Why does it take so long to ship blank patches?
While we strive to ship blank patches in 2-3 business days, it has been taking up to 5 and even occasionally a bit longer, so be sure to plan accordingly.
So why does it take so long? Don't we just go pull them off a shelf and ship them? Why wouldn't we do that instead of making them up to order? What's the difference between "standard" and "custom" blank patches then, if they are all made up as ordered?
On paper, we love the idea of being able to stock the blanks and pull them from the shelf. But in reality, it just doesn't work that way. If we only stocked the blank sizes and colors we have in the database, that would amount to about 518,700 different blank patches to stock, times whatever quantity of each we chose to keep on hand - and that number is too big to think about.
Why not just stock some sizes and colors then? Well, one thing we've learned is that someone will always order whatever it is that you don't have made up, and what you do have made up may sit there for a while. We do make every effort to do this with some common sizes and colors, but even that is difficult depending on customer requirements.
The main difference between "standard" and "custom" blank patches is that the fabric is white for the "standard" ones, since white is the most common color for the background - so we normally have a lot of white blank patch material made up at any given time. Otherwise, we'd have to make up white material too...
Yes, we make up our own blank patch material. We take big 62" wide rolls of fabric and cut them up into smaller width rolls on a bologna slitter (no, really, that's what it's called - Google it). Then we combine the fabric and some secret materials (not that secret, but it sounds cool, right?) together in layers by running them all through a really large laminating machine that heats and squeezes everything together (more secret settings and all that). Now we have the basic material the emblems are made from.
Next, someone cuts sheets of the laminated fabric and stacks them up on a hydraulic press, sometimes called a clicker press. An operator takes a steel die the shape and size of the patch and places it on top of the stack of fabric and hits a button (after removing their hands!) The press puts about 20 tons of force on the die, which punches out the "die-cuts".
Then the die-cuts are "merrowed" on a special sewing machine, called, you guessed it, a "merrow" machine, made by the Merrow Machine Company. If you have never seen someone use one of these, it can be a little frightening to watch.
Finally, after all that, we have some people sitting clipping the ends, inspecting, counting, and packaging them up. Whew. NOW we can ship them to you, and at this point, it's really up to the carrier and method you chose when you placed your order as to how long it takes to receive them.
So, be sure to allow plenty of time when you place an order for our blank patches. If you have special circumstances and requirements, be sure to let us know in advance, and we'll do what we can - but it still isn't going to be quite as fast as just pulling something from a shelf and shipping it (unless of course we actually can pull it from a shelf and ship it).
signed, The EnMart Team
