Custom patch company in western NC commemorates 50th Apollo anniversary

Now, during the event's anniversary week, a Buncombe County company is especially busy as the country celebrates the historic event.

Since 1963, A-B Emblem, a custom patch company in Weaverville, has sewn all sorts of patches. Each year, they make about 50 to 60 million of them, including those mimicking ordinals from the Apollo lunar missions.

According to co-CEOs Andrew Nagle and Paul Conrad, the Apollo patch is the most requested.

"If it's not the most popular, it's in the top four," Nagle said. "What makes it somewhat iconic is that it's one of the few patches with no astronauts' names on it -- and the astronauts basically felt that this mission was bigger than themselves."

NASA has been sending its patch designs to A-B Emblem since 1970. For the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, the company created a commemorative version of the original Apollo patch.

"It's interesting just to see all the different people having events to commemorate this anniversary," Nagle said.

Nagle and Conrad were too young to remember live coverage of the July 16, 1969 historic moon walk, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left their mark on lunar soil.

The two believe that no historic moment should pass without it being stitched into memory.

Tuesday kicks off a week of activities across the country as people remember the launch, the moon landing and the return of the Apollo 11 crew, which splashed down safely on earth on July 24, 1969.