Do you have a passion for making fashionable hats and want to get profits from this hobby? Well, you can consider starting your own hat company. Of course, the journey will be quite challenging here. However, with proper planning, knowledge of hat-making, creating your shop, and making a unique brand, you can achieve success in this industry. So, how to start a hat company? Let’s get started!
A Journey of Starting a Hat Company
For sure, starting a company will not be as easy as flipping our hands. No matter what type of company you are planning to start, you will need a proper plan. Speaking of a hat company, there are some points to note when starting it!
- Decide your niche
You should first decide your niche in offering your hats products. This means that you should choose if you want to sell hats for children, men, women, or all.
- Get the market knowledge
Of course, you must also get the market knowledge to know what types of hat products get high demand.
- Plan your marketing
You should decide whether you want to market your hat products in a physical store, online, or both.
By understanding the points above, you can then continue to start your hat business properly.
Learn How to Make a Custom Hat
If you wish to generate high profits, you should consider offering custom hats. These types of hats will surely draw in more customers as they will get hats made specially for them. No ideas? Don’t worry, have a look at some steps to create a custom hat!
Decide the Shape and Materials
The most important step in creating a custom hat is to decide your materials and shape. For example, leather materials will surely look incredible in a hat. However, it might not be something you have the tools to work with. For starting, you can consider using cotton or linen material.
Then, you should decide the shape you want to make. Perhaps you want to create a straightforward trucker hat? Or maybe you want to make a fun bucket hat? Decide the shape you want as it will guide the rest of the process.
Measure Your Hat
Speaking of a custom hat, you don’t have to worry about excessive measurements here. Yet, for sure, you still need to measure the head circumference.
For this, you can use a flexible measuring tape to take this measurement. Or else, you can take the same measurement with a length of string. All you need to do is simply wrap the string around the head and make a mark at the point where it fully wraps around. Do note that you should measure the length of the string with a ruler or tape measure.
Draw Your Creative Pattern
Next, you can work on your creative pattern. So, basically, the pattern will be a series of shapes showing you what to cut from your materials.
Thus, it includes some points like:
- The hat’s crown
You can use a crown pattern to help you draft something based on your previous measurement.
- The sideband
The sideband is how high you want your hat. In general, it should be high enough that extends slightly above the ears to the top of the head.
- The hat’s brim
The hat’s brim can change depending on what kind of brim you want and how large you want it to be. For example, a wide-brim sun hat requires a different pattern than a baseball cap.
Start Cutting the Materials
Next, you will use the pattern you just drafted to cut your materials. For this, you will need fabric scissors. What you have to do here is cut a few ovals using the pattern you drew. Then, you should also cut pieces for the main material, lining, and interfacing.
Next, you can overlap the pieces at the top until they come together oval. Remember to adjust it until the size of this oval equals the hat’s crown measurement.
For cutting the brim, you can simply follow the pattern you decide. Lastly, you can also cut a piece of material for a sweatband that goes alongside the interior of the side band.
The Sewing Process
Now, your final step is to sew your hats. Here, you should start by sewing each piece individually. Sew the main fabric, the lining, and the interfacing to form one consistent piece. For the brim, you need to reinforce it further by sewing circles in the middle.
Then, you can start with some stitching to get a structure and move it over to a sewing machine. Finally, you should sew in the sweatband.
Overall, the process of making a custom hats might sound intimidating. However, you only need to take the process step by step, and you are good to go.
Create Your Hat Brand
Once you have mastered the process of making custom hats, you can then figure out how to create a hat brand. Definitely, you want your brand to be as visible as possible, right?
Here’s the scoop!
- Make sure you have a unique brand name which has not available in the market yet
- Create a special logo to highlight your brand
- Consider branding consistency in all your marketing materials by placing your logo on your hats, your boxes to ship hats, and any promoting materials
When you can create a distinctive brand name, it will be easier for customers to remember your hat products and brand.
Design Your Hat Store
Last but not least, you need to know how to start a hat store. The main goal you should have here is to create a welcoming ambiance in your store. You can do this by painting your store with bold colors and trendy graphics. Plus, you can hang some attractive images of your hats on the wall to attract more customers. Most importantly, don’t forget that you should provide excellent customer service to make those visitors love your store.
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Summing Up
Indeed, starting your own hat company will be quite challenging. However, with proper planning, knowledge of hat-making, creating your hat shop, and making a unique hat brand, you can achieve success in this industry.
So, have a good start!
