As we all know, Hat embroidery is to make a decorative effect when using different threads, colors and patterns on hats. Hat embroidery makes hats look more personalized and artistic, and is popular among consumers. Even if you are a beginner in embroidery, I believe you have heard about hat embroidery for a long time. Regarding the specific steps of hat embroidery business and embroidery, many embroidery enthusiasts have some questions and want to know more about it. In this blog, we will provide some Hat Embroidery Tips to help you get started with hat Embroidery right away.

1. Why a Hat Embroidery Business is Worthwhile?

First of all, a hat embroidery business possesses the same characteristics as any other embroidery business, that is, it is more flexible and there is no restriction on the office location. You can do embroidery in your bedroom, warehouse, studio, and any other place as long as you can fit your embroidery machine, and choose the selling mode according to your actual situation. Meanwhile, the investment cost is also relatively low and you can choose the business scale based on your capital status.

But the hat embroidery business has its own unique features, which is why we recommend you to start a hat embroidery business.

#1 Fashion

Hat embroidery is a very popular personalization service. As a part of fashion accessories, hats have the function of adding personality and highlight to the overall look. Different styles of hats, such as baseball caps, peaked caps, berets, etc., are able to show different fashion styles. The choice of hats can be based on the season, but also according to the trend and clothing style to match, making the overall look more colorful. Embroidered hats add a unique sense of fashion and personalized features, making them even more appealing to the eye. Although garment embroidery can also add decoration to garments, it may not be as prominent as hat embroidery in terms of product features in comparison.

#2 High market demand

Individuals, groups, and companies all have the demand for custom specialty embroidered hats, so starting a hat embroidery business can satisfy the desires of different people. Individuals may customize embroidered hats as gifts or decorations, groups may customize embroidered hats for group logos or event commemorations, and companies may order embroidered hats as part of employee uniforms. Overall, any person or organization in need of custom personalized hats or hat decorations is likely to be the subject of a hat embroidery order, which you can get a large number of orders from.

#3 Large profit margins

Compared with flat embroidery, hat embroidery needs to think about the curved surface characteristics of hats, such as the design of the brim and body. You need to create in a limited space, while considering the overall effect of the pattern and the hat fabric, which requires you to have a higher embroidery level.

This makes hat embroidery tend to be a high-end personalization service. While clothing embroidery may be sold through larger-scale production and wholesale channels, hat embroidery may be sold more through customization, retail, and online sales. Personalization usually gives a higher added value to the product and increases the selling price of the hat to some extent, creating higher profits.

In addition, you can also combine it with other businesses if you don't want to have just a single hat embroidery business. Generally, a competent hat embroidery machine is also a good apparel embroidery machine. If you have additional needs, you can also purchase devices for sock embroidery and shoe embroidery. You can expand your business, by combining it with clothes, gifts, event planning, and more. Some of the customers will overlap, so you can meet the multifaceted needs of your customers while increasing your income, bringing a better experience to your regular customers, and on the other hand, expanding to a larger market and developing new customers.

Overall, the hat embroidery business has a good market prospect and a good space for development, as well as being relatively flexible, making it a worthwhile business.

2. How to start a hat embroidery business?

Starting a business isn't easy, there are many tedious things you need to pay attention to. For hat embroidery business, you need to note the following points in particular:

#1 Decide on the workplace and business model

If you are only opening an online store, there is no particular requirement for the size of your workplace. What you need to pay attention to is learning to open a store to sell on third-party e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and so on. These platforms offer a sophisticated trading environment and a large user base.

However, if you are going to sell offline, it is recommended that you choose an empty place. This is conducive for you to display the embroidered hats as well as the different colors and styles of hat blanks and embroidery threads to your customers, which can give them a more intuitive feeling and increase their purchasing desire. Many shopping malls are located in the hat store, learn from them and make a perfect display!

#2 Determine your hat embroidery product positioning

If you have a certain level of design and embroidery experience (or have a familiar embroidery operator), you can devote yourself to high-end customized, selling embroidered hats and do your hat brand. If not, you can take orders mainly, according to the customer's needs to produce. Hat embroidery is not simple, first do the ability to do things, and then seek a breakthrough, so that you can get customers smoothly and profit quickly.

#3 Find suitable suppliers

People don't like to wait too long. Customers usually only have 2-3 days of patience if the order quantity and delivery date aren't negotiated in advance. So you need a stable and fast supply source.

Most caps blank cost about 3-7$ and many customers prefer Richardson caps due to their reliable quality and comfort. If you want to buy the right hat blank, we recommend you to go to SSactivewear, SLC activewear, San Mar, Carolina Made, Katisport Cap, and other websites to purchase.

#4 Set appropriate fees

Priced according to your embroidery level, hat embroidery usually charges between 1-1.25$ per thousand stitches. You can also charge in steps of embroidery stitches. You can also charge an additional 30%-50% premium material fee if the customer doesn't bring their hats -- after all, shopping for hats has taken your energy, hasn't it?

Of course, this isn't a standard answer. In fact, you need to consider your site rental costs, design complexity, material costs, and so on. Also, if the customer buy in large quantities, you can give a discount price. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of various pricing methods for embroidery works, you can browse through our article：How to price your embroidery orders?

#5 Find a steady stream of customers

Giving away free embroidery gifts to distribute around the neighborhood, such as cap-shaped embroidered decorations, is a good way to advertise. By doing this in the early stages of your business, you can quickly tell people in the neighborhood, "Here's a new hat embroidery store that does custom embroidery, contact us to order."

You can also connect with local clubs, schools, sports teams, etc. They are the main bulk of orders and often require group purchases and are relatively easy to have access to. You can also cooperate with other hat merchants, gift stores, etc. to promote your embroidery services.

Also, social media has a huge amount of flow, make good use of them! You can showcase your hat designs in Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to entice others to order.

#6 Catch up on fashion trends

Keeping up with fashion trends is a rule of thumb that you will never go wrong. People's favorite hat styles vary greatly from season to season, and you need to adjust your hat styles at the right time. For example, in spring and fall, people like to use beret, bucket hat; hot summer, will be more preferred to sunhat, baseball cap, peaked cap and other styles, winter will be more tend to choose warm knitted cap.

In addition, people have different preferences for embroidery styles at different times. Whether people prefer minimalist designs or complex patterns, flora and fauna or cartoons at a certain time of the year, you need to keep up with the fashion trends and draw conclusions in order to make adjustments accordingly.

#7 Ensure product quality and good customer service

Superior quality of hat embroidery and good customer reputation are the fundamentals of a hat embroidery business. Hat embroidery isn't a simple job, and you or your staff need to take the time to learn it. Crooked stitches won't win customers' hearts. Focus on customer needs and feedback to improve store reputation and customer loyalty.

3. What is the difference between normal hat embroidery and 3D puff embroidery?

Ordinary hat embroidery refers to the flat embroidery on the hat, can be pattern, text or pattern and text combination embroidered on the hat, to increase the beauty of the hat personalized. 3D puff embroidery is a special kind of hat embroidery, through the use of high-density and high elasticity of the embroidery thread, 3D foam and other materials, embroidery on the surface of the hat three-dimensional effect of the pattern. Compared with traditional hat embroidery, 3D puff embroidery pays more attention to the three-dimensional and layered sense of expression, and will have more visual impact.

Ordinary hat embroidery can be done using conventional hat embroidery devices (hat holders, hat frames, hat drivers). 3D puff embroidery may require the use of more specialized embroidery frames, such as Bucking Frame, High Profile Frame, Multi-Level Frame, etc., to meet the requirements of three-dimensional embroidery.

In addition, 3D puff embroidery is technically more difficult and the process is more complicated compared to ordinary hat embroidery. When designing patterns, it is also necessary to consider the three-dimensional effect, which is usually more complicated and delicate. While the design pattern of ordinary hat embroidery is relatively simple, focusing on the expression of lines and colors.

4. What hats are suitable for embroidery?

A suitable hat is a prerequisite for hat embroidery. Proper hats for embroidery usually have the following characteristics:

#1 Soft fabrics

The more desirable materials for hats are cotton and linen, which are relatively soft, have a rough texture, are easy to penetrate stitches, and better keep the stability and durability of the embroidery. In contrast, fabrics such as polyester and nylon are less suitable for embroidery due to their smoothness and high density.

#2 Simple structure

It is usually best for embroidered hats to have simple structures without too many complex decorative elements. For example, flat-top cap, peaked cap and so on. Overly complex structures will make embroidery more difficult and may affect the embroidery effects.

#3 Flat embroidery area

A flat embroidered area on the hat will be more suitable for embroidery. The brim and crown are common embroidery areas. For some areas with significant undulations or folds, embroidery may be limited.

Generally speaking, baseball caps, peaked caps, sun caps made of cotton and linen, berets, and trucker caps are all excellent choices.

In contrast, some hats are less suitable for embroidery because of the material and style. For example:

-Straw Hats: straw hats are mostly compiled from natural grass and hemp materials, with good ventilation. However, because of the flimsy material, it is easy to be deformed and broken, so it is unsuitable for embroidery.

-Felt Hats and Leather Hats: Felt is a very dense material that is difficult for embroidery needles to penetrate and hard to embroider due to its hard texture. The same applies to leather hats.

-Ski Hats: Ski hats are a type of hat used for outdoor winter sports or to keep warm, usually made of windproof, warm materials (such as wool, fleece, etc.) The materials are thicker and softer, and embroidery may have difficulty penetrating and securing onto these materials.

-Sports Hats: Sports hats are usually made of breathable, lightweight materials (such as nylon, polyester), which are smooth and dense, and are not ideal for embroidery. And their surfaces are often covered with mesh, which makes embroidery prone to breakage. Additionally, since sports hats need to be ventilated and breathable, embroidery may hinder their effects.

-Hats with narrow brims or complex structures: Hats with narrow brims or complex structures may limit the space and manner of embroidery, making it difficult.

It is important to note that while these hats may not suit hat embroidery well, there are still special embroidery techniques (such as labeling and stamping) that can decorate these hats.

5. What is a hat embroidery device?

Hat embroidery requires tools that are different to others, called the hat embroidery device. It usually consists of three parts: the cap station, the cap hoop, and the cap driver. Let's have a look what they look like and function as!

Cap Station: A cap station is used as a tool for hooping a hat, and needs to be secured in a place like a table, when in use. It has a curved iron piece similar to the brim, which acts as a filler, making the hat three-dimensional from loose. In conjunction with the hat hoop, it holds the hat in place and keeps it flat.

Cap Hoop: A cap hoop is a specially designed clamp that holds a hat in place and keeps it steady. It usually has an adjustable ring of tape measure-like pressure strips that are used to hold hats of varying thicknesses and ensure that the surface of the hat remains flat during the embroidery process. It works in conjunction with the cap station to hold the cap in place, and then attaches to the cap driver for embroidery.

Cap Driver: The cap driver consists of a long guide bar and a circular drive. The long guide bar is used to install on the shuttle bed, driving the cap hoop and the cap to move left and right. The cap is a curved shape, so it needs to be rotated to the desired position and direction of the embroidery with the help of the circular drive. The circular drive is equipped with a snap and two left-right symmetrical protrusions that are used to work with the hat hoop to secure the hat to the embroidery machine.

All the three tools cooperate with each other, and form a complete system of hoop hats and embroidered hats together.

6. How to do hat embroidery?

Now comes the part you are most concerned about! Let's learn how to do hat embroidery next.

#1 Adjust Parameters

The tension for hat embroidery is different from daily embroidery, and is usually around 250 gf. Also, when doing hat embroidery, we do not recommend that you set the running speed too fast in order to maintain embroidery stability. Generally, keeping the speed at 600 stitches per minute is appropriate. Choose an embroidery design that is suitable for the hat, either text, a pattern or a combination. Make sure the size and proportions of the design fit the embroidery area on the hat.

Then, according to the embroidery position, select the corresponding Cap1 or Cap2 embroidery frame in the list. Cap1 is used to embroider the front half area of the hat, and Cap2 is used to embroider the side and back area of the hat, and other arbitrary positions. Only after selecting the cap frame can you install the cap driver.

#2 Secure the cap

Install the cap hoop into the cap station and pull off the cap band crimp. Snap the cut stabilizer into the cap station, then open the cap sweatband and place the cap sweatband under the retaining block, push the cap horizontally into the cap station, place it in the center and secure.

Place the bottom of the hat over the two posts of the cap hoop and pull the hat down to level it. Secure both sides of the hat to the cap hoop with clips, making sure that the surface of the hat is flat, neat and free of wrinkles to avoid problems that could lead to thread breaking and needle snapping during the embroidery process.

TIPS: For soft hats, stabilizers should be added to stabilize the hat and achieve a good embroidery effect.

#3 Instal the cap driver

Holding the cap driver and guide strip with both hands, push the cap driver horizontally into the shuttle bed. Using a 3mm Allen wrench, loosen the two screws on the rail. Align the right screw on the cap driver guide bar with the 5th slot on the right side of the rail and push the guide bar horizontally into the rail.

#4 Instal the cap to the cap driver

Rotate the cap to the right to find the proper angle for installation. Align the slots on the cap hoop with the tabs on the cap driver, push in and when you hear a click, the installation is complete.

#5 Embroidery

Click on "EMB" to enter embroidery mode. The embroidery process needs to be monitored in real time to detect problems and make adjustments.

#6 Tidy up the finished product

After the embroidery is finished, remove the hat and perform post-processing work as needed, such as trimming threads and cleaning the hat. This will make the embroidery perfect.

That's all we have for today's blog. Hope it helps you to try hat embroidery. Click on our Youtube channel to learn more about hat embroidery, and welcome to our Facebook group to share your hat embroidery creations.