Posted on Leave a comment

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.

Leave a Reply