Heat applied vinyl lettering on hook-backed fabric. POLICE across the back of a carrier, SHERIFF on the front, a name tape on a vest — cut, lettered and pressed in our shop, in the size you need rather than the size a catalog stocks.
Hook backing means a panel goes on and comes off. One carrier covers more than one assignment, and a promotion or a transfer costs a panel, not a carrier.
Police and sheriff's departments, fire and EMS, search and rescue, and task forces across the country. [ name two or three departments we can quote — confirm with them first ]
From $7.50 · made in a weekly batch · ships Wednesdays · paying by PO?
Three things decide whether a panel is still readable in two years.
Cut from the sheet and pressed into the fabric, not printed on top of it. There is no ink layer to crack, and the edge stays sharp after it has been through a duty washer.
The whole back is hook, so the panel holds across its full area rather than at a strip. It comes off when the assignment changes and goes back on square.
Every panel is hemmed [ thread and stitch — confirm ] at an eighth of an inch, so the edge does not fray where it is handled most.
Priced by size, not by how many letters you put on it.
Twelve stock sizes, from a 1" × 4" name tape to a 6" × 13" back panel:
Anything else is cut to order, in quarter-inch steps up to 13". A custom size adds $3.00 a panel, waived at ten or more.
Made in 1" × 4" and 1" × 5", and the lettering is 0.4" on every one of them, whatever the name. A long name condenses sideways rather than coming out smaller, so a box of tapes for a whole shift matches on the rack instead of stepping down from SMITH to VANDERWALL.
Type in any case and it comes out in capitals — except a name like McDonald or MacLeod, where the lowercase prefix is kept and the rest capitalized.
Add a row per person. They go on the same order as your panels.
The rule that keeps a stack of panels even.
A panel fills the height you give it. Up to three lines, twenty characters each, set in Helvetica Black — and a long line condenses sideways instead of shrinking, so POLICE and INVESTIGATIONS come out the same height on the same panel. On a 1" panel the lettering stops at 0.65", which keeps it inside the hem.
The configurator draws every size at one scale, so a 3" × 8" really does look narrower than a 3" × 10" on screen. What you see is what comes off the press.
Eight placard colors, eight lettering colors, two of them reflective.
Tactical Black · Sheriff Gold · Duty White · Granite Gray · Patrol Silver · Vegas Gold · Reflective Vegas Gold · Shadow Gray
Reflective adds $2.00 a panel. Worth it on a back panel that has to read in headlights.
Our external armor carriers carry a hook field front and back, sized for these panels.
External Armor CarrierIdentification vests take a panel front and back, so one vest covers more than one role.
Identification VestsJackets, plate carriers and bags you already own. Send us the field size and we cut to it.
Ask about a fitDepartments
Send us the roster and we will set the order up for you — panels and name tapes on one purchase order, one delivery. Quotes and POs go through our office the same day.
Type the wording, pick the size and the colors, and the panel draws at true proportion as you go. Add as many pieces as the order needs before anything goes in the cart.