Need help generating patch ideas? Use our free Hat Patch Designer on ChatGPT — it designs for how patches are actually cut.

Leather · Vinyl · Acrylic · UV & Laser

Design custom hat patches your customers actually buy.

Upload art, auto-trace clean cut lines, pick your material, and mock it up on a real hat — then export print-and-cut files in minutes. No Illustrator degree required.

See how it works

Get it in the FoundryPass — 7 days freealone: $12/mo · $120/yr · $199 lifetime · in the pass: includedGet the pass

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A charcoal trucker cap with a laser-engraved leather patch designed in PatchForge

Built for the people who make patches

Hat makersPatch & embroidery shopsLaser engraversUV print shopsEtsy & Shopify sellers

The old grind

Making a patch shouldn’t take longer than making the sale.

Most patch tooling was built for engineers, not makers. So a five-minute design turns into an afternoon of tracing, exporting, guessing, and re-doing.

Redrawing cut lines by hand in software that fights you every step.
Guessing whether the file will actually cut clean — until the machine proves you wrong.
Emailing flat JPEGs and hoping the client can picture it on a hat.
Paying for four different tools to do one patch.

How it works

From idea to production file in four steps.

Everything happens in one browser tab. No installs, no plugin stack, no re-drawing.

Upload your art

Drop in a PNG or SVG. Remove the background right in the browser — no round-trip to another app.

Design it

Auto-generate clean cut lines and contours, choose a shape, pick leather, vinyl, or acrylic, and set UV print or laser engrave.

Mock it up on a hat

Drop your patch onto a real hat mockup so the customer sees the finished product before they pay.

Export production files

Send a print-ready sheet plus cut files (including DXF) straight to your printer, laser, or cutter.

The product

Design it. See it on the hat. Ship the file.

The three surfaces you’ll live in — patch builder, hat mockups, and gang sheets.

Patch Builder

Leather, vinyl, or acrylic — with auto cut lines and a live price.

Hat Mockup

A leather patch previewed on a charcoal Richardson 112 trucker cap

Your patch on 800+ real hat colorways — front and back views.

Gang Sheet

Pack a full production sheet with registration marks that just line up.

UV printed or laser engraved — on the material you actually sell.

Switch methods on the same design and pick from hundreds of leather, leatherette, vinyl, and acrylic materials, each with live per-inch pricing built in.

PatchForge — Design (UV Print)

UV Printed · full colorFull-color art, printed on any patch materialDrop in a logo and print it in full color on leather, leatherette, vinyl, or acrylic. Choose from the material panel and watch the price update by the square inch.

PatchForge — Design (Laser Engrave)

The PatchForge design builder engraving a monochrome patch with the leatherette material panel open

Laser Engraved · tonalEngrave into two-tone leatherette and woodTwo-tone materials engrave to their backing color for a clean tonal look. Pick from 170+ engrave-ready materials — the cut line and price come along automatically.

Features

Everything a patch maker needs. Nothing they don’t.

One workspace that covers the whole job — art to approval to production file.

Auto cut lines & contours

SVG tracing and one-click contour offset turn any logo into a clean, cuttable outline you can trust.

Materials library

Leather, leatherette, vinyl, and acrylic swatches with the right look for UV print or laser engrave.

In-browser background remover

Knock out the background from a customer photo or logo without leaving the builder.

Gang sheet + registration marks

Pack multiple patches onto one sheet with registration marks made for print-and-cut workflows.

Live hat mockups

Preview patches on real hat styles so the design decision is made before a single sheet is printed.

Production-ready export

Print-ready sheets plus cut files including DXF — the formats your laser and cutter already speak.

Send-to-client proofs

Share a clean proof link so customers approve the exact patch before it goes into production.

Real dimensions

Design at true size with accurate measurements, so what leaves the machine is what you drew.

Who it’s for

If you put a patch on a hat, this is for you.

Hat makers

Turn a customer logo into a patch-ready design, mock it on your blanks, and hand production a clean file.

Patch & embroidery shops

Batch designs onto gang sheets with registration marks and cut lines that run right the first time.

Laser & UV print shops

Switch between engrave and print on the same design, export the exact cut file your machine wants.

Etsy & Shopify sellers

Spin up custom hat listings fast, send proofs for approval, and keep every order production-ready.

What makers are saying

Real shops. Real hats. Real reorders.

Hat bars, laser shops, and sellers who stopped fighting their design tools.

“We run a hat bar at weekend markets — customer picks a blank, picks a design, and I mock the patch on their exact hat while they watch. Add-on patch sales roughly doubled the first month.”

Jess

Hat Bar Owner · Nashville, TN

“The cut file just runs. I export for my laser, drop it in, and the cut follows the patch exactly — no re-tracing, no test cuts, no scrap pile of leatherette.”

Mike

Laser Store Owner · Boise, ID

“Listing photos used to mean a whole afternoon with a camera. Now I mock one design across a dozen hat colors and my Etsy listings are up the same day.”

Sarah

Etsy Hat Seller · Waco, TX

“Gang sheets with registration marks made print-and-cut boring — in the best way. We batch a full sheet of patches and everything lines up on the first pass.”

Tony

UV Print Shop Owner · Phoenix, AZ

“I send the proof link, the customer taps approve on their phone, and production starts. No more 'wait, I pictured it bigger' after the patch is already cut.”

Rachel

Custom Hat Boutique · Charleston, SC

“I replaced Illustrator, Photoshop, and two plugins with one browser tab. My part-timer learned the whole flow in an afternoon — that alone paid for the year.”

Dan

Custom Patch Shop Owner · Columbus, OH

The difference

Most shops are still doing this the hard way.

The old way

With PatchForge

Redraw cut lines by hand in complex software

Auto-traced cut lines and contours in one click

Bounce between four different apps

Art, materials, mockup, and export in one place

Guess how it will look on the hat

Live hat mockups before you print anything

Email a flat JPEG and hope

Shareable proof links customers approve

Wrestle files into the right format

Print-ready sheets + DXF cut files, done

Hundreds of dollars in tooling

$12/mo — or $199 once, forever

Try it free. Zero risk.

Use the full builder for 7 days before you pay a cent. If it’s not saving you time, cancel in one click — no emails, no phone calls, no hard feelings.

FAQ

Questions before you start?

What materials can I design for?

Leather and leatherette, vinyl, and acrylic. Pick the material and PatchForge sets up the right look for either UV printing or laser engraving.

What’s the difference between laser and UV?

Laser engraving burns the design into materials like leather for a classic, tonal look. UV printing lays down full-color art on top. PatchForge lets you switch between the two on the same design and exports the correct file for each.

Do I need design skills or Illustrator?

No. Upload a logo, remove the background, and let auto-tracing build your cut lines. If you can drag a file into a browser, you can make a patch.

What cut files and formats do I get?

Print-ready sheets for UV, plus vector cut files including DXF for lasers and cutters, with registration marks for print-and-cut jobs.

Can I cancel or get a refund?

Your first 7 days are free — cancel any time before then and you’re never charged. After that you can cancel in one click from your account and keep access through the period you paid for.

Is my artwork private?

Yes. Your uploads and designs are yours. We don’t sell your art or use it to train anything, and background removal runs right in your browser.

Forge your first patch today.

Start free, design a real patch in minutes, and send a proof your customer can approve before lunch.

7-day free trial · Cancel anytime · Sign in with Google

— or open the whole rack

Alone it’s $12/mo. In the pass, it’s one of five.

$24/mo · every app · 7 days free

See FoundryPass pricing

— more from PatchForge

Everything else this app gives you.

Free tools, libraries and guides — most of it works before you pay for anything.