OUR STORY

It started with a corgi.

Patch Fiend began as patches for an airsoft YouTube channel and a stubby-legged tactical dog named Chloe. This is how it got from there to a wall of glow-in-the-dark morale patches.

Chloe the corgi, the dog the Tactical Corgi patch was drawn from, in a tactical vest with an Airsoftology patch and a Call Your Hits patch

Chloe, June 2016.

A note from the guy who started it

Some businesses start with a business plan. Patch Fiend started with an airsoft YouTube channel and a corgi named Chloe.

I'm Jonathan. Tennessee native, currently running things from Taipei, Taiwan, which tells you most of what you need to know about how this whole operation goes.

More than 15 years ago I started making patches for my channel, Airsoftology. Nothing fancy, just something for the community to wear. Then I drew Chloe in a tactical vest, a lot of people fell for a stubby-legged tactical dog, and things got interesting.

I'm not a trained artist. I taught myself enough design to be dangerous, then had the sense to bring in real talent when the characters deserved it.

Every patch in the lineup has to earn its spot. It should make someone laugh, make a stranger ask where you got it, or feel like it was made for you. No filler, no dropshipped junk, no copying what everyone else is already doing.

That's the whole job. Thanks for being part of it.

Jonathan
Patch Fiend, est. Tennessee. Currently operating from Taipei.

Jim Elston's original corgi sketches for Patch Fiend, four poses of a corgi in a tactical vest

Jim Elston, first sketches for us, June 2018.

Then we brought in a pro.

Jim Elston spent decades animating for Disney and DreamWorks. In June 2018 he sent over his first sketches for us: a full sheet of corgis in tactical vests. One became Tactical Corgi. Ein came out of the same batch.

Today Jim draws the whole tactical dog collection, plus a baby alien with a corgi sidekick, a hatchling dragon and one very patriotic eagle.

See Jim's patches

How we got here

We have been at this a while

From a rough Airsoftology patch to a wall of glow-in-the-dark morale patches. We kept the receipts. Swipe through.

Late 2009

The very first Airsoftology patch

The 08 is for 2008, the year of the first Airsoftology podcast. Our first web store opened the next year, and this patch was on it. The stitching runs right through the black corner. We kept it anyway.
2010 to 2015

Team Spartans and the early odds and ends

Our first team patch for Team Spartans at Nashville Airsoft, then our own lambda redesign. Plus a hand-drawn knife bunny that sold a couple hundred, and an Airsoftology run so off-color it sold out anyway.
Nov 2015

Airsoftology patch, take two

The second Airsoftology patch, on Matt's pack at a field day. Better than the first. Not by much.
2016

Chloe becomes a patch

Our founder drew his corgi, Chloe, and had her woven. The very first corgi patch. It shows.
June 2017

The first PVC corgi

The redraw, in PVC. Same year the shop moved from WordPress to Shopify. A real step up, and still not the last one.
2017 to 2018

Corgis for every occasion

A Santa hat for Christmas 2017, a boy and girl pair for the Year of the Dog, then a reindeer for Christmas 2018. A little faded now. Still ours.
June 2018

Jim Elston joins

A Disney and DreamWorks animator takes over the tactical dog collection. These are his first sketches for us. One became Tactical Corgi, and Ein came out of the same batch.
Oct 2022

Patch Fiend, registered

The name becomes a registered trademark. Officially a thing.
May 2026

Glow becomes the new standard

Glow in the dark stops being a special edition and becomes how we make them.
June 2026

The first 1st Edition

The Sparkle SSR D20: a run of twenty, one for each face of the die.
Today

Still at it

Well over a hundred designs. Every run gets a hands-on QC pass before it ships from our warehouse in Fort Smith, Arkansas.