Category: Embroidery

The -Brrr Months Are Here: Why Embroidered Jackets Make Great Team Gear
The “-ber” months are here, and that usually means cooler mornings, layered clothing, and the return of jackets around the office, jobsite, and everywhere in between.

It is also a great time to think about branded outerwear.

Custom embroidered jackets are one of the most useful pieces of company apparel because they combine function with a polished, professional look. They also make great employee gifts, team apparel, and year-end recognition pieces.

Why Embroidery Works So Well on Outerwear

Embroidery gives jackets a clean, professional finish that holds up well over time.

It works especially well for company logos, employee names, departments, and team branding. Compared with a larger printed graphic, embroidery can give outerwear a more refined look that works just as well in an office as it does at an event or on a jobsite. And because jackets tend to be worn for several seasons, your logo gets a lot of visibility. Here are some embroidery tips.

There Is a Jacket for Every Kind of Team

“Company jacket” can mean a lot of different things depending on how and where your employees work.

Soft Shell Jackets

Soft shells are a great option for office staff, sales teams, managers, and employees who move between indoor and outdoor environments. They are lightweight, polished, and easy to layer.

Fleece

Fleece jackets and quarter-zips are comfortable, versatile, and easy to wear. They work well for offices, schools, healthcare teams, and organizations looking for something warm without being too heavy.

Insulated and Puffer Jackets

For employees who spend more time outdoors, insulated jackets and puffers provide more warmth while still offering a professional branded look.

Work Jackets

For field crews, construction teams, service companies, and other hands-on jobs, durable work jackets can provide both warmth and a consistent company appearance.

Vests

Sometimes you want warmth without a full jacket. Embroidered vests are a good option for layering and can work especially well for sales teams, event staff, and employees who are frequently on the move.

A Company Gift People Will Actually Use

The end of the year is also approaching, which means many businesses are starting to think about employee appreciation and holiday gifts.

A quality jacket can be a great alternative to another mug, pen, or desk item.

It is useful, it feels substantial, and employees can wear it both at work and outside of work.

Adding an embroidered company logo creates a gift that also helps strengthen team identity without feeling overly promotional.

You can also personalize jackets with employee names, departments, or other details to make the gift feel more individual.

Choosing the Right Outerwear

Before selecting a jacket, think about how your team will actually use it.

Ask yourself:
- Will employees mostly wear it indoors or outdoors?
- Do they need lightweight layering or serious warmth?
- Does the jacket need to look professional in front of customers?
- Will employees be working physically while wearing it?
- Do you want something employees can wear outside of work?
- What budget makes sense for the size of your team?
The best jacket is not necessarily the most expensive one. It is the one that fits how your employees work and what they will actually wear.

Come See and Feel the Options

Outerwear is one of those products that can be difficult to choose from a picture alone.

Fabric weight, lining, stretch, fit, and overall feel can vary significantly from one jacket to another.

Black Duck’s Albuquerque showroom has samples of many apparel styles so you can compare options in person, see how garments fit, and feel the fabrics before making a decision.

If there is a specific jacket, style, color, or size you would like to evaluate that we do not currently have in the showroom, we can often bring in a sample for you. Sample costs vary depending on the item and the number of samples requested.

Planning Jackets as a Holiday or Year-End Gift?

Start early.

Jackets involve more decisions than a basic T-shirt order, especially when you are coordinating sizes for an entire team.

You will want time to:
1. Select the jacket
2. Review samples if needed
3. Collect employee sizes
4. Finalize embroidery artwork
5. Approve the order
6. Complete production before your event or gift date
Our standard production lead time is approximately 10 working days after artwork approval and order details are finalized, but product availability and larger orders can affect timing.

October is a great time to start if you are considering jackets for the holidays, employee appreciation, winter uniforms, or year-end gifts.

Make the -Brrr Months a Little Warmer

Whether you need lightweight office jackets, fleece for the whole team, durable workwear, or personalized holiday gifts, custom embroidered outerwear is a practical way to keep your team warm and your brand visible.

Black Duck can help you choose the right jacket, prepare your embroidery, and make sure your team looks good heading into the colder months.

Ready to layer up your team? Stop by our showroom or conta c t us to start exploring embroidered outerwear options.
October 1, 2026
Embroidery Tips

LETTERING SIZES AND STYLES

Block capital lettering can be regularly executed as small as .2 of an inch, sometimes smaller on the proper fabric or fill, but .2 of an inch is the smallest recommended size for lettering. Lowercase lettering must be larger, around .25 of an inch, as the closed portions of letters, i.e. the loop on a p, b, or d, must be at or around .2 of an inch to stitch well. Serif fonts, i.e. Times New Roman, and script fonts do not run well at small sizes and will make your design look sloppy. They make small lettering illegible and run badly during production. To avoid text becoming too small, stack text in areas where space is horizontally limited, and be sure that any text included in a design is necessary to your application.

GARMENT TYPES

DESIGNS DIGITIZED FOR FLAT GARMENTS DO NOT ALWAYS RUN PROPERLY ON CAPS

Due to the construction of caps and the process used to embroider them, a different sequence must be used in the digitizing of caps. Most cap designs should not exceed 2.25 inches in height or 4 inches in width. A pocket logo can exceed this height. Consider different designs or design versions for flat garments and caps.

MATERIALS

DESIGNS MUST BE DIGITIZED DIFFERENTLY FOR SOME MATERIALS.

Some materials are difficult to embroider on. Sweatshirt knit and fleece bury stitches and make letters and other columns look narrow, pique, used for most polo shirts, breaks up small letters and causes distortion. Jackets with linings cause distortion and shift design registration. Lycra stretches and deforms designs. A design for fleece run on leather can cut the design from the garment like a medallion. The digitizer must adjust for the qualities of the fabric. One design can’t be run on every material, but if the digitizer is notified of materials to be used, he can make a more universal design, and when the materials are incompatible, can create a different version for the desired material.

COLORS

Color blending can be achieved with embroidery, but smooth gradients require at least 3 colors to execute. As the best designs will have fewer than 9 colors of thread, consider what effects are necessary. If a design has multiple gradients of different colors, it will likely have to be simplified for embroidery.

Designs may also need to be digitized differently for different colored garments. Though this is less likely to cause problems than fabric choice, different color schemes will look different when stitched out. Lighter threads tend to be thicker and cover differently than darker threads.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

Embroidery is thread! It has some limitations. Lines thinner than thread cannot be created, and one should avoid packing too many small details into an area. Too many colors and details on top of one another can mean a dense, uncomfortable design to wear. Your digitizer will always suggest the best way to modify your design for the highest quality embroidered result. A digitizer wants the same things you do: for the job to run quickly and with superior quality. He wants to do excess editing and sampling as little as you want to wait for it, and the finished garment quality reflects as much on a digitizer’s skill as your design.

July 10, 2025
What is Digitizing

Digitizing refers to the process of converting your logo into a stitch file, using a specialized computer program that our embroidery machines can read. Does the quality of a stitch file matter? Absolutely!

It’s what will make or break your design on the final product. We do all our digitizing in-house, which allows for total control over the design and the ability to make changes/alterations. Our in-house digitizer has over 30 years of experience. We work with you to achieve the look you have in mind!

We’ll email you a proof of the digitized design for your approval, and to confirm thread colors, size, placement, etc. We will also set up names (and titles or departments) for your employees, and have you spell check to eliminate errors prior to production.

Once a stitch file is created, we keep it indefinitely for any future orders.

Stop by our showroom to pick out specific thread colors and browse or list of font styles.

We take pride in our work and hope our dedication to our craft shows in the final product!

July 3, 2025