Patches: My own best customer!

by Bill Cable
on 2024-08-07, 08:47:25

Recent events prompt me to revisit perhaps my most successful Star Wars patch. Or at least the one I'm most proud of. A couple weeks ago I got an alert of a PSWCS product newly posted on eBay. Usually I only get those for PSWCS.org charity coins, but this time, it was for this:

I shared the auction link with my friends who collaborated on the patch, but the auction quickly vanished. Then last week, the auction reappeared. I figured for $9.99 I'd throw a bid up. If the thing sold for ten bucks, it might as well sell to me!

Much to my delight, nobody else bid! And a couple days ago the package arrived.

So, besides the obvious, why do I love this patch so much? Well, here's how the project came about. At a couple previous Celebrations, groups of guys I was friends with went in on some independent swag patch sets. Didn't bother to invite me in on them. I'm not bitter. So I reached out to the guys in Western PA I was most close with and asked if they could do that, why couldn't we? And all three of them were game.

We really wanted to do something that highlighted Pittsburgh, and what's more Pittsburgh than the Pittsburgh Steelers? Then it dawned on us. I collect 3PO, who is gold. Scott collects R2, who is blue. Jim collects Ackbar, who is red. And Bill F. collects Stormtrooper, who is white. The four quadrants of the Steelers logo are yellow, blue, red, and white. It was absolutely perfect.

I selected the most iconic poses of 3PO, Ackbar, and R2 and created a mock-up:

The Stormtrooper I had to be a bit more subtle with. It needed to melt into the background so it didn't interrupt the Steelers logo feel. So I went with a light gray outline of the helmet. From there it was just a mater of manually defining the different colored areas in each of the hypocycloids.

It turned out beautifully - better than I ever could have hoped. A true melding of my two favorite things, done together with close friends. It ended up being a huge hit at Celebration. It was so popular I was only able to hold onto my own set and a handful of 3PO pieces to trade when I got home for people who missed it. This set I purchased on eBay is actually my only "spare" set. I think I had a set of the other 3 minus 3PO in a bin. So I'm happy to buy up a spare for myself off eBay for a great price!

Speaking of patches, I received another delivery this week of another patch I designed earlier this year. Check this out:

I designed this one for my 501st group, Starkiller Garrison. I'm on the "merch team" where I do a bit of design work. And I really like how this turned out. The manufacture used a "woven" production method rather than traditional embroidery, which allowed for greater detail. I like it quite a bit! Opens up a lot of new possibilities.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only "PSWCS West" guy going to Celebration Japan, so I won't be making another Pittsburgh-themed patch any time soon. But who knows... maybe 2027 I'll take a crack at the Penguins logo... somehow.