Custom Streetwear Guide - What is Embroidery Printing?

1. What is Embroidery Printing?

Embroidery is an art form that combines thread and fabric, creating patterns or text on fabric to give clothing a unique three-dimensional feel, texture, and story. From ancient handmade techniques to modern CNC embroidery machines, this craft has been reborn in streetwear, becoming a powerful tool for brands to express their personality and high-end appeal. Want your streetwear brand to stand out in the fashion scene? Embroidery will be the key technology to help you break through!

Touches Dark, a streetwear manufacturer with 18 years of clothing production experience, has served over 2,000+ fashion brands, including some internationally renowned streetwear brands (Playboy, BOOHOO, etc.).

Our extensive experience allows us to understand the effects embroidery brings to clothing. Unique embroidery techniques can help your brand gain a competitive edge. To help you understand embroidery techniques, this guide analyzes 2025 fashion trends, examines the pros and cons of embroidery, and outlines the process of customizing embroidered streetwear, helping you successfully build a streetwear brand.

2. Why Do Brands Choose Embroidery for Custom Clothes?

After conducting an in-depth investigation, we found that in recent years, an increasing number of fashion brands have begun to use embroidery as a means of displaying prints. From Palace to Carhartt WIP, embroidery is becoming the darling of the fashion world in 2025. Why has embroidery become so popular? The answer lies in technological innovations in CNC embroidery machines, changes in consumer demand, and intensified market competition. As a full-service apparel manufacturer, based on our extensive experience working with numerous brands, let me explain why you should choose embroidery!

2.1 CNC Embroidery Machines: A Revolution in Efficiency and Cost

The widespread adoption of CNC embroidery machines has completely transformed production processes, making embroidery more efficient and cost-effective:

· Doubled Production Efficiency: Multi-head embroidery machines (such as the Tajima TMAR-V1512C) can process multiple garments simultaneously at speeds of up to 850 stitches per minute. Compared to traditional embroidery techniques, CNC embroidery machines are 30% faster in production efficiency. This allows brands to quickly respond to market orders.

· Significantly Reduced Costs: Automation reduces labor requirements, lowering labor costs by approximately 15%. Automatic color-changing and thread break detection features (such as the SWF MAS-12) minimize material waste, saving 10-20% on thread costs. Compared to manual embroidery, CNC machines make high-quality embroidery affordable for small and medium-sized brands.

· Enhanced Design Flexibility: AI-driven software (such as Wilcom and Hatch) digitizes complex patterns with 99% accuracy, eliminating the need for repeated adjustments. This enables brands to easily achieve diverse designs ranging from simple logos to 3D raised embroidery.

Brand Case Study: As a renowned streetwear brand, Palace's 2024 limited-edition embroidered hoodie was launched quickly thanks to the efficient production of CNC machines, receiving positive reviews from Hypebeast. Brain Dead's collaborative sequin-embroidered T-shirt also saw a 20% cost reduction due to automated production, making its pricing more competitive.

2.2 Consumer Demand: Personalization and Luxury

The surge in demand for personalized items among Gen Z and Millennials is driving the embroidery trend:

· Customization Boom: Over the past year, demand for custom embroidery has increased by 25%. Consumers prefer designs that reflect their personality, such as The Hundreds' graffiti-style embroidered T-shirts, which imbue the items with cultural value.

· Premium and Durable: Compared to conventional printing techniques (such as screen printing and digital printing), embroidery offers more durable, fade-resistant prints and enhances brand premium through its premium texture.

Brand Case Study: Pleasures' 2024 chain-stitch embroidered jeans saw a 25% price increase (as reported by Highsnobiety), further demonstrating embroidery's ability to deliver high added value for brands.

2.3 Sustainability and Market Competition

The surge in demand for personalized items among Gen Z and Millennials is driving the embroidery trend:

· Environmental Trends: Consumer focus on sustainable fashion is driving brands to adopt organic cotton threads and recyclable sequins, such as Hoonigan's 2024 eco-friendly embroidered hoodie, featured in Complex's sustainable fashion coverage. The market for eco-friendly materials is projected to grow by 20% by 2025 (Vogue).

· Market Differentiation: In the flood of fast fashion prints, embroidery helps brands stand out with its unique texture and craftsmanship.

Brand Case Study: RIPNDIP's cat patch embroidered jacket garnered over 150,000 interactions on Instagram, showcasing the eye-catching appeal of embroidery.

3. Learn More About Embroidery: Types and Clothing Styles

Flat Embroidery:

Simple and smooth, cost-effective, ideal for retro streetwear styles (such as vintage T-shirts and loose-fitting shirts). Flat embroidery features crisp, clear stitching lines, making it excellent for showcasing brand logos or text. It is the most widely adopted embroidery technique by brands. For example, Palace's triangular logo flat embroidery T-shirt swept the 2025 spring collection with its skateboarding-inspired aesthetic.

3D Raised Embroidery:

Features a unique three-dimensional effect, adding visual depth to clothing, suitable for high-end streetwear styles (such as limited-edition hats, jackets).

It makes patterns “pop” off the fabric, with BAPE's shark logo embroidered hat becoming a benchmark for high-end streetwear, perfectly enhancing the brand's premium value.

Patch Embroidery:

Ideal for complex patterns, this technique highlights prints by selecting fabric types, aligning with playful street culture styles (e.g., street jackets, hoodies).

RIPNDIP's cat patch embroidered jacket captivated Instagram with its humorous design, generating over 150,000 interactions.

Chain Embroidery:

Chain-like stitches, perfect for retro hip-hop styles (e.g., jeans, loose T-shirts). Its rugged texture echoes 90s hip-hop culture, with Pleasures' chain-stitched jeans tailored for retro enthusiasts (as reported by Highsnobiety).

Towel Embroidery:

Unique visual effects with a soft texture, suitable for skateboarding and workwear styles (e.g., workwear hoodies, pants). Carhartt WIP's towel embroidered workwear hoodie has become a streetwear classic with its rugged texture.

Sequin Embroidery:

Sparkling and eye-catching, suitable for experimental fashion styles (e.g., collaborative T-shirts, party jackets). Brain Dead's 2025 collaboration sequin embroidered T-shirt stands out in the fashion scene with its bold design.

4. Custom Embroidery Service Process: From Inspiration to Finished Product

Ready to create your own unique streetwear piece? Our professional team will help you turn your inspiration into reality! Here are the four simple steps for custom embroidery, which you can easily follow:

- Requirement Communication: Share your inspiration or sketches, and we will help you optimize the design to perfectly align with your brand style.

- Material and Location Selection: Choose from high-quality fabrics (such as canvas or cotton), agree on the embroidery location (such as the chest or sleeves), and we’ll help you select the most suitable embroidery type.

- Digital Prototyping: Use professional design software to generate high-precision renderings. Once confirmed, we’ll get started right away!

- Production and Delivery: Strict quality control ensures the embroidery is durable and long-lasting, with fast delivery straight to your door.

5. Summary of the Core Advantages of Custom Embroidery

1. Personalization: Accurately conveys the brand story, like The Hundreds' graffiti embroidered T-shirts, each piece is a unique statement.

2. Durability: Embroidery is wash-resistant and fade-resistant, outperforming printing. Palace’s embroidered logo is a classic example.

3. Luxury appeal: Enhances quality and is suitable for high-end markets. Pleasures’ 2024 chain-stitch embroidered denim pants saw a 25% price increase.

6. Limitations of Embroidery Printing

1. Higher Costs: Compared to screen printing, embroidery (especially hand embroidery or 3D embroidery) is more expensive and may increase the price of individual items. For example, the Hoonigan denim jacket with hand embroidery costs 50% more per piece than printed jackets due to the complexity of the craftsmanship.

2. Design Complexity Limitations: Embroidery is not suitable for overly detailed patterns, such as very small fonts or complex gradients, which may result in distortion of details.

3. Longer Production Cycles: Hand embroidery or large-scale production requires more time, especially for custom complex patterns. I once designed a patchwork embroidered jacket for a brand, and the production cycle was one week longer than printing.

4. Fabric Restrictions: Embroidery has requirements for fabric thickness; fabrics that are too thin or too elastic may cause stitch distortion.

6. Comparison Between Embroidery and Other Printing Crafts

Process Type	Plate Making Required	Color Restrictions	Suitable Pattern Types	Cost (Small Batch)	Color Fineness
Embroidery	No	Limited (Thread matching required)	Complex patterns, three-dimensional logos, and text	High	High (with prominent three-dimensional effect)
DTG Printing	No	No	Gradient, illustrations, photos, etc.	Medium	High
Screen Printing	Yes	Yes	Flat color blocks, pure text	Low (large quantities)	Medium
Glue Paste Printing	Yes	Yes	Color blocks, logos	Medium	Medium
Sublimation Printing	No	Yes	Synthetic fabric patterns	Medium	High (limited to polyester)

Original Vintage Street Custom Embroidery Printing Streetwear

In today's increasingly competitive streetwear market, embroidery can effectively elevate a brand's aesthetic appeal. From Palace's iconic logo to Hoonigan's hand-embroidered denim, each embroidered piece tells a unique story. In 2025, large-scale patterns, retro hip-hop aesthetics, eco-friendly craftsmanship, and subcultural narratives will continue to drive trends, and embroidery is the perfect medium to bring these trends to life. While embroidery presents challenges in terms of cost and complexity, through professional design and optimized solutions, it can deliver unparalleled quality and personality for your brand.

Since its establishment, Touches Dark has served more than 2,000+ apparel brands and accumulated 18 years of experience in apparel production and 12 years of experience in foreign trade export. With our independent design team, we are able to complete our design tasks most efficiently, ensuring that each piece of apparel accurately captures the essence of vintage trends while incorporating modern aesthetics to create a unique vintage street style.