About

I'm Sam, the artist and embroiderer behind La La Land Embroidery.

I design the artwork, digitize it for embroidery, run the machines, source the pieces, maintain the equipment, pack the orders, build the website — pretty much every part of what happens here comes through my hands.

And I like it that way.

La La Land Embroidery was built around the idea that custom embroidery can be more than choosing a generic hat, uploading a logo and sending it through a giant production line.

I'm interested in the details — the shape of the hat, the fabric, the thread, the way a design is digitized, and how all of those things work together once the needle actually hits the material.

Part artist. Part technician. Part machine nerd.

Embroidery sits somewhere between art and engineering.

A design that looks great on a screen doesn't automatically make great embroidery. It has to be rebuilt for thread: stitch direction, density, underlay, sequencing, materials and dozens of little decisions that affect the finished piece.

That process is a huge part of what I do.

I digitize the artwork I embroider, operate my own machines and handle their maintenance and repairs myself. Over time I've learned the equipment from the inside out — sometimes because I wanted to and sometimes because a machine decided I was going to.

That hands-on knowledge helps me catch details that are easy to overlook.

The blank is part of the design.

I'm pretty particular about what I embroider on.

There are already plenty of places selling the same handful of standard promotional hats. I spend a lot of time looking for different fabrics, unusual profiles and products that give the embroidery a better starting point.

Corduroy. Suede. Raw denim. Canvas. Performance fabrics. Heavyweight garments. Hats that don't look like the same promotional cap you've seen everywhere else.

The blank matters just as much as the artwork.

Small studio. Serious production.

Being independent doesn't mean La La Land Embroidery is limited to tiny orders.

I work with businesses, brands, weddings, events, golf groups, run clubs and organizations on everything from focused small runs to larger custom orders.

The difference is that you're not being passed between departments.

You're working with the person who is actually figuring out how your artwork should be embroidered and then producing it.

For larger projects, I can source products in volume, run production across multiple machines and help work through artwork, placement, materials and the other details that come with a larger custom order.

Made here, not sent somewhere else.

One of my favorite parts of La La Land Embroidery is that the work actually happens here, in my California studio.

I get to take an idea from a screen, turn it into stitches, load the machines and watch the finished piece come off the embroidery frame.

There are easier ways to build an ecommerce business.

This one just happens to involve thread, needles, machinery, artwork, occasional mechanical troubleshooting and a lot of hats.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Real work. Real product photos.

Every product photo on this site that shows finished embroidery was photographed by me from work produced in my studio.

I use Photoshop for things like color correction, lighting cleanup or replacing the background, but I don’t use AI to generate or fake the embroidery shown on finished products.

Welcome to La La Land Embroidery.

Follow along and you'll probably see new blanks, embroidery experiments, behind-the-scenes production, machine problems I probably shouldn't be excited to fix, and whatever I'm working on next.

Ready to start? Browse the catalog or request a custom quote.