As the old saying goes, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention". That was the case with the beginning of Hat Saver over 25 years ago. Like many others, I would wear a hat a few times, ruin it with sweat stains and throw it away. I was an avid golfer and had a favorite hat that I would wear every time I teed it up, which in my mind gave me my golf superpowers. It was a black Nike hat with italicized NIKE writing with a swoosh. I would get about 2-3 rounds out of the hat and it would be covered with white salt stains that would not come out. The sweat would suck the die out of the hat rendering it unable to be revived. The next step was to throw it away and get another one, which is what all of us used to do.
I returned from a round of golf on a hot Arizona day with my favorite Nike Hat covered with white salt stains knowing that I needed to throw it away and get another. So, I was off to the local store to replace my favorite hat and found out that they had discontinued the design. It was disappointing to hear that news and was left wondering how I would ever get another par without my trusty hat. I remember coming home saying to my wife: "We can put a man on the moon, but we can't keep sweat off of my hat?" At that moment, Hat Saver was born. I immediately went to work for the next year to develop a product that was designed specifically to keep my sweat from coming to the outside of my hat and ruining it.
It wasn't an easy task to say the least. We started with the original Hat Saver aerosol can and there were many ups and downs along the way trying to figure out how to stop sweat from coming from the inside of the hat to the outside and not affecting the fabric and color of the hat. But after several samples, tests and tweaks, we finally got it right as evidenced by the 4.92 Star rating on our website. Once we had a working formula, I took the leap of faith ordering 5000 cans bottled and sent to me without even one can sold.
I knew that I wasn't the only one with special hats that didn't want them ruined with sweat and had faith that it would sell. To save money, I even had them made without a label to save some money. One of my fondest memories of the Hat Saver journey is thinking back on all the evenings that my Wife, Daughter and myself would spend together hand labeling every one of the 5000 cans. It was and always has been a family affair.
Once we had it ready to sell, I started the grass roots marketing of Hat Saver. I sent a can to George Peper, the Editor-in-Chief of GOLF Magazine to test it out. Six weeks later I called him and to my surprise he answered the phone! We chatted for a bit and I found out that he liked it so much that he directed his editor to make it the Editors Pick for Holiday Gift Ideas in their magazine. That gave us the credibility and boost that we needed by being endorsed by such a large magazine which was huge. Orders came pouring in from that article and we were on our way to saving millions of hats from sweat stains.
Fast forward 23 years and in June of 2023 I decided to get away from the aerosol dispensing due to various problems with nozzles leaking. It took another 9 months but we came up with a new and improved formula that is much cleaner, more environmentally friendly and more effective which is dispensed from a pump spray bottle. This version of Hat Saver has been even more popular than before and does a better job of protecting your hat.
I had no idea 25 years ago when I started with a simple idea where this would go. But I am humbled to see the enthusiasm that the Hat Saver family is exhibiting as they continue to protect their precious and expensive hats from sweat stains. It took a lot of time, effort and determination to make it work, but it has been a gratifying ride and a blessing to make a small difference in how we look while wearing our hats. We did prove that if you can “put a man on the moon, you can save your hat from sweat stains”.
