 years of sewing experience working with everything from household Pfaffs to Industrial needle fed and walking foot Juki machines. I started by sewing bags and hats from scratch. In addition I was the headwear manager of a screen printing shop for 5 years. I helped create the headwear department and increase headwear production capabilities. I've trained people to sew on post bed industrial machines and have torn the machines apart to fix them myself. I now work for one of the largest apparel distributors in North America. I love the decorated apparel world and look forward to spreading my knowledge to everyone in this group! Whether you want to start an Etsy account, open a headwear shop, or you want to build a hat brand and sell it live on TikTok, I can help you with my 15 combined years of decoration experience.

If you have spent any time around a screen printing shop or an embroidery operation, you have seen this hat. Structured front panel, snapback closure, mesh back, and available in over 60 colorways. The Richardson 112 is not the flashiest blank in the catalog but it is the one professional decorators reach for first and there are good reasons for that. The structured front panel is the key. Because it is reinforced with buckram, the front face of the hat holds its shape during embroidery. The machine has a flat, stable surface to work on which means cleaner stitching, less puckering, and a finished product that looks intentional rather than amateurish. Unstructured hats can shift during hooping and the results show. The colorway library is the other reason. When a brand wants to run the same embroidered logo across five different hat colors, the 112 almost always has every color they need in stock at the distributor level. S&S and SanMar both carry deep inventory on the most popular colorways which means fast turnaround and no waiting on special orders. For anyone building a hat brand, whether you are decorating in house, working with a print shop, or using Printful for print on demand, the 112 is your starting point. Learn it, understand it, and your first conversation with any decorator will go significantly better. What blank are you currently working with or considering for your first run? Drop it in the comments.