Culinary apparel manufacturer Chef Works wanted to create a high-end look for the celebrity chefs wearing their jackets and aprons at various food and wine festivals across the country, so they turned to supplier World Emblem (asi/98264).

Chef Tom Jackson (left), sporting a Chef Works FlexStyle logo on his jacket, talks with food personality Guy Fieri at the San Diego Food and Wine Festival.

“Part of what we wanted to do was really take the level of visibility up a notch with our upper-echelon events,” says Amanda Stuckey, vice president of marketing at Chef Works.

Two years ago, the company started using World Emblem’s FlexStyle products on the cooking apparel they donated to festivals, Stuckey says. “We like the fact that it’s raised, but lightweight,” she says. “It really pops.”

Another bonus of the emblems is the level of detail that can be achieved, since you don’t have to reduce or simplify logo elements as is sometimes necessary with embroidery. “It maintains the brand and brand integrity to the standards of the original design,” Stuckey says.

Virginia Willis, editor-at-large for Southern Living, interacts with fans.

Stuckey estimates that Chef Works sponsors upwards of 200 food-related events a year, typically through apparel donations. Of those events, about 25 are large-scale festivals. For the New York Food and Wine festival, for example, Chef Works supplies the event with more than 600 jackets, each bearing a Chef Works logo on the sleeve and a sponsor logo on the front. The supplier also gives away 200 to 300 aprons and around 150 hats at the event, Stuckey says. “We get our garments on the full range of chefdom,” she adds.

The FlexStyle emblems have proven so popular that they’ve trickled down to some of Chef Works’ bigger business contracts and partnerships. In addition to appreciating the look of the product, Stuckey says, clients like that the emblems stand up to normal wash-and-wear without peeling or flaking. “It’s on there,” she says. “It’s not coming off.”