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History and Significance of Laser Engraved Leather Patch Hats

Ever wonder how leather ended up on a ball cap? Who thought that was a good idea? We have had embroidery for a long time so why would we want to use such a contrasting material?

Leather is a very interesting material. Under most environments it is very durable. It has been used in horse tack for centuries and native populations have used leather for millennia.

When it comes to hats, leather has outstanding durability. It is just as durable as most hats that it is applied to. It can handle exposure to the elements, or whatever your friends kid did to it when you weren’t looking! So it is a practical leap to take this material and stick it on hats.

Before co2 lasers were a mainstream tool the average leatherworker was relegated to traditional tooling. Tooling leather is a time intensive process. I think it is the most artistic way to work with leather but it doesn’t scale very well. Laser engraving really brought the scalability of leather patches up to spec. It allows us to craft some beautiful patches that are consistent from batch to batch.

Lasers have improved quite a bit and now we can achieve details that are outside the limits of other decoration methods. Powered by RF co2 lasers, we can achieve details as small as .010”. In other words, that is about as thick as 4 sheets of paper. That is remarkable! And we can achieve that at speed, time and time again.

Leather patch hats also give a nod to the culture of your area or company. Using real leather, especially Made in USA leather, really sets the stage for your company interactions. Since people are so quick to judge it is great to be able to show that quality is important to you. And all without saying a word. It offers a timeless appeal to a wide array of customers.

Leather patches are not the answer for every application since they have some limitations. But generally speaking, almost all designs can be incorporated onto a laser engraved leather patch.

At Snag Customs we use Hermann Oak vegetable tanned leather. This leather comes from American cattle and is processed and tanned in the United States. We apply a USA made heat activated adhesive and then laser engrave on our American Made Epilog Fusion laser engraver. Finally, we heat press the patch onto the hat using our American Made Hotronix heat presses.

Just like you, Snag Customs cares about quality. We show you with each and every hat that we produce. We use real leather because it still means something. It means quality.

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Is Yupoong A Good Brand?

Have you even heard of it? Well you have probably worn a Yupoong hat or two over the years. They have a ton of different styles of hats and are part of the flexfit family.

The interesting thing in the hat world is how brand oriented people tend to get. I mean, I get it to an extent. Each person has a unique head and a hat that your buddy likes might not be the best fit on you. I love flexfit hats but I am precisely between the two main sizes. So the small one kills my head and the large size will blow off in a gentle breeze.

But back to the question: Yes. The End.

I wish it was that easy but I doubt you’d let me go so quickly. Yupoong 6606 and Richardson 112 hats are so remarkably close to each other in quality and fit that most people can’t tell the difference. The main differences come down to style. The 112 line from Richardson has around 30 more color options. Additionally they offer more tri-color styles and contrasted stitching for that extra touch.

The quality of Yupoong is phenomenal and I think they are more consistent than the Richardson 112. Not only are they at least as good as the 112 line but they hit that quality level at a lower price point. The 6606 is my go-to hat for customers that are on a tight budget but can’t sacrifice quality. You might lose a style point or two but you get to keep quality and cost under control.

Yupoong has been making hats for a very long time. Over the years they have figured out how to do that at a massive scale without losing the quality.

This article was inspired and written entirely by Nathan Burgess at Snag Customs. We are not sponsored or funded by Yupoong. In fact, we pay a lot of money to Yupoong for hats each year! I wish that we were sponsored!

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What Kind of Leather Can You Laser Engrave?

Did you know there are many types of leather? I’m not just talking about the color of the leather. I am referring to the method used to tan the leather into a usable product. The tanning process converts the skin of the animal into a preserved, usable product.

The two major tanning processes that you will find are Chrome Tanned and Vegetable Tanned. Often vegetable tanned will be shortened into veg-tan or veg-tanned leather. Some of the really soft and beautiful leather is chrome tanned. It produces a wonderful finish and feel. If you have felt a sofa that you loved or a fine automobile seat then you have experienced this type of leather. While it is beautiful it is not suitable for laser engraving and cutting. When this leather is exposed to the laser beam it can emit dangerous chemicals that can harm people and equipment.

This is why we use veg-tanned leather. Vegetable tanned leather is produced with a lot of time and plant based recipes. The naturally occurring tannins treat and preserve the leather. They also produce a leather that can be exposed to the laser beam without generating toxic fumes. While not as harmful as chrome-tanned leather, the smoke produced from cutting vegetable tanned leather awful smelling. Leather is a very smoky process. It typically smells like burning hair. After all, it is just the flesh of the animal that we are cutting.

The only leather that we will cut is veg-tanned. We use veg-tanned leather from Hermann Oak. Hermann Oak is one of the only tanneries left in the United States. This is a premium leather that is made in the USA with USA cows. It is also expensive, but that is not the point. It is amazing leather. Veg-tanned leather has a nice, natural finish that is a light tan color. We dye our leather to a proprietary brown color that you can see on our “natural” patch color. This rich brown color accentuates the blackened laser engraving to help your logo stand out.

If you would like to learn more about the tanning process you can visit http://hermannoakleather.com/about/tannery-tour-video and learn how Hermann Oak operates. It is quite an interesting process. It is pretty amazing how we are working with an organic material that has been a major building block of civilization.

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Well I finally made it happen

Snag Customs has a new store! This has been a long process. I understand why so many small businesses do not have a formal web presence!

Originally I built my store on the Shopify platform. It’s not a bad platform. It gets you up and running fast and has some decent options. But there are things that are lacking for a shop like mine. Almost all of what I produce is custom manufactured for the customer. That brings a lot of challenges in file handling and ease of ordering for you.

The goal with any webpage should be basic: simple presentation of information, options, and expectations with an easy way to make a purchase. I hope that I have accomplished that today. You’ll notice that some things stayed the same and some things have changed. If you ever have a problem please reach out and let me know! I have tried to ensure that every detail has been covered but there are so many that surely something has been missed.

I pride myself on my work. I want this site to be a reflection of the level of care that I put into each order.

Thank you for coming here to shop. It means the world to me that you care enough to shop with a small business.

Nate