'Chintzy' Specialty badges

[manfredvonrichthofen]

I want to know who to send a letter to as well. I have never been a fan of their work. I have had the excuse of "oh it is just because white thread can't make that kind of detail." That is a load.

Yeah, and funny considering I've had white on olive Army badges in my collection that had far better detail than what they offer.

I had a really interesting full color CIB on olive, it was very very nicely done. The blue field was so thick that you could hardly see any needle marks from the embroidery and the silver, yes silver, not white, rifle border and wreath were very well done, the whole thing was embroidered so thick it stood about a sixth of an inch high from the patch.

[JC004]

They look flattened, really.  Maybe they smash the badges with a hammer of disdain for CAP members as part of the production process. 

[manfredvonrichthofen]

Marking finish of production for our badges by beating them with the ugly stick.

[SoCalMarine]

Simply put, it is Vanguard's fault. They make crap, not professional items.

Clarification:  Vanguard makes crap for us and really nice stuff for the military.

Yep. And this is why I routinely take the survey on Vanguard's site nailing them in the select an answer section, and then explaining why in the comment section.

[SoCalMarine]

I agree wholeheartedly. Let me make a couple points.

1. The size of the badges we get from Vanguard aren't full size. They are medium size. If you go into an exchange you'll see that the USAF stocks Full, Medium and Small sizes badges. Vanguard only stocks medium size badges. My GT badge is smaller than a Marine Corps Combat Diver bubble. That's SMALL!

2. Wearing CAP badges with prior service badges looks funny because you're mixing and matching sizes. Yes all badges are different sizes, but they are still relative to each other so as to not look out of proportion to someone viewing them on a uniform. Imagine wearing USAF pilot wings (which are just ridiculously huge compared to the other four branch's wings) and then the GT badge. It would just look retarded as the USAF wings are at least five times the size.

3. I have recommended a change in the badges and the rating/occupational badges, but too many people here have shot that down because they don't like the idea or don't want to spend the money. This is my opinion, but I would think that people join CAP to be part of excellence, but the willingness to accept subpar insignia without even firing off comments/suggestions up the chain is sad. I'd be willing to compromise by saying we don't have to change the design, lets just increase the quality of what we have.

4. ***The biggest one I think. Look at the sew-ons for the CGAUX on Vanguard and compare the quality between those and the CAP sew-ons. The CAP sew-ons are horrible quality in comparison, but why? OK, look at the price difference. A CGAUX Past Officer device (which is about the same size as a GT badge) is more than three times then price, and it comes on ripstop. Now, if CAP members were willing to pay $2.90 for a GT sew-on versus the current $0.85 than I'm sure the quality would be the same. I think that's where people are missing what's happening. The quality sucks, but you're also paying almost nothing for a sew-on. You get what you pay for. Now, personally, I'd be willing to pay the $2.90 for a professional looking insignia to go on my uniform. CAP can do so much better than what Vanguard is giving us, but this is what happens when you give some exclusive rights. No competition means lower quality and/or higher prices. Fortunately for CAP its just lower quality without higher prices.

5. There are vendors out there they still do CAP insignia. The greatest majority of that will be embroidery. I can name a vendor or two that you can supply a picture of the item through email, they will digitize it and give you the design before they embroider it for your verification. I have a couple insignia like that, and then I have some that were made either by Vanguard or by another company right outside of MacDill in Tampa.

Just to show you an example of what I'm talking about by going with a smaller vendor increases the quality...

For the CGAUX you can go with whatever vendor you look for your insignia. The district material centers and uniformnametape.com in Tampa does the bulk of the work though. Look at the quality on link #1 and than how much better it is on link #2. From persona experience I can tell you that the items from #2 look EXACTLY like they do on the page when you receive AND they are already cut and embroidered to the correct sizing.

#1:  http://www.uniformnametape.com/rankinsignia_3.aspx
(I mean, just look at the poor quality of the Dept Chief insignia on the top right with the red "A" bleeding into the eagle.)

#2: http://www.mcssl.com/store/the-bent-needle-inc/uscg-auxiliary

#3: http://www.vanguardmil.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2028_2059_2060&products_id=14470
(Now VG's stuff is pretty good for the CGAUX. Why the quality is so poor for CAP I don't know. My thinking is, based on comments I've overheard from others in my chain in supply have said that the USCG has demanded the same quality for both the USCG as the CGAUX because Auxiliarists wear the same uniform and the USCG wants the same look of professionalism across the board. The USAF seems a little too hands off with CAP to make those demands.)