Thread, not ink
Embroidery: for the mark that has to look permanent
Embroidery stitches the design into the garment with thread. It carries a weight and a texture that no printed method reproduces, which is why it is what a club crest, a coach’s polo and a cap almost always get.
It is also the method with the strictest artwork limits on this site, and understanding those before the design is finalised saves the most disappointment.
What survives digitising and what does not
Embroidery does not reproduce a file. It reproduces a stitch path derived from that file — a process called digitising — and the translation is lossy in specific, predictable ways. Fine lines below about 1mm disappear. Small text below roughly 5mm turns into a smudge. Gradients cannot exist at all, because thread is one colour per stitch.
What embroidery does better than anything else is a bold shape with clean edges at a modest size, which is exactly what a club crest usually is. A crest designed for a letterhead often is not, and it is worth redrawing it for thread rather than shrinking it and hoping.
We digitise as part of the mockup and show the stitch preview, so the version you approve is the version the machine will run — advice we set out alongside the rest of our requirements for artwork sent to production.
Where it belongs
Club crests
Left chest on a polo, jacket or fleece. The single most common embroidery job we run.
Caps
Front panel and side. Caps are structurally awkward to print and straightforward to stitch.
Coaching staff kit
Polos, quarter-zips and softshells, where a printed logo looks like merchandise and a stitched one looks like staff.
Heavy outerwear
Fleece and jackets, where pressed vinyl struggles with the pile and stitching does not.
What the machine actually needs
Embroidery does not reproduce a file; it reproduces a stitch path derived from one. These are the limits of that translation.
- Minimum text height
- About 5mm for a clean sans-serif. Below that the letterforms close up and a word becomes a smudge no thread quality fixes.
- Minimum line weight
- About 1mm. Thinner lines disappear entirely — they are not thin in thread, they are absent.
- Colours
- Eight to ten thread colours before a design gets dense and stiff. Most crests use four or five.
- Gradients
- None. Thread is one colour per stitch, so a gradient has to be redrawn as flat shapes or dropped.
- Backing
- Chosen for the fabric weight underneath. Puckering is almost always backing meant for something heavier or lighter than what it went on.
- Stitch count
- Roughly proportional to area, and what a quote is actually built from — a dense fill costs more than an outline of the same size.
Digitising, and why it is a craft rather than a conversion
A vector file describes shapes. A stitch file describes a path a needle takes, in an order, at an angle, with a density — and choosing those is a set of decisions a converter cannot make. The same logo digitised twice by two people produces two different garments, one of which puckers.
That is why we digitise in-house and show the stitch preview before anything runs. The version you approve is the version the machine follows, which matters most on the details that survive least: small text, thin outlines, and the interior corners of a crest.
It is also why a logo built for a letterhead usually needs redrawing rather than shrinking. Redrawing for thread is part of the mockup and is not charged for, in the same way that raster artwork is redrawn to vector before it is printed.
Where it is the right method
Four jobs embroidery does better than anything else in this range.
A club crest on a chest
The single most common job we run. Bold shapes at a modest size are exactly what thread reproduces well.
Caps
Structurally awkward to print on and straightforward to stitch. A pressed logo on a curved front panel distorts; a stitched one follows the curve.
Heavy fleece and outerwear
Vinyl struggles with a pile surface and embroidery does not. On a softshell with a technical face, stitching is the only method that holds.
Coaching staff kit
A printed logo on a polo reads as merchandise; a stitched one reads as staff. It is a small difference that people notice without naming.
Straight answers
How small can text be embroidered?
About 5mm tall for legibility, and that assumes a clean sans-serif. Anything smaller is a decision to have something illegible on the garment.
Is there a colour limit?
Practically, around eight to ten thread colours before a design becomes dense and stiff. Most crests use four or five.
Will embroidery pucker the fabric?
Not with the right backing, which is chosen for the fabric weight. Puckering on lightweight performance fabric is the classic sign of a job stitched with the backing meant for something heavier.
Can you embroider onto a sublimated jersey?
Technically yes, but it is rarely the right answer — you are putting a heavy stitched element onto a garment chosen for being light. It is normally better on the outerwear that goes over it.
How small can a logo be embroidered?
About 5mm for any text in it, and about 1mm for any line. Below those the detail is not thin — it is gone, because a stitch has a minimum size a design cannot argue with.
Do you charge for digitising?
No. Turning your artwork into a stitch file is part of producing the mockup, and you see the stitch preview before anything runs.
Why does embroidery pucker sometimes?
Almost always backing chosen for the wrong fabric weight. It is a production decision rather than a design one, and it is the first thing to look at on a sample.
Can you match thread to a Pantone colour?
Closely, from a fixed thread range rather than a mixed dye — so it is a nearest match rather than an exact one. On a crest beside a sublimated garment we show both together before approval.
Is embroidery better than print on a hoodie?
For a crest, yes — it holds its shape on fleece where pressed vinyl struggles with the pile. For anything large across a back, print or dye is better; embroidery at that size is dense, stiff and expensive.
Can we embroider names as well as a crest?
Yes, and it is common on staff kit. Names are a per-garment cost rather than a setup, so quantity does not reduce them the way it reduces a crest.
Where we use it
The other methods
Not sure which method your design needs?
Send the artwork and the garment you have in mind. We will tell you which method suits it, including when the answer is the cheaper one — and if you would rather work it out visually first, the step-by-step kit design tool asks the same questions in order.