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IndependenceEmbroidery

Military and Veterans

Motorcycle club members in embroidered colors standing in front of a battleship memorial, patches by Independence Embroidery.
A chapter ride parked in front of a battleship memorial. Colors on, front and back.

“Soldiers still downrange would sign up, so there was something waiting when they got home.”

— John Larson, founder
Memorial colors, embroidered by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.
Members at a Marine Corps memorial, colors on.

Our owner came up in a military family. His father served. There was law enforcement in the family as well. He had that mindset before he knew it was one.

Years later, building motorcycle clubs, he found himself writing back and forth with men who were still deployed. They wanted in. Not for the patch. For the thing on the other side of the deployment, so that coming home meant coming home to something.

Stateside, he was getting veterans patched in.

The farm

Some of them came out to the farm.

Men back from a theater of war spent weekends in Owensville, taking the time at whatever pace they needed. Part of that was a round pen and the horses. He is the first to say he was no professional at it and never claimed to be. He only saw what it did.

Then they rode. Handlebar to handlebar through the Ozarks.

He was an Owensville firefighter through all of it. This was not a program and it was not a service. It was how he paid back people who had served.

What it left him with

That connection is difficult to describe to anyone who has not had it, and we are not going to try here.

What it left him with is a working understanding of what these patches actually are. A unit. A deployment. A name. Something a family keeps in a frame long after the person who earned it has stopped being able to explain it to them.

That understanding is the reason this page exists, and it is the reason we take our time.

Veteran unit patches and tabs on a vest, embroidered by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.
A Navy Gulf War veteran patch and a one-asterisk field patch.
Three members of Gunners Law Enforcement MC wearing their back patches, embroidered by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.
Three backs. Two nomad rockers and an international rocker.

The green line

Green is the military color in our service code. Veterans riding in a club carry it on the front of the vest, and it reads across a parking lot without a word.

  • Embroidered shield, green service line, made by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.
  • Embroidered service flag, green service line, made by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.
  • Embroidered Give Respect Get Respect patch, green service line, made by Independence Embroidery in Owensville, Missouri.

The full six-color system is explained on the Motorcycle Club Colors page.

What we make

  • Unit patches and tabs
  • Veteran motorcycle club colors, front and back
  • Name tapes
  • Rank insignia
  • Shadow box and retirement pieces
  • Memorial patches
Embroidered trade tabs and deployment tabs on a black leather motorcycle vest front, made by Independence Embroidery.
A military front built for a Gunners nomad. Trade tabs, three deployment tabs, and a round service device on black leather.

Your artwork stays yours

Your design belongs to you. We do not resell it, we do not template it, and we do not make it for anyone else.

The photographs on this page are here because the people in them said yes. Nothing goes up without that.

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