What is the minimum order quantity for custom patches?
There is no minimum if you only need one: a single patch is a real order, $30 photographed or $60 mailed, with $30 credited back on a later run. Production runs have floors, and they are low - 10 for embroidered and PVC, 25 for woven and printed/sublimated, 50 for chenille. Per-piece pricing then drops at 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 and 500+.
Two different questions hide inside this one, and they have different answers.
If you want a single patch, there is no minimum at all. One real patch, stitched on the same production machines as a full run, is $30 if we photograph it for you or $60 if we mail it, and $30 of that comes back as credit when you order the run. That is a genuine order, not a mockup or a digital proof.
If you want a production run, every type has a floor and all of them are low. Embroidered patches start at 10 pieces. PVC patches, in either 2D or 3D, also start at 10. Woven and printed/sublimated patches start at 25, and chenille patches start at 50. The design tool and the review process are identical regardless of quantity, so a 10-piece order goes through exactly the same expert review as a 6,000-piece one.
Most competitors set minimums of 50–100 pieces for embroidered patches because their quoting and setup workflows assume volume, and most of them cannot sell you one patch at any price. A 10-piece run floor with a single patch available underneath it makes us a natural fit for prototype runs, one-of-a-kind gifts, memorial patches, and small organizations that only need a handful of pieces.
PVC costs more per piece than embroidered at the same 10-piece floor, because a custom silicone mold must be created for each unique design and that tooling cost is spread across the order. We've set the floor at 10 rather than the 50–100 the industry typically requires, which means the per-piece price at 10 pieces is high relative to a large run — but a small PVC order is genuinely available if that's what you need, and so is a single PVC patch as a sample.
Pricing scales with quantity. The per-patch cost drops meaningfully as you move from 10 pieces to 50 to 100 to 500 and beyond, because setup and handling costs are amortized across more units. Our pricing calculator on the Pricing page lets you compare total and per-piece cost at different quantities before you commit.
If you're not sure how many patches you need, it's worth ordering a small run first. A small order lets you check embroidery density, color accuracy, and sizing against the real garment or backing before you commit to a large quantity. Many customers find that ordering 10–20 first saves money compared to re-ordering a full run with corrections.
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