STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. It may have started out as a joke, but the men behind the Rad Pro Chin Strap Hat Kickstarter are serious about halting a serious problem among the active set hat loss.
Hat loss, as described in the video, is the age-old problem of losing a hat while participating in sunshine-filled, outdoor activities. Youre skiing and whoosh, your hat is lost in a snowy drift. Youre cliff jumping and your hat decamps to make a new life at the bottom of the lake with the fishes. Youre trying to show your best girl your sweet moves on a trampoline and your cool factor becomes nil as you lose your sweet lid.
Marsh Gooding and Matt Legrice, both 28-year-olds originally from Steamboat Springs, created the product and Kickstarter campaign. They aim to not only raise awareness about hat loss, but to let others know there is an answer in the form of a football helmet-like chin strap affixed to a baseball cap. After all, everyone knows someone who has lost a hat. Even my dad lost a hat, says one sad hat loss victim in the video.
Gooding decided to put the Rad Pro Chin Strap Hat on Kickstarter when he took a prototype on a backcountry ski run and a stranger asked Gooding where he could get a hat with a chin strap.
I thought that he would make fun of me, but he was asking me, Where can I get one of those? Thats awesome, Gooding said. It makes a lot of sense, because with backcountry skiing youre hiking all day and you want to keep your hat on.
Yes, the video they created is hilarious and seems like one big joke, but Gooding and Legrice are serious about making their Kickstarter goal, just not with a hard sell.
We dont really want to sell it hard, because the people that do see it say, Wow, I actually need one of those, Gooding said. They have that reaction regardless.
The look of the video intro is decidedly 1980s. They framed the rest of the video in a satirical lens inspired by the attitude and language in the TV show Silicon Valley, which is based on the tech industry in the early 1980s. The characters use tech buzzwords and talk about changing the world with ridiculous tech products, Gooding said.
I think its (the hat) actually kind of a useful product. But at the end of the day, the joke of preventing hat loss and acting like were changing the world one hat at a time kind of treating it as a 90s-style infomercial on hair loss or something similar would be an absolute blast.
The only problem with their soft (yet uproarious) sell is that the video is getting high praise and attention, but the Kickstarter itself is lagging. Well, that and perhaps the risk of unsightly tanlines on the face from the strap. But Gooding has a response to the latter.
I think (tan lines) would look great, because its face-slimming, Gooding said tongue in cheek. You get that line, it just makes your jaw line look that much more enhanced.
In reality, Gooding said people who have used the hat dont wear the chin strap until their activities like skiing, backflipping or roller-coastering require it.
If you need more of the humor in the video, read the product and rewards descriptions on their Kickstarter page; the $1-5 rewards are top-notch. But whatever you do, remember that despite the jokey tone of the video, the product and uses are legit.
A lot of people have asked us, Wait, is this for real or is this just a joke? Because I want a hat, but I dont know if you guys are actually making them, Gooding said. Yes, we actually are making these, and actually are raising money to meet our minimum production quantities required.
Hat loss, as described in the video, is the age-old problem of losing a hat while participating in sunshine-filled, outdoor activities. Youre skiing and whoosh, your hat is lost in a snowy drift. Youre cliff jumping and your hat decamps to make a new life at the bottom of the lake with the fishes. Youre trying to show your best girl your sweet moves on a trampoline and your cool factor becomes nil as you lose your sweet lid.
Marsh Gooding and Matt Legrice, both 28-year-olds originally from Steamboat Springs, created the product and Kickstarter campaign. They aim to not only raise awareness about hat loss, but to let others know there is an answer in the form of a football helmet-like chin strap affixed to a baseball cap. After all, everyone knows someone who has lost a hat. Even my dad lost a hat, says one sad hat loss victim in the video.
Gooding decided to put the Rad Pro Chin Strap Hat on Kickstarter when he took a prototype on a backcountry ski run and a stranger asked Gooding where he could get a hat with a chin strap.
I thought that he would make fun of me, but he was asking me, Where can I get one of those? Thats awesome, Gooding said. It makes a lot of sense, because with backcountry skiing youre hiking all day and you want to keep your hat on.
Yes, the video they created is hilarious and seems like one big joke, but Gooding and Legrice are serious about making their Kickstarter goal, just not with a hard sell.
We dont really want to sell it hard, because the people that do see it say, Wow, I actually need one of those, Gooding said. They have that reaction regardless.
The look of the video intro is decidedly 1980s. They framed the rest of the video in a satirical lens inspired by the attitude and language in the TV show Silicon Valley, which is based on the tech industry in the early 1980s. The characters use tech buzzwords and talk about changing the world with ridiculous tech products, Gooding said.
I think its (the hat) actually kind of a useful product. But at the end of the day, the joke of preventing hat loss and acting like were changing the world one hat at a time kind of treating it as a 90s-style infomercial on hair loss or something similar would be an absolute blast.
The only problem with their soft (yet uproarious) sell is that the video is getting high praise and attention, but the Kickstarter itself is lagging. Well, that and perhaps the risk of unsightly tanlines on the face from the strap. But Gooding has a response to the latter.
I think (tan lines) would look great, because its face-slimming, Gooding said tongue in cheek. You get that line, it just makes your jaw line look that much more enhanced.
In reality, Gooding said people who have used the hat dont wear the chin strap until their activities like skiing, backflipping or roller-coastering require it.
If you need more of the humor in the video, read the product and rewards descriptions on their Kickstarter page; the $1-5 rewards are top-notch. But whatever you do, remember that despite the jokey tone of the video, the product and uses are legit.
A lot of people have asked us, Wait, is this for real or is this just a joke? Because I want a hat, but I dont know if you guys are actually making them, Gooding said. Yes, we actually are making these, and actually are raising money to meet our minimum production quantities required.
