Frequently Asked Questions!
Retrocraft Leather Patches
Choosing the right material is key to creating a patch that perfectly aligns with your brand and application. The type of leather affects the patch's durability, appearance, and how it ages over time. Here’s a guide to our primary options:
- Full-Grain Leather: This is the highest quality leather available, celebrated for its durability and natural character. It retains the original grain and texture of the hide, meaning each patch is unique. Over time, it develops a beautiful, rich patina.
- - Best for: Premium apparel, heavy-duty jackets, high-end bags, and brands wanting to convey heritage and longevity.
- Genuine Leather: Our most popular and versatile option, genuine leather offers a fantastic balance of quality and affordability. It provides a consistent and smooth surface that is ideal for clear, detailed branding.
- - Best for: A wide range of applications, from clothing and hats to accessories and promotional products.
- Faux (Vegan) Leather: A high-quality, cruelty-free alternative to real leather. Our faux leather is engineered to be durable, water-resistant, and remarkably consistent in colour and texture. It's an excellent choice for achieving a uniform look across large orders.
- - Best for: Brands with a focus on vegan or ethical production, high-volume orders, and applications requiring high consistency and weather resistance.
If you're unsure, our team is happy to provide recommendations based on your design and intended use.
We follow a meticulous, multi-step process to ensure every patch we produce is a perfect representation of your brand. Here is a step-by-step look at our production journey:
- Consultation & Design Submission: The process begins with your vision. You submit your artwork, logo, or design concept to us, along with your specifications for size, shape, and leather type.
- Digital Proof & Approval: Our design team creates a detailed digital mock-up of your patch. We send this to you for review and approval. This is your opportunity to request any revisions to ensure it’s exactly right before we proceed.
- Material Selection & Precision Cutting: Once you approve the digital proof, we select the specified leather and use advanced laser or die-cutting technology to cut each patch to your precise shape and size.
- Branding & Detailing: Your design is permanently applied to the leather. We use techniques like heat debossing (stamping) for a classic, indented look or laser engraving for intricate details and sharp lines.
- Finishing & Quality Control: Each patch is carefully inspected and finished. This may include edge finishing, colour application, or adding a stitch groove or adhesive backing if requested. Our quality control team reviews every patch to ensure it meets our high standards.
- Packaging & Dispatch: Your completed order is securely packaged and dispatched from our facility in Gauteng, ready to be attached to your products.
Our minimum order quantity (MOQ) for most custom leather patch designs is 50 units.
This minimum quantity allows us to efficiently cover the initial setup costs required for any custom project, such as creating a unique die for stamping or calibrating the laser for engraving your specific design. By adhering to an MOQ, we can offer you a better price-per-patch and maintain the premium quality Retrocraft is known for.
We offer competitive, tiered pricing—the price per patch decreases as your order quantity increases. If your project requires a significantly larger volume or has unique requirements that fall outside our standard process, please reach out for a custom quote.