Caps and headwear are the fourth-highest product category in the industry, representing 8.8% of overall promotional products sales, according to ASI’s 2023 State of the Industry report. With a plethora of styles available, there’s a hat to fit everyone’s taste – whether it’s a trendy trucker, a quirky bucket hat or the tried-and-true “dad hat.”

What really elevates hats, however, is the decoration. Try these five ideas to create cap designs that are heads above the competition.

1. Screen Print a Trucker Cap

This mesh-back hat (132-1037) from Otto Intl (asi/75350) has a trendy trucker look.

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Embroidery is often the expected choice for decorating a cap, but the flexible foam crown of a trucker hat can be the ideal canvas for a simple screen print or a screen-printed transfer. Ambro Manufacturing, a contract printer based in Flemington, NJ, recommends trying a puff print on a foam trucker hat to help a bold design make an even bigger statement.

2. Add Dimension With 3-D Puff Embroidery

3-D foam embroidery makes a strong statement on this mélange trucker mesh-back cap (i8509) from Cap America (asi/43792).

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Puffing up an embroidered logo – accomplished by sewing over of a piece of foam in the shape of the design – is another way to add visual interest and dimension to a design. Embroidery experts warn, however, that not every logo will look good this way, so work with your decorator to ensure that the chosen art is specially digitized for puff embroidery, and ask for a sample to make sure the 3-D effect is what you and your client are looking for.

3. Patch It Up

A custom patch like the one on this five-panel snapback (PKM551) from imprintID (asi/73651) can elevate a look.

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Patches are a versatile decoration method for caps, adding a high perceived value but also easily allowing for on-demand decoration options for events: Just bring caps in various colors, a stack of patches and a heat press, and you’re ready to go. Leather and faux-leather patches have been a popular choice for caps in recent years, but there are plenty of other choices, from sublimated designs and embroidery to flexible PVC patches and textured embossed emblems.

4. Go for a Vintage Look

This cap (ZQ843) from World Gifts Makers (asi/98119) has a distressed, vintage vibe.

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There’s a romance to finding the perfect secondhand baseball cap – at least according to a recent piece in British GQ. “There feels like a story with a baseball cap from a now-defunct freight company or an office from an era in which people were allowed to smoke in meetings,” writes Murray Clark. Tap into that allure by adding a frayed-edge appliqué patch logo. And don’t forget to pair it with a pigment-dyed or pre-distressed dad cap style widely available in the industry. (It’s an easier option than going the DIY distressing route with sandpaper, bleach and scissors.)

5. Add a Metal Accent

Badge Caps creates custom laser-cut stainless-steel logos and adds them to structured caps like this one.

Specialty metallic embroidery thread can give cap logos an extra shine. Or, you could up the ante with a badge made from stainless steel. Paris, TX-based Badge Caps creates intricate custom laser-cut metal logos and affixes them to the front panel of structured caps.

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