Q&A: Simon Springer (Pull The Plug Patches)

If there is one guy who knows about battle jackets it’s Simon Springer from the awesome Aussie company Pull The Plug Patches, whose goodies are all officially licensed and have a bunch of bands you know and you need to know…

I tossed some questions to him and here’s what he had to say…

Simon Springer: “I’m a lifelong metal fan. I got my first patch when I was about 10 years old. I was saving up for a Motley Crue backpatch but they were sold out when I went to buy it and I ended up getting a Poison patch instead. Rocked that jacked for a few years. Fast forward about 30 or so years and I got interested in making another jacket but couldn’t find patches for a lot of bands I wanted on my vest. Anything I could find was bootlegs, so I decided to start making my own and reached out to the bands to see if it was cool with them.

SS: “I think it’s pretty cool that two of the biggest bands in the world, Metallica and Slipknot, both asked us to make patches before we could ask them. Word made its way up from the underground and their respective licensers reached out to us asking if we’d be interested. Of course we said yes. People accuse us of selling out because we had previously only worked with old school death metal bands. But seriously, who would pass up that kind of opportunity to take things to a broader audience? Metallica and Slipknot are two of the most important gateway bands. They are the entry point to metal music and culture for countless bands and bring in a whole new audience for us. It’s a win, win, win.

SS: “Yeah, for sure. We get contacted by bands all the time. I can’t say yes to everything but if a band I’ve not heard of takes the effort to reach out to me and actually includes links to their music and to their social media so I can listen to their music and see if they are engaging their audience, then I always try to respond. Bands who message us and give us no details and make me have to put the work in, I usually won’t. I’m super busy and the easier you make it for me, the more inclined I am to check out your music. If I like it, we’ll consider making a patch. We’re still 100 percent into supporting the underground and not just focusing on the big licenses like Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath.”

SS: “Tons. Top of my list would probably be Overkill and Testament. And then there are some bands who I’d love to work with, but have declined. I never understand that response because it’s a viable revenue stream for established bands, so why not take the payday instead of allowing bootleggers to pocket all the money and cash in on your brand? I also think we make the best quality patches on the planet. Our designer and manufacturer are the absolute best at what they do, so there’s really nothing to lose.”

SS: “Yeah, tons of people in the patch groups absolutely hated us. We’d get tons of hate mail from people complaining and with that sense of self entitlement like we were obligated to make the kinds of patches they wanted. I always made what I wanted and didn’t give a shit what anyone said. This is the reason why I think it’s been so successful. It’s really easy to just copy what already exists but something else to innovate and walk your own path. Of course different shaped patches existed before us but we took that idea and ramped it up to be a signature of our brand. Now four years on we still have some people complaining but we also have a shit ton of new companies blatantly copying what we are doing. Some are carving out their own space and doing cool things like Starside Relics and Armed With Hammers and some have absolutely no shame in ripping off exactly what we do in every conceivable way. It begs the question as to why they are doing what they are doing when Pull The Plug Patches already exists. It’s pretty frustrating to be honest. Fully support other companies carving out a unique niche, that only helps the cause of battle vest culture, but the direct knockoffs, well I don’t have much nice to say about them.”

SS: “Ha ha, that was your idea dude! I remember you made a comment about there not being a day, so we picked a day and ran with it. You can always turn nothing into something, you just gotta be willing to put it out there into the world. August 17th is actually the day we started our Facebook page, so essentially the founding date of Pull The Plug Patches, so I figured that day was as good as any to launch this idea.”

SS: “Yeah, long-sleeve shirts, pins, flags, stickers, belt buckles and leggings. We took a lot of heat for the leggings but the thing is: this is actually my wife Marni’s company. She loves metal leggings so we decided to make some. Then Metallica asked us if we’d be interested in doing some, so we gave it a shot. But the priority is obviously always going to be patches.”

SS: “Well Death is my all time favourite band and on that basis I’ve been working on getting a deal with Chuck Schuldiner’s all time favourite band for a long, long time now. I’ve been told that it’s finally been approved but I’m waiting for the contract still. Fingers crossed that comes through. There’s often a lot of red tape and a lot of hard work involved in getting some of these bigger bands signed on, so it takes time, but we’re constantly working to expand out roster at both ends… meaning landing some more of the giants of the music scene as well as continuing to shine a light on the amazing up-and- coming underground bands. (I’ve) just discovered Atomic Witch, Mother of Graves, Tribal Gaze, Torn In Half, and Rhythm of Fear, so (I’m) pretty stoked to be working with each of these bands.”

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