Embroidery

What embroidery is

Embroidery sews the logo into the fabric with thread. The mark is raised, textured, and tactile - it looks and feels like it belongs to the garment, which is exactly why it reads as the premium option on apparel. It is the technique behind the polo with the chest logo, the cap with the front mark, the workwear with the badge that survives years of washing.

SoMerch runs embroidery as a real in-house capability - not like the older default of sending it out - which puts it in the same guarantee-of-quality family as the printing techniques.

What embroidery does well

• Premium by look and feel. The raised thread mark is the most clearly "quality" decoration on apparel - nothing reads as more established than a properly stitched logo.
• Durable for the garment's life. Thread is stitched through the fabric; there is no ink layer to crack. With care per the label, embroidery lasts as long as the garment.
• Up to eight thread colors. The mark is built from thread colors held physically - a palette matched by card, not by CMYK or Pantone screens. For solid, bold logos it is extremely good.

What embroidery needs, honestly

• Letters above 5 mm. Thread needs space. Text smaller than about 5 mm height becomes hard to read once stitched - the practical minimum to keep type legible. Design accordingly.
• No gradients, no very fine detail. Embroidery builds solid fields of thread. Icon gradients, delicate shading and tiny elements do not translate to stitching - the design must be suited: solid shapes, clear gaps, generous detail.
• Placement has limits. Sleeve placement, for example, caps the print length to a short span - the logo must fit the patch of fabric it is stitched onto. Get the logo right in size for its placement and it survives as intended.

What to send

A vector file with clean, solid paths - fonts in curves. For embroidery, a simplified flat version of the logo is ideal: logo in two solids with the gaps open is plenty. We digitize it into stitch patterns in-house - that step is on us, not the client.

When to choose embroidery

Choose embroidery when the garment should carry the logo as a premium mark: polos, caps, workwear, and any apparel where the brand should feel built into the fabric. It is the sibling of [[silkscreen|silkscreen]] - solid bold logos - but for smaller runs and a more premium look. For full-color photo detail on apparel, [[digital-transfer|digital transfer]] is the route instead.

Standard production around 8 business days. Note: the 48-hour fast-track does not apply to embroidery - the digitizing plus stitching needs its own schedule.

The short version

Embroidery stitches the logo in thread - a raised, textured, distinctly premium mark that lasts as long as the garment. Up to eight thread colors, letters above 5 mm, no gradients, vector artwork digitized in-house. It is the standard for polos, caps and workwear where the logo should feel built in.