One of the best parts of going to any trade show, especially at SHOT, is the people you get to meet and reconnect with. You end up meeting people you’d have no idea how connected and impactful they’ve been; despite how large the industry may seem, it’s smaller than you’d realize. One thing that connects many of us is patches; even if you’re not super wild about collecting them, you have some.
So, by proxy, the folks who make them for us and the companies we work for are often just as connected. While there are a lot of companies out there that produce patches, there are fewer that will do more than that. It’s not as common that they will sit down with you, design them, and ensure you get the product you need and want. So, let’s talk about a patch company and a designer that’ll do just that.
Patriot Patch Co. Premium Design
I chatted with the designer from Patriot, Ryan Cross, for a while at SHOT, and he told me about his experience in the industry and his work with Patriot. It turns out this SHOT was actually their 10th year coming to the floor and doing the good PVC work. You may not have directly interacted with they’ve worked with companies you almost certainly have, like Aero Precision, Stag Arms, Grey Ghost, Rainier Arms & TriggrCon.
Sometimes, I forget how big of a deal patches are to some folks, and our conversation reminded me of that. It’s a little wild how ravenous people are for patches; we had two or three people actually interrupt the interview we were doing as soon as the patches came out. It was like carrion birds swarming, looking for their next PVC-flavored snack. They just appeared, ignored us asking them for a minute, and wouldn’t leave til their goals were appeased. Fortunately, it wasn’t Ryan’s first rodeo; he was prepared, appeased the Patcheons, and they dispersed.
We ended up talking about some of their design process, especially with other companies. Understandably, especially smaller companies don’t always have a design guy to work on promotional material, like patches, stickers, or other “swag.” So that’s where Ryan comes in and Patriot come into the picture. Ryan actually operates his own design firm “Hunter of Design,” which works with companies on the creative portion of their patch endeavor, and Patriot handles production.
The Patch of The Month
On top of the business-to-business wholesale side, Patriot Patch Co. also has a few other avenues to bring the PVC to the people. They do drops in Patch groups and their own individual sales on their own storefront, but what Ryan seemed to be most excited to talk about and promote was their Patch of the Month Club.
A $15.00 membership gets you an exclusive patch drop every month, usually around a 200-patch run. So Patch of the Month or “POTM” members get a high-quality PVC patch with hook and loop backing, a vinyl sticker version, and a limited edition “Artist’s Series Concept Print” of the POTM – the artist’s concept being Ryan’s original design for the patch. One of the things he told me about, which I thought was really nice, as sort of a hater of FOMO (I know it’s solid business; I am just a hater) is that members have the opportunity to go buy any leftovers from previous POTM runs in vaults that they still have their hands on. But once they’re gone, they’re gone!
So, the next time you admire a killer patch, remember the story behind it. It’s more than just a piece of PVC; it’s a symbol of connection and, often, the result of a collaboration between talented designers like Ryan and companies like Patriot Patch Co. If you need patches, check out Patriot Patch Co., if you need a killer graphic designer, check out Ryan at Hunter of Design.
We work pretty hard on this stuff. Do us a solid if you’re getting anything out of our writing!
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