What are bandpatches?
Band patches are essentially not much more than a piece of cloth depicting an image or a logo of a band. But in reality they are so much more. There are many different reasons why you might want to buy band patches. They could be a memento of an amazing show you went to, a cool collectors item, an accessible way to show support to a band you like, a way to display all of your favourite bands right by sewing them on your battlejacket, and in some cases a way to make some money on the side by having a side hustle selling hard to get patches.
What types of band patches are there?
There are 5 main ways to produce patches:
- Woven band patches
- Embroidered band patches
- Screen printed band patches
- Sublimation band patches
- Hand painted band patches
But there is also a lot of difference in the shapes patches can come in:
- Rectangular band patches
- Shaped/cutout band patches
- Circular band patches
- Triangular band patches
And don’t forget about the different sizes that are available for patches:
- Mini band patches
- Regular band patches
- Stripe band patches
- Backstripe bandpatches
- Backpatch band patches
Almost all of these can be combined together to get the end product that you love the most. The most common shapes are rectangular and shaped, the main production methods are woven and embroidered, and the most common sizes are regular- and backpatches.
All of these differences is one of the things that make band patches such an amazing product group. The variety, the creativity that you can have with them, the accessability, and the (generally) low prices at which you can buy them. All of that really gives you the opportunity to create something that is uniquely and truly you. While it’s not unheard of to find yourself wearing the same band shirt or band hoodie as someone else, finding someone with the same battlejacket as you… I truly think that is impossible!
Where to buy band patches?
Ofcourse I’ll be saying that you should buy hem at Savage Looks! But there are always patches that we are not able to sell, for whatever reason. In that case I’d always recommend checking with the artist themselves. They often have different items for sale than retailers can buy, or will have stock left that is sold out everywhere else. Besides that, you will be supporting them in a really big way. Simply because they will profit the most off of it when people buy from them directly, and, especially for smaller artists, it just feels really great to see how good sales are doing. It’s just a very validating feeling.
If there’s a specific patch that you are looking for, but can’t find it, please let us know. If we actually know where to get it from, there won’t be any gatekeeping there. And if we don’t we’ll evaluate whether or not it’s something worth getting for us. If we are enthousiastic about the band that you’re asking about, we’ll start looking for it, and most of the time we will have found a supplier within a few weeks.
How do I secure the band patches?
Securing patches on your battlejacket (or wherever you want to put them) is actually pretty straight forward. We will always recommend sewing them on, whether you sew the patches on by hand or by machine, that doesn’t really matter. Sewing them on with a machine is faster, but is harder to see when you’re making a mistake. And since the stitches tend to be closer together, it can be harder to fix mistakes. Sewing patches on by hand is more time consuming, but does give you more freedom for difficult placements, like on top of a pocket. Besides that, there are people who consider sewing them on by hand to be more true.
Ofcourse you can always ask your grandma (or anyone else you know who is handy when it comes to sewing
The way the patches are sewn on, will be a big part of the overall look. Using finer thread (or dental floss) will make sure that the stitches aren’t very visible, and can give a fairly clean look pretty easily. But by using a thicker thread and wider stitches will ensure that those are visible. And by using the same colour thread on your battle jacket can give a bold and cohesive look throughout by tying everything together with that single colour. This can be especially powerfull when going for a monocolour battle jacket.
Don’t feel like sewing patches on, don’t know anyone who would do it for you, or just simply don’t like the way it looks? You can always opt for a different way of securing them by using an item of choice to secure them on a select few places. Things like safety pins and studs are very usefull for this technique.
The one thing we don’t recommend at all, is using the iron on backing some patches have. Not only has this way of securing your band patches to be less reliable, but if you ever want to change the layout of your battle jacket, it’ll be a pain in the ass! You’ll have to deal with glue residue, and if you did manage to secure it properly, it can be extremely difficult to release the patch without causing damage to the patch or your battle jacket.