Most custom cap suppliers sell you decoration, not a cap. You pick a crown from a catalogue, they stitch your logo into it, and the shape on your customer’s head is the same shape every other brand ordered that month. That is a real service, and for a one-off run of staff caps it is the right one.
This page is for the other job: a cap that is built. Panel count, crown height, whether the front is stiffened, how the brim curves, what holds it on the head, what the sweatband is made of and where the branding sits are all decisions you make, not defaults you inherit. Nothing is pulled off a shelf and decorated.
Headwear is also not one product. A trucker, a 5-panel, a dad cap, a bucket hat, a beanie and a balaclava are six different builds, and a beanie is knitted rather than cut. We make all of them, and they can run in the same drop.
You do not need a tech pack to start. A logo file and a photo of a cap you like is enough. Pattern and fit development happen in house from there.
Headwear production at a glance
Everything below is standing policy, not an estimate. Where a figure is a range, the range is real and depends on your spec.
Send a logo, a moodboard or a photo of a cap you already own. All three work.
A trucker, a 5-panel and a beanie share almost nothing except the head they sit on. Before we talk cloth, it is worth settling which build you are actually asking for, because the build decides everything after it.
Panel count is the shorthand people use, but the real difference is whether the crown is stiffened, how tall it stands, and what holds it on the head.
| Style | How it is built | Usual closure | What it is good at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6-panel baseball | Six crown panels stitched in pairs, so there is a centre seam running front to back and a button at the apex. Front panels are usually fused or backed with buckram. | Snapback, strapback or fitted | The default brand cap. Structured, tall front, holds a logo upright. |
| 5-panel camp cap | One unbroken front panel with two sides and two rear panels. Lower crown, flat brim, often a lighter shell fabric. | Buckle, strapback or elastic | A single flat front with no centre seam through the middle of your artwork. |
| Dad cap | Six panels again, but soft: no buckram, no fusing. The crown collapses forward and sits low on the head. | Strapback with a metal tri-glide or clip | Washed, worn-in looks and small front embroidery. |
| Trucker | Structured foam or twill front panels with knitted mesh across the rear. Taller crown, pronounced front. | Plastic snapback | Large front decoration and hot-weather ventilation. |
| Bucket hat | A crown, a side wall and a downturned brim, cut in two or four sections rather than panels. Reversible builds run two shells back to back. | None, or a chin cord | All-over prints, patch work and a soft, unstructured silhouette. |
| Beanie | Knitted to shape rather than cut from cloth. Gauge, rib depth and cuff are set on the machine, not on a pattern table. | None. Fit comes from the rib | Winter drops, knit-in logos, cuffed or cuffless shapes. |
| Balaclava | A knitted or cut-and-sewn hood with a face aperture. The opening shape is the design: full face, open oval, eyes only or a tube that pulls down. | None, or a rear drawcord | Statement winter pieces and coverage without a separate hat and neck warmer. |
You can order more than one build in the same production run. The MOQ is 50 pieces, and specific designs, colours and fabrics can affect it, so tell us the split you want and we will confirm the minimum for yours.
Crown fabric does two jobs at once. It sets the look, and it decides how a needle behaves when it goes through it. A dense stitch count on a light shell will pucker; the same design on heavy twill sits flat.
| Fabric | Where it is used | How it takes decoration |
|---|---|---|
| Cotton twill | The standard crown cloth for 6-panels, 5-panels and trucker fronts. Mid to heavy weights hold a structured crown; lighter weights soften it. | Takes flat embroidery cleanly and supports 3D puff without a fight. The safest starting point. |
| Washed or brushed cotton | Dad caps and unstructured 5-panels. Garment washing knocks the finish back and gives a worn-in hand. | Fine for small to mid embroidery. Very dense fills can pull a soft, unfused panel out of shape. |
| Corduroy | Camp caps and winter 6-panels. Wale size changes the whole character of the cap. | Stitches sink between the wales, so type needs weight. A patch reads more cleanly than fine embroidery. |
| Ripstop and technical shell | Light 5-panels and running-style caps. Packable, quick drying, often with a soft brim. | Needs backing under any stitch. Woven and rubber patches usually beat dense embroidery here. |
| Wool-blend melton | Winter camp caps and earflap builds. Heavier hand, matte surface. | Excellent for embroidery and for felt or chenille lettering at scale. |
| Polyester mesh | The rear of a trucker. Open knit, springs back, breathes. | Not a decoration surface. Keep artwork on the solid front panels. |
| Acrylic, wool or merino knit | Beanies and knitted balaclavas. Acrylic holds colour and shape; merino is finer and warmer for its weight. | Knit-in jacquard, a folded woven label on the cuff, or embroidery worked over a backing so the knit does not distort. |
If you already own a cap whose crown shape and hand you like, send it. Matching an existing cap is faster and more accurate than describing one, and you will feel the result on your sample before bulk starts.
This is where headwear stops behaving like clothing. A cap gives you roughly six placements, each one small, curved and interrupted by a seam or a closure. What you can do is decided by where it goes, not by what looks best in a flat mockup.
| Method | How it reads | Where it belongs | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat embroidery | Stitched directly into the panel, low profile, sharp edges. | Front centre, side hit, rear, sweatband edge. | The workhorse. Small type needs to be sized up: below roughly a quarter inch, letterforms start closing up in thread. |
| 3D puff embroidery | Foam is laid under the stitch and trimmed away, so the design stands proud of the crown. | Front centre on a structured cap, and almost nowhere else. | Wants bold, closed letterforms and even stroke widths. Thin serifs, fine detail and sharp inside corners do not survive it. It also needs a fused front panel to push against. |
| Woven patch | A flat woven badge, merrowed or laser-cut edge, applied to the panel. | Front centre, including across a 6-panel centre seam. | The way to carry fine detail, small type and gradients that embroidery cannot hold. It also bridges a seam that would otherwise split your logo. |
| Leather or PU patch | Debossed or laser-etched, matte or waxed, stitched on. | Front centre, usually on twill or corduroy. | Reads premium and ages. Debossing is tonal, so contrast comes from the leather colour rather than the mark. |
| Rubber or PVC patch | Moulded, glossy or matte, raised edges, weatherproof. | Front centre on technical shells and ripstop. | The right answer when the shell is too light to stitch into heavily. |
| Sublimation | Dye bonded into the fibre with no hand feel. | Full panels, bucket hats and polyester crowns. | Needs a polyester-rich fabric and light grounds, and it cannot print white. It will not work on a cotton twill crown. |
| Screen print | Flat opaque ink on the surface. | Bucket hats and flat brim undersides. | Wants an unbroken flat area, so it is awkward on a curved, seamed crown and easy on a bucket brim. |
| Knit-in jacquard | The logo is knitted into the beanie itself rather than added afterwards. | Beanie body or cuff. | Two-colour graphic work built at the knitting stage. Set at the start of production, not bolted on later. |
| Labels and trims | Woven cuff labels, sweatband labels, printed under-brim, branded closure hardware. | Cuff, sweatband, brim underside, rear strap. | On a plain cap these quiet marks are the branding. They draw less attention than a front logo, and buyers still notice them. |
Before any embroidery is run, your artwork is digitised: converted into a stitch file with stitch direction, density, underlay and pull compensation set for the fabric it is going into. That is a production step we do in house, and it is the reason the same logo needs different treatment on melton, on ripstop and on a knitted cuff.
Custom streetwear made for Che Lingo
We manufacture for Che Lingo, Blanco, Grace Ajilore and King Promise, and our work has appeared in NME, Teen Vogue, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards and Retail Jeweller.
Headwear is made to the same standard as the clothing: your panel pattern, your crown, your closure, your labels, checked at four stages before it ships. Send your logo and the styles you want and we will quote it.
Send whatever exists: a sketch, a logo file, a reference photo, or a cap you already own whose crown shape and fit you want to match. We will ask which builds you want, how the front should be decorated, and whether the rear needs to be adjustable, then send a tailored quote. If your design is not finished, our team provides full design support.
We develop the panel pattern: crown height, panel count, seam positions, brim template and curve, sweatband depth and closure placement. Fitted styles are graded across your size range; adjustable styles are set up around the closure you chose. Knitted pieces skip the pattern table and are specced by gauge, rib depth and cuff instead.
Crown fabric, buckram or fusing, sweatband, taping, eyelets, closure hardware and labels are all sourced for your order. Pantone colour matching and custom-dyed fabrics are available. Your artwork is then digitised into a stitch file, with density, underlay and puff height set for the exact fabric it is going into.
You get the cap in your hands before bulk. Put it on. Check how the front logo sits once the crown is on a head rather than flat on a table, check the brim curve, work the closure, and look at the inside of the sweatband. A free sample of each design is included with every committed bulk order; a standalone sample without a bulk commitment is charged. One sample revision round is free, further revisions are chargeable, and changes to your quote are always free.
Every piece in the run is measured against the cap you signed off. Panels are cut and blocked, crowns closed, brims built, sweatbands set and decoration applied at our own dedicated overseas facility, with your labels and trims to spec.
Every order passes fabric inspection, in-process checks, post-production inspection and a final pre-shipment review. On headwear that includes checking stitch registration on the front panel, brim shape consistency and that closures work on every piece. Your order then ships worldwide, with the UK as our priority market.
As seen in
As seen on
Blanco
Che Lingo
King Promise
Grace AjiloreSend your logo and a photo of a cap you like. We will come back with a tailored quote, make your sample first, and start bulk production only once you approve it.
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