Answers · Cost
How much does a mobile patch bar cost?
Short version: staffed stops start around $5,000 locally, and the guest count does most of the steering from there.
The three numbers to know
- From $5,000 for a staffed local stop — crew, presses, display, setup, teardown. This is the floor for Orange County, LA, and San Diego dates.
- $250 per hour for staffing, and the meter includes the build hour before doors and the pack-out hour after. We don’t hide labor in fine print.
- $900 flat travel for stops beyond the SoCal corridor — Las Vegas being the usual suspect. Farther routing is quoted per trip.
Where the rest of the budget goes
Product. A hundred-and-fifty-guest event needs a hundred-and-fifty-ish hats plus a patch buffer, and hat tier matters: a table of Richardson 112 truckers prices differently than an all-Flexfit or leather-strap build. Custom branded patches cost more than stock chenille and need about three weeks of production. If you want the laser desk adding initials to leather patches, that’s a scoped add-on that most corporate hosts consider worth it and most market stops skip.
Two worked examples
Taproom anniversary, 150 guests: base station with one press and two crew, brewery logo patch (custom run), 160 hats in two styles. Lands modestly above the base — the custom patch and hat count are the movers.
Corporate reception, 300 guests: two presses, four crew, premium hat mix, branded patches, laser desk for VIPs. Roughly double the taproom number, driven almost entirely by product volume and the second press.
How to get a real number
Send the date, city, and expected headcount. We return one quote with product, crew, and travel already inside it — compare that to the pricing page anchors and you’ll see exactly how yours was built. No deposit until you’ve seen the whole plan.