How a hat trick rescued this local sportsgear entrepreneur

a number of years ago, Luke Fraser became dwelling in Glen Ellen and growing customized, funkified fashion for Bay enviornment activities lovers, in particular these with lifetime loyalty to Dub Nation.

but as a result of the sliding fortunes of the soldiers team, he has steadily pivoted his company to creating "pocket hats," a collection of unisex trucker hats with pleasing embroidered patches shouting out the names of Northern California towns like Guerneville and Cotati, Ukiah and Sonoma.

"i used to be doing silkscreen t-shirts, after which the warriors misplaced," he talked about. "I knew it was not a very good business model to depend on a team to be champions every year."

For his now-defunct Bart Bridge line of clothing — t-shirts and jackets made from retro cloth grafted onto thrift-shop camouflage — he had made a few "stash hats" with abbreviated region names like "town" (for Oakland) and "city" for San Francisco.

"It became nonetheless activities-related then," he stated. "that you would be able to stick a card in there behind the patch, and in case you're on holiday, that you could stash a bank card, a few bucks or a room key."

in the again of his intellect, Fraser had been considering what he would do subsequent. although it wasn't a slam dunk, the conception of expanding his line of hats slowly took root.

Then a chum drew a fab sketch of a California poppy. Fraser picked up the poppy and ran with it. He became residing in Penngrove at the time, so he decided to create a Sonoma County product that might support his business grow, whether Bay enviornment teams had been profitable or not.

"Sonoma County turned into my first non-activities-connected hat," he talked about. "I used a black hat, and it appeared so appealing and artistic. then you make a Marin County Hat and a Sonoma hat, after which you get obsessed."

Hyper, hyper-native

Now, two years later, Fraser has created a sequence of greater than a hundred different patches for caps that are beautiful and fun, exuding the positivity one feels after getting back from a relaxing holiday in a gorgeous, below-the-radar spot.

"if you happen to go to a place for holiday and it's vague, americans get excited to peer the hat," he spoke of. "The dopamines are going off as you bear in mind the vacations you took in those places."

It additionally helps that his embroidered designs, executed with the support of his artist friend Mike Hampton, are colourful, whimsical and often tongue-in-cheek, just like the t-shirts he as soon as made for Warriors enthusiasts.

"Cotati has an accordion. Rohnert Park has the limited-access highway signal. Petaluma has a fowl ... naturally," he mentioned. "Sonoma has an olive department. Guerneville has a purple fold-out beach chair. ... It's a little Bohemian."

Fraser stayed away from any variety wine imagery on aim. however he did supply Santa Rosa a beer bottle and glass as a nod to the realm-famous Pliny the younger craft beer from the Russian River Brewing Co.

His Sebastopol hat boasts a Gravenstein apple. Mendocino County has a pine cone. Ukiah received a weed trimmer (because the gateway to the Emerald Triangle), and Arcata points some suitable fungi.

"I just entire West Marin, and i can't wait to demonstrate it to a shop," he stated. "It's bought an iris on it."

currently, Fraser has been producing patches completed within the Bauhaus vogue, a modernist college that mixed crafts with the fine arts. Its primary traces and geometric affect can also be considered on his Mt. Tam hat, with its slanting solar and triangular mountain, and his Sea Ranch hat, with its boxy brown houses.

"i like that the hat is unisex and it's one measurement, and the desktop embroidery definitely makes it pop," Fraser said. "They're art. i can see them displayed on a wall, in cubbies made with barnwood."

The ever-expanding sequence of hats, which additionally facets towns from the East Bay and South Bay to Lake Tahoe, comprises about 15 that tout the small towns of Sonoma County, and additional Sonoma Valley hats are on the drafting board.

The customized lids are flying off retail cabinets from Sonoma to Lake Tahoe.

"The Sock shop in Truckee is promoting about seven hats a day," Fraser referred to. "I get a kick out of it when the shops put in an order, and they're completely excited."

At massive bottom Market in Guerneville, owner Michael Volpatt initially provided to promote about 15 of Fraser's hats on a trial basis. inside a couple of days, they were all gone.

"individuals love the design since it's so unique and creative," Volpatt spoke of. "Even the kids on the market referred to, 'i like the Cotati hat.' Whoever notion there can be a Cotati hat?"

like the t-shirts he designed for Bart Bridge, the patches for the pocket hats are a collaborative system between himself and Hampton.

"I select a town, and that i ought to distill a city right down to one graphic," Fraser talked about. "and i inform him what I'm hunting for. on occasion it's effortless, and often it's tricky."