Morale Patches: : The Art, History, and Stories Behind the PDW Design
A conversation with Patrick Ma, morale patch innovator and CEO of Prometheus Design Werx, on the history, design philosophy, and stories behind over 800 original patch designs.
How PDW Defended the Words "Morale Patch"
On May 25, 2016, Morale Patch Armory LLC filed to trademark the words "morale patch" with the USPTO. After an initial opposition was rejected due to a technicality, the trademark remained valid for a number of years. In 2020, Prometheus Design Werx discovered that no progress had been made in its cancellation, as Morale Patch Armory LLC had begun filing to sue a large group of retailers for unauthorized use of the term in the course of their business.
On September 17, 2020, Prometheus Design Werx Inc. filed a Motion to Suspend the trademark, based on their position that these words were public domain and in wide use prior to the filing. On August 18, 2022, the USPTO granted the cancellation. Morale patch is no longer a trademark. It belongs to everyone.
The History of the Morale Patch
Since humans first walked the Earth, we have found ways to tell our life's story through symbols. Going back 40,000 years, our ancestors used dirt or charcoal mixed with spit and animal fat to paint symbols on cave walls to narrate hunts and tribal associations.
Lhfage at English Wikipedia, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nearly 15,000 years ago, early settlers in the New World etched their stories on limestone and sandstone to serve as trail markers or to identify their clan. More than 5,000 years ago, humans started putting their tribal symbols on a more mobile platform: their skin. Vikings inked family crests on their bodies. Medieval Europeans tattooed a cross on their hands as a permanent badge of honor during the Crusades. By the 1800s, these tribal and military symbols had evolved into unit insignia on military uniforms, with British officers wearing embroidered patches to signify rank. Americans soon adopted the concept to distinguish between military unit divisions.
Zaphad1, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
That tradition catapulted into a new era in February 1997 when Patrick Ma created his first morale patch. Ma was also among the first to design outdoor apparel that allowed users to attach hook patches to loop panels. Since founding PDW, he has created over 800 original morale patch designs, many of which remain actively sought by collectors worldwide.
What Inspired Patrick Ma to Design Morale Patches?
I have always been fascinated with symbols because each design represents a much deeper story. As an explorer and designer, I think symbols are a story's simplest but most profound distillation. My interest in embroidered art traces back to childhood in rural Pennsylvania, where I would tag along with a friend's family on weekend junking trips. I became captivated by the old patches on military uniforms. I would buy one here and there when I could, then spend time in the library researching the history and stories of the units behind each patch.
That fascination kept growing through high school and college. I collected patches from everywhere: skate brands, law enforcement, head shops, subcultures of every kind. Back then, Velcro loop panels for morale patches outside of the military were essentially nonexistent. You had to stitch patches directly onto backpacks, jackets, whatever you could. When I launched my first brand in 1996, designing morale patches was a natural next step.
Why Morale Patches Became a Cultural Phenomenon
People picked up on them very quickly. They proved to be really popular, and demand started to climb. I think people wanted badges to showcase their association with a meaningful tribe. As humans, we have an innate instinct to belong to a community. Morale patches became a new visual narrative of our unique and personal journeys.
A morale patch's appeal is that it is a passive marker of identity. It is not as overt as a T-shirt with a catchy slogan. Because a morale patch is small and uses symbolism instead of words, it represents a silent, confident display of who you are. If someone gets it, they get it. If they don't, maybe they don't deserve to know.
Now, looking at many of my designs, you are not going to find a lot of seriousness. I like to impart a degree of levity. Our world is serious enough, and I believe we all need to step back and laugh at ourselves. Otherwise, we become brittle and dark. I need to laugh several times a day, including at myself.
How Patrick Ma Designs a Morale Patch
It all goes back to my fascination with symbols and iconography. Symbols are potent markers of different aspects of our lives, and our lives can be whimsical or serious. Many of my ideas are entirely random, but they are vision-based on what story I can convey through a symbol. Vision is such an important sense for humans because it funnels much of the world into our brains. I can be inspired by a sticker on a street sign, graffiti on a brick wall, or a magazine cover at a grocery store checkout. A great deal of my inspiration also comes from nature.
I used to take a pencil or pen to paper and start drawing by hand. I am an old-school artist at heart. I would hand sketch every design and complete the illustration in pen and ink. I eventually moved to digital tools like Illustrator and Procreate. Those platforms allow more flexibility to alter designs without starting over. Digital illustration has become an efficient and empowering outlet for expressing creativity. The entire process, from inspiration to finished patch, typically takes three to four weeks.
The Most Sought-After PDW Morale Patch
Probably our most sought-after patch is the SPD Underwater Exploration Team patch. SPD stands for Special Projects Division, a subdivision of PDW that allows us to explore smaller and experimental production runs. Our Underwater Exploration Team had its first mission in 2016 in the Sea of Cortez.
We worked with the Mexican government as part of an anti-poaching project. Mexican fishermen, sponsored by a drug cartel, were setting gill nets in protected waters to snare a species of fish whose bladder sells on the Chinese black market for up to $10,000 per bladder. Our mission was to identify, locate, and clear those illegal fishing nets and trolling lines.
I chose the octopus to represent the SPD label for its unique characteristics and its special place in the animal kingdom. Octopuses can change color, have natural camouflage, control their body's shape with water pressure to move through the tiniest crevices, and have the largest brains of all invertebrates. They are problem solvers with a form of consciousness that is far more advanced than any similar species. The octopus had every attribute needed to represent the SPD. I added a trident as the tool most associated with the ocean, and a Japanese-style wave motif to tie it all together.
Patrick Ma's Favorite PDW Morale Patch Design
My current favorite may be the All Terrain design and its many variations. With that patch, I wanted to create a symbol that visualizes the beauty and majesty of the outdoors: water, trees, mountains, sun, and stars. The sun's rays can be seen as either sunrise or sunset. The design also highlights the Big Dipper constellation, which has a rich history and has been used as a navigational aid for centuries by nearly every culture. I included water because it is a critical element to survival and the molecule that binds together everything I treasure. It is the embodiment of peace, quiet, and strength. Yet water can also be terrifying. Still waters run deep, but they can also drown you.
View the PDW morale patch archive on Pinterest.
What Makes PDW Morale Patches Collectible
I think it is because I always strive to have a narrative associated with each design. I look at each morale patch as a small canvas to tell a story. Morale patches are vignettes, windows into a lifestyle, or at the very least references to an alignment or tribe. They are often created as a nod or wink to popular culture and various subcultures, but they always seem to create a positive visceral reaction to our lifestyles.
Ways to Display and Wear Morale Patches
As the designer who first originated technical apparel with loop panels for the general population in 2000, I was able to create a wearable platform to display morale patches. That has allowed people to showcase their PDW patches in creative ways. I have seen them mounted on walls, backpacks, IFAKs, admin pouches, hats, and even laptops.
Photo Credit: Black Flag Summit Club
Basically, if you have a loop surface, you can attach a morale patch to it. One of the more inventive platforms recently is attaching patches to a car's headliner. PDW also produces other variations including what I originally coined as ranger eyes and cat eyes. These are smaller format patches, typically in TPU or PVC using BPA-free, non-toxic materials, featuring very high detail in a compact one-inch format. They have proven to be just as popular as the embroidered style.
Photo Credit: @thecarryist
Why PDW Morale Patches Sell Out in Minutes
Most PDW morale patches are released as weekly product drops every Wednesday, and most sell out within minutes. Making new patches available at a set date and time gives serious collectors a fair chance at something exclusive before it disappears. We try to create a sweet spot between demand and collectability. If we make too many patches, people lose interest. If we produce too few, we hear about it. The weekly drops give people a genuine shot at the patch they want, while preserving the rarity that makes collecting them meaningful.
At the end of the day, get a morale patch because it makes you happy. Enjoy it for what it is.
