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Musical artist Deaton Chris Anthony offers a branded hat that fastens via a USB.
You’ve heard of snapbacks, fitted caps, flex hats and strapbacks.
Now, there’s a dad hat that fastens via USB.
Photo from Deaton Chris Anthony. Find the hat here.
The stroke of creative genius comes from Los Angeles-based musical artist and fashion designer Deaton Chris Anthony. And candidly, I’m jealous: I wish I would have come up with the idea.
It’s a simple, but effective stroke of ingenuity.
When worn, the USB tucks into a small opening in the canvas or mesh cap, similar to how the extra slack of a strapback would. The closure tightens and loosens to various head sizes via a nylon pull fastener. Available in 11 colors, the “Nothing But Net” hat is the first cap ever to clasp via USB, according to Anthony. I couldn’t find evidence to contradict him – at least through my admittedly unscientific googling and searching of ASI’s ESP, a database of products from across the promotional products industry.
When not being worn, the USB can be removed from its slot and plugged in. A recent Vogue article noted that the teched-up headwear is an easy way for DJs and musical artists (or really anyone) to keep a fully loaded USB on them – a USB that features their creative work, ready for sharing. Certainly, Anthony had that in mind when he developed the USB cap.
“We’re using this hat as a tool to collaborate with other artists and also to be able to push merch within music forward,” Anthony told Vogue. “I think something that I’ve noticed since I started making music was realizing that the fashion side of the music industry, or culture and music in general, isn’t really hashed out. There’s way too much potential to really do cool things in fashion and music, because I do think that they are one-to-one.”
Beyond his USB hats, Anthony has a line of handmade branded merchandise that he sews together from various existing garments, like sweatshirts, to make new singular creations. The Vogue article has more on that if you’re interested, though I can’t say the styles resonate with me personally.
Still, I wanted to call the promotional products industry’s attention to the “Nothing But Net” hat for a variety of reasons. For starters, good old-fashioned inspiration! Seeing cool new products can spark imagination and help you come up with unique solutions of your own.
Second, because Anthony’s ambitious, creative merch efforts highlight the appetite among musical artists to grow their brands – and incomes – via merchandise sales. Promo distributors can help with this growing niche. The more novel, on-brand solutions promo pros come up with for artists, the better the chance the merch marketing will stand out and connect with audiences. That should lead to success for musical artists – and ad specialty distributors. So put your creative dad cap on, so to speak, and plug into fresh ideas for crafting can’t-miss product solutions and campaigns.
The QR code has become a popular choice of late, and it was instrumental to the success of a recent campaign from the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) aimed at trying to get people to stop texting while driving.
To keep drivers’ hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, MDX embarked on a national awareness campaign that would communicate the true danger of texting while driving and try to increase awareness enough to create a law banning texting and driving. Instead of taking the gory, shocking route, MDX chose to connect emotionally with drivers, showing the damage that can be done to those left behind. MDX teamed up with Ronin Advertising Group to produce a short film entitled The Last Word, which is about the aftermath for families of victims of texting while driving. Ronin also developed a comprehensive communications strategy, including extensive social media outreach, the creation of industry partnerships and a consistent presence at local and national events. One unique component of the campaign was the use of T-shirts with QR codes to get the message out. When scanned with a smartphone, the QR code brought a user directly to the film/website. In all, 10,000 T-shirts were distributed at key events, including the Miami-Dade College graduation, as a gift to all new graduates in a bag labeled “this bag will save your life.”
The students received the shirt and gift bag after they signed a pledge to not text and drive, with a branded mini Sharpie keychain that they were also able to keep as a reminder. “We created the shirts because we wanted the students to watch the film and pass it on to their family and friends, but knew that the venue where we would have the most access to them was not necessarily the best one for them to interact with the film,” says Karen Ableman, president of Ronin Advertising Group.
Ableman recognized that the audience was interested in and familiar with new technology. “We provided them with a piece that they could keep and easily scan at any time and be taken directly to The Last Word, which they could watch on their mobile device – a particularly poignant way of receiving the message, considering it is about texting and driving,” she says.
In addition to T-shirts, Ronin developed a postcard with a QR code that was launched at the Miami Corporate Run in order to continue the buzz and further convey the message.
To date, there have been more than 30,000 views of the film on YouTube. There has been extensive media coverage of the campaign, as well as a highly active Facebook page and positive feedback from other companies and individuals looking to join in supporting the cause.