Embroidery Stitch Count Guide: What Drives the Price of an Embroidered Logo

Embroidery is priced in a completely different way from printing. With screen printing you pay per color. With embroidery, thread colors are basically free, and what you actually pay for is stitches. Here is how it works and how to keep your cost down.

Why stitches, not colors

An embroidery machine sews your logo one stitch at a time, so the more stitches your design has, the longer it runs and the more it costs. A ten color logo and a two color logo can cost the same if they land on the same stitch count. That is the opposite of screen printing, where every extra color adds a screen. With embroidery, add all the colors you want. It is density and size that move the price.

How many stitches is my logo?

Every design is different, but here are honest ballpark ranges so you know what to expect:

• Left chest logo4,000 to 8,000 stitches
• Cap or hat front5,000 to 8,000 stitches
• Full jacket or shirt back10,000 to 15,000 stitches
• Large detailed back20,000 plus stitches

Solid filled areas and lettering add stitches fast. A logo that is mostly outline and open space stitches out far cheaper than the same logo packed with solid fill.

What moves your per piece price

Two things. First, the stitch count, more stitches means more machine time. Second, your quantity. Just like printing, the price per piece drops as the order grows, because the setup time spreads across more pieces. A dozen hats costs more each than a hundred hats.

Digitizing, the one time setup

Before we can stitch your logo, it has to be digitized, converted into a stitch file that tells the machine exactly how to sew it. That is a one time charge, and we waive it on larger orders. Once your logo is digitized we keep the file, so reorders skip that step and cost less.

How to keep embroidery affordable

Keep the logo left chest sized when you can, going bigger multiplies stitches quickly. Simplify tiny detail that will not read at small size anyway. Avoid large solid fills where an outline would do. And remember very small text has a minimum size to stitch cleanly, so if your logo has fine print we will tell you before it becomes a problem.