The Patches Are Strong With This One
The Star Wars stories might take place in a galaxy far, far away, but in this galaxy, they’ve spawned an army of loyal fans and enthusiasts. The number of conventions and gatherings centered around aspects of the films is exceptionally large, and the number of people ready, willing and eager to cosplay as their favorite characters is even larger. But if you’ve ever noticed anyone walking around dressed as a stormtrooper, there’s always a chance they’re a member of the 501st Legion.
According to the 501st Legion’s website,
The Legion is an all-volunteer organization formed for the express purpose of bringing together costume enthusiasts under a collective identity within which to operate. The Legion seeks to promote interest in Star Wars through the building and wearing of quality costumes, and to facilitate the use of these costumes for Star Wars-related events as well as contributions to the local community through costumed charity and volunteer work.
These volunteers all love to give back, and they also all love to get unique swag either for themselves or to hand out at their events. This includes everything from challenge coins and lapel pins to custom patches. Given the exceptional work the Legion does, as well as how much we like the design of their patches, we decided to share a few with you.
Custom Garrison Patches
The 501st is organized into garrisons. These garrisons are often organized by state when they’re in the U.S., but can also encompass an entire country. Within those garrisons can be any number of different squads. Each garrison has its own logo and different colors, but in general the garrisons are the basic organizational unit.
Garrison patches are often just the garrison’s logo in patch form, but that isn’t always the case. For those garrison patches, however, finding small ways to make the patches special is still the name of the game.
These patches for the Northern Darkness Garrison, located in northern Indiana, remind us a bit of the logo for the Oakland Raiders with their black and gray coloration. While at first glance both patches look identical, look a little closer and you’ll see a subtle difference in the eyes. One of the helmets uses white thread in the eyes while the other uses a shiny metallic thread. The difference is subtle, but noticeable when you look for it.
This desire to produce multiple variations of their patches is one of the many things we love about working with the Legion. Whether the patches are intended to be used by Garrison members themselves or distributed to the people attending one of their charity events, having different options so everyone can receive the patch they most like is a priority.
As a small company located in Orlando, the Florida Garrison is one of our favorites. These patches were ordered by the Everglades Squad of the Florida Garrison. Much like the Northern Darkness Garrison patches, this is a simple recreation of the squad’s logo. However, these patches come in a full color version, or an all black or all white version depending on which side of the force you prefer.
As opposed to just being about the garrison logo, sometimes 501st patches add important information and make their patches about an event the garrison has attended or hosted. These patches from the Florida Garrison were made in honor of the Legion members who attended Star Wars Days at Legoland. The majority of the patch space is still dedicated to presenting the garrison’s logo, but the name and year of the event occupy a space on the patch that would normally be taken up by something else. But of course, like the other patches, they wanted to make sure they got at least two different versions.
These Are the Patches You’re Looking For
As is always the case, the patches you see here or anywhere else on our site aren’t for sale. It’s always possible that you could get in touch with the garrison in question and see if they’d be willing to give or sell you one, but there’s no way to get one directly from us. If you do succeed in getting one directly from the source, you can rest assured that attaching it will be quick and easy.
Each of the patches shown here have two things in common: They’re all embroidered patches, and they all make use of the iron on attachment option. Iron on patches are some of the easiest to attach because they require no special skill and just about every household has the only tool needed to accomplish the job. However, if you’re ever looking for a few pointers on attaching a patch, we’ve got a helpful set of instructions you can look over.
In the meantime, if you’re looking to get a set of patches created specifically for your own garrison, contact us today and see what our artists are capable of. If you aren’t certain that embroidered patches with iron on backings are the best choice, let the force guide you to one of our other options, or just ask our sales team for a recommendation.
