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Custom embroidery for business apparel.
Your logo, stitched to last.

Embroidered polos, work shirts, button-downs, jackets, vests, and hats for companies that need their people to look consistent. We set up your logo once, keep the file, and match it on every order after that. Minimum 24 pieces, no maximum.

Request an embroidery quote Call (530) 895-8448
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Engraved compliance placards produced by Recognition Products
10–14 DAYS
After proof approval
24 PIECES
Order minimum
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Real people. Always.
Commercial embroidery

Different jobs, different apparel, one consistent logo.

Most companies we embroider for are outfitting several groups at once, and those groups rarely need the same garment. Embroidery is what holds the look together: the same logo, stitched the same way, across apparel chosen for very different working conditions.

Office and administration
Front desk and back office
Polos and button-downs that press well and hold their shape through a work week. Usually a left chest logo, sometimes with a first name added.
Field crews
Technicians and installers
Work shirts and jackets that survive daily wear, weather, and frequent washing. Employee names help customers know who is at their door.
Supervision
Foremen and project managers
Something a step up from crew apparel that still works on a job site. Often a jacket or vest that reads clearly from a distance.
Sales
Estimators and account teams
Apparel worn in front of a customer, in a truck, and in a meeting on the same day. Performance polos and light outerwear carry all three.
Service
Techs working at customer sites
Clear identification matters when your staff are inside someone else's building. Logo plus name is the usual combination.
Management
Owners and leadership
Higher-end polos and structured outerwear for the people representing the company at meetings, associations, and trade events.
Garment selection

There is no single best garment for embroidery.

The right choice depends on where the apparel is worn, what it has to survive, how it needs to look, and what the budget allows. Two companies ordering the same number of embroidered polos can need completely different garments. We help make that call rather than sending a catalog and hoping.

Polos
The most-ordered embroidered garment, and the most varied. Cotton and cotton blends look traditional and press well. Performance fabrics move moisture, resist wrinkling, and hold color through heavy laundering, which matters when the same shirt is worn several days a week.
  • Office staff, sales teams, management
  • Light-duty field work in warm weather
  • Left chest logo is the standard placement
Work shirts and button-downs
Two different jobs under one heading. Work shirts are built for trade environments and take abuse. Button-downs read as business apparel and suit office and customer-facing roles. Both embroider cleanly, though pockets and plackets affect where a logo can sit.
  • Technicians, installers, service crews
  • Front office and client-facing staff
  • Name and title often added opposite the logo
Jackets and vests
Outerwear carries a logo further than any other garment, because it is worn outside the building where people see it. Heavier fabrics and linings hold stitching well. Vests are popular with supervisors and sales staff who want identification without the bulk.
  • Outdoor crews and seasonal apparel programs
  • Supervisors, foremen, project managers
  • Left chest and sleeve are the usual placements
Hats
We embroider structured caps, unstructured caps, trucker hats, Flexfit-style caps, and beanies. Hats are often the easiest addition to an apparel order and the piece employees keep wearing off the clock, which puts your logo in front of people who are not your customers yet.
  • Front, side, and back locations available
  • Works for crews, giveaways to clients, and events
  • Needs its own logo setup — see below

If you want the broader picture across every apparel type we decorate, including screen printed options, start at custom apparel.

Logo placement

Where the logo goes, and why it matters.

Placement is not only a design decision. It affects how visible your brand is, whether an employee name fits alongside it, and how the finished garment sits once it is worn. These are the locations we embroider.

Left chest
The default for company apparel, and the placement most people read as professional. It works on nearly every garment and leaves the right chest free for a name or title.
Right chest
Usually paired with a left chest logo, carrying an employee name, title, or department. On its own it suits garments where a pocket or placket blocks the left side.
Sleeve
Good for a secondary mark, a certification, or a division name. Sleeve space is narrow, so designs usually need to be simplified or scaled before they sit well.
Upper back
A logo or company name across the upper back, below the collar. Useful when staff are seen from behind, on a job site or working at a customer's property.
Hat front
The most visible location on any piece of company apparel. Structured caps hold a logo shape better than unstructured ones, which is worth knowing before you pick a style.
Hat side and back
Smaller secondary placements — a phone number, a website, a location, or a short division name. Frequently paired with a front logo.

A few practical points buyers ask about. Pockets, plackets, seams, and zippers all limit where stitching can sit, so garment construction sometimes decides placement for you. Proportion matters as much as position: a logo sized for a jacket looks oversized on a polo. And if you want employee names, plan for them at the start, because the logo placement determines where the name can go.

Artwork and setup

Getting your logo ready to stitch.

Embroidery does not print your logo onto fabric. It rebuilds it in thread, one stitch at a time, which means the artwork has to be converted into a production file before anything can run. Most questions we get about embroidery are really questions about this step, so it is worth explaining properly.

1
Send the best artwork you have
Vector artwork is what we want: PDF, AI, EPS, SVG, or CorelDRAW. That is usually what your designer or sign company produced when your branding was built. If you do not have it, send whatever you do have — a business card, an old shirt, a screenshot — and we will tell you what is workable. Artwork that needs cleanup or a rebuild starts at $50, quoted per order before we begin.
2
We build the embroidery file
Your logo is converted into a stitch file, a process often called embroidery digitizing. It maps every stitch, its direction, and its density so the design holds its shape in thread. This is a one-time setup for your logo, and we keep the file so future orders match rather than approximate.
3
Small text and fine detail get reviewed
Thread has a minimum size below which letters close up and stop being readable. Ours is 0.20 inches. Text smaller than that needs to be enlarged, or the design simplified, before it will stitch cleanly. Very fine lines, tight gradients, and small internal detail have the same limit. We review your artwork, tell you what we would change, and get your approval before anything runs — this is a normal part of the process, not a problem with your logo.
4
Thread colors are matched as closely as possible
Thread comes in fixed colors, so we match to the closest practical thread rather than mixing to a formula. If you have PMS or Pantone references for your brand colors, send them — it makes the match noticeably better. We will tell you honestly where a color is close rather than exact.
2
Shirts and hats may need separate setups for the same logo.
This one surprises people, so we would rather say it up front than after you have been invoiced. A polo is a flat surface. A hat is not — it is curved, and on structured caps the design is stitched from the centre outward against a seam. The same logo often has to be set up a second time to run correctly on headwear. If your order includes both, tell us early and we will quote it that way from the start.
Personalization

Employee names, titles, and departments.

Individual garments can carry different names, so one order can produce twenty shirts with twenty different employees on them. Names, job titles, and department or division text are all possible, usually opposite the logo on the right chest.

Personalization is a per-garment add-on rather than something included in the base embroidery, because each name is set up and stitched individually. For a company outfitting a whole crew that is worth knowing at the quoting stage rather than at the end, so send us a name list with your enquiry and we will price the order as it will actually run. If names change often, plan a placement that still looks right on the garments where you skip them.

Request an embroidery quote Call (530) 895-8448
What affects the price

Embroidery is quoted, not priced from a table.

There is no single figure we could publish that would be right for more than a handful of orders. These are the things that actually move the number, so you can see where your budget goes and where it can be adjusted.

The garment you choose
Usually the largest single factor. A value polo and a performance polo are different garments at different costs before anything is stitched on them.
Quantity
Quantity discounts apply. Counting the whole team once generally costs less than ordering twice in the same year.
Stitch count and design complexity
Stitch count is simply how much thread the design takes. A dense, detailed logo takes longer to run than a simple one, and that time is what you are paying for.
Number of locations
A left chest logo alone costs less than a logo plus a sleeve mark plus an upper back design. Each location is a separate run on the garment.
Personalization
Individual names, titles, or departments are added per garment, so they scale with the number of pieces that carry them.
Artwork and setup
A one-time cost for a new logo, quoted with the order rather than added afterward. Reorders of the same logo on the same product family do not repeat it.

One thing worth stating plainly, because buyers ask: a recognized-label garment costs more because the garment costs more. We do not charge a higher embroidery rate for stitching a Nike, OGIO, or Cutter & Buck polo than for stitching a value polo with the same design. The stitching is the same work either way.

Approval and production

What happens once you approve the order.

✓
You approve a proof first
On new orders we send a digital proof showing the logo, its placement, and its size on the garment, and we wait for your approval before production starts. For larger runs or designs with fine detail, we may also produce a stitched sample before committing the full order — we will tell you if we think a job warrants one.
✓
Production takes 10–14 days
That clock starts at proof approval, not at your first email. Rush service is available with pre-approval, though we will not promise every rush request — call and we will tell you honestly whether your date is achievable.
✓
Reorders match what you approved
Your setup file stays with us, so the next order matches the last one rather than being rebuilt from scratch. Add a new hire in November and their shirt matches the ones the crew received in March. A changed logo, or moving the same logo from shirts to hats, gets a fresh proof.
✓
Pickup or shipping
Collect from our Chico shop during business hours, or we ship nationwide. Multi-site companies often have one order split and sent to each location.
Your own garments

Sending us apparel you already own.

We accept customer-supplied garments for embroidery with pre-approval. The important word is pre — talk to us before you buy or ship anything.

Not every garment runs well on embroidery equipment. Construction, fabric, linings, and how a piece is assembled all affect whether a logo can be stitched cleanly and where it can sit. Checking first takes one phone call. Finding out afterward means you are holding apparel we cannot decorate, and unlike a garment we supply, we cannot replace something you bought elsewhere. Send us the style number or a photo and we will confirm before you commit.

Why work with us

Built for companies that reorder.

We have been decorating apparel and identification for businesses since 1982, and our embroidery is produced in-house at our Chico shop. The reasons companies stay with us have less to do with any single order than with what happens on the fourth one.

✓
Your files stay with us
Setup happens once. Every order after that references the same file, so your logo does not drift over the years as staff and suppliers change.
✓
Commercial capacity, sensible minimum
24 pieces is the minimum and there is no maximum. Small enough for one department, large enough for a company-wide roll-out.
✓
We help you choose the garment
Value polos, performance polos, work shirts, corporate apparel, jackets, hats. Tell us the job and the budget and we will bring options rather than a catalog.
✓
A real person answers
Call during business hours and you reach someone in Chico who can talk through garments, placement, and timing. We respond to quote requests within 4 business hours.
✓
Local and nationwide
We serve Chico and Northern California businesses directly, and ship company apparel across the country.
Frequently asked

Ordering embroidered company apparel.

What is the minimum embroidery order?
24 pieces, with no maximum. That minimum applies to embroidery the same way it applies to the rest of our apparel work. If you are short of 24 on shirts, hats are an easy way to make up the count and they are frequently ordered alongside.
How long does embroidery take?
Standard production is 10–14 days after proof approval. The time before that — quoting, artwork review, and setup — depends on how quickly artwork and approvals come back. Rush service is available with pre-approval, but we will not promise every rush request. Call and we will tell you honestly whether the date works.
What artwork do you need for embroidery?
Vector artwork is preferred: PDF, AI, EPS, SVG, or CorelDRAW. If you do not have it, send what you have and we will tell you what is usable. Artwork that needs cleanup or a rebuild starts at $50, quoted per order before any work begins.
How small can lettering be?
0.20 inches is our minimum. Below that, letters begin to close up in thread and stop being readable. If your logo includes text smaller than that — a tagline, a licence number, a web address — it usually needs to be enlarged or simplified. We will show you what we recommend and get your approval before production.
Can you match our exact brand colors?
We match to the closest practical thread color. Thread is manufactured in fixed colors rather than mixed to a formula, so an exact match to a printed brand color is not something we will promise. Send your PMS or Pantone references with your artwork and the match will be as close as the thread range allows, and we will tell you where it is close rather than exact.
Can every employee have their name on their shirt?
Yes. Individual garments can carry different names, titles, or departments, most often on the right chest opposite the logo. Personalization is a per-garment add-on, so send a name list with your enquiry and we will quote the order the way it will actually run.
We ordered shirts last year. Can we reorder and have them match?
Yes, that is what the retained setup file is for. Reorders reference the same file rather than being rebuilt, so new pieces match the ones already in circulation. If you are moving the same logo onto a different product family — shirts to hats, for instance — that can need its own setup, and we will tell you when quoting.
Why might hats need a separate setup from shirts?
Because the surfaces are different. A polo is flat; a cap is curved, and on structured styles the design runs outward from the centre against a seam. A file built for flat apparel often will not run correctly on headwear without being set up again. It is a genuine production difference rather than an added charge for its own sake, and we would rather explain it before you order than after.
Can we send you garments we already bought?
With pre-approval, yes — contact us before you buy or ship. Fabric, construction, and linings all affect whether a garment can be embroidered cleanly, and if apparel you purchased elsewhere turns out to be unsuitable we cannot replace it. Send a style number or a photo and we will confirm first.
Should we choose embroidery or screen printing?
Embroidery suits polos, work shirts, button-downs, jackets, vests, and hats, and it is the usual choice for a left chest logo on apparel that gets worn hard and washed often. Large graphic designs across the front or back of t-shirts and hoodies are generally better suited to screen printing. Plenty of companies order both.
What do you need to quote our order?
The garment or a style you have in mind, roughly how many pieces with a size breakdown if you have one, where you want the logo, whether you want employee names, and your artwork. If you are missing some of that, send what you have and we will ask about the rest. We respond within 4 business hours during our Monday–Friday 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM PT hours.

Ready to get your logo stitched?

Send your artwork, the garments you have in mind, and a rough headcount. We will come back with options and pricing, and a proof for your approval before anything runs. We respond within 4 business hours.

Request an embroidery quote Call (530) 895-8448