There isn’t an abundance of wearable products you can carry in a store that has such broad appeal as headwear. Anyone looking for an inexpensive, stylish souvenir or a way to shield the sun is a target market.
What’s even better, according to Cory Dean, owner of wholesale company Impulse Souvenirs, is they are one of the easiest products to carry in a seaside store. “One size fits most is so much easier to manage than a hoodie with seven different sizes. Caps and beanies in particular can win in simplicity and sales per square foot.”
Headwear is more than a souvenir or trendy apparel item when your store is 200 yards from the beach like Sunset Beach Trading Co, in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, it’s an essential.
“It is definitely a significant part of our business,” says John Hobgood, who owns the gift and souvenir store with his wife, Tracy. “Of course this year was difficult with the supply chain for deliveries being disrupted. It started impacting us for our caps in mid-June and it made reordering throughout the season a hard thing to do.”
Demand for caps is strong in the store for many ages. Trucker hats, the ones that have the mesh backs, are popular for people from late teens to mid 50s. The full twill caps, sometimes referred to as dad caps, appeal to 20-somethings to 70-year-olds, according to Hobgood.
Legacy Headwear and Richardson supply many of the store’s caps. “The 112 model of Richardson caps continue to be pretty popular with the teenagers and 20-somethings,” notes Hobgood.
While bright beachy colored caps do sell, the most popular colors sold at Sunset Beach Trading Co. are charcoal and black. The vintage-style worn look is a popular style for both caps and visors, and the designs are usually embroidered or on leather appliques.
“Almost all of them have the Sunset Beach logo,” says Hobgood. “Latitude/longitude is still popular as well as anchors and sea turtles.”
The store also carries straw lifeguard hats, ladies’ linen hats and a summertime cowboy hat for men and women, which he says customers like to “wear when they are on vacation but not when they are back home.”
Riding the wave
Dean says Impulse Souvenirs has been “riding the recent patch-on-headwear trends that seem to keep growing. The most popular are caps and even beanies for coastal or beach destinations.”The company’s biggest movers are the hats made of low-profile unstructured twill, cotton twill with mesh backs and single-colored beanies with a patch on the front.
“Embroidered patches are our most popular. People love the dimensional and textured artisanal look of traditional embroidery. Our close second is a woven patch that is especially popular when the imagery is full of small details like animal fur or tiny text. Leather and soft rubber patches are growing in demand.”
Neutral tones are generally more popular orders for Impulse Souvenirs — navies, grays, black or khaki — because they easily integrate into an outfit, but the colors can be as versatile as the styles to complement the designs of their embellishments, notes Dean.
“Caps and beanies are always going to be popular and we are seeing continued growth,” says Dean. “The trucker hat style is seeing a resurgence with the classic baseball trucker cap. Versions appeal to both men and women.”
A tropical twist
Tropical Vibes wholesales several types of hats, including baseball, trucker-style and straw sun hats with an added colorful reminder of the beach.“They all incorporate a tropically inspired design,” says Kim Jones, Tropical Vibes co-founder. “Some consumers will be drawn more to a trucker hat because of the breathable nylon mesh on the back two-thirds of the cap. Others prefer a baseball-style cap — a.k.a. the traditional ‘Dad Hat’ — and those who are downright serious about sun protection opt for our very popular wide-brimmed straw hat.”
The company’s biggest sellers are the Island Collection baseball caps. “They come in a variety of bright colors and tropically inspired patterns that are super popular right now,” says Jones. “Even the most conservative of folks have a fun and funky side itching to be revealed — that ‘let your hair down when you’re on vacation’ feeling — and the Island Collection baseball caps help you do just that.”
According to Jones, the wide-brimmed straw hats have been flying off shelves and onto people’s heads. “They offer a great deal of sun protection, but [with the tropical print underside] they’re way more fun than a lot of the styles you see out there.”
Casual styles and vibrant colors are resonating with Tropical Vibes’ customers. “A lot of people are feeling wrung-out after the last 18 months. They’re looking for fun, inspiration, and a reprieve from that couped-up, locked-down feeling,” says Jones. “Our mantra is to inspire consumers with a tropically inspired vacation state of mind, wherever that may be.”
Beach apparel company It’s the Beach offers a variety of beach appropriate merchandise, including headwear.
“We are seeing that hats, headscarves and snoods are key in 2022 in a variety of silhouettes, fabrications, colors and decorations,” says owner Shelli Maines.
Options include large, retro, colorful and reversible sun hats, and classic and more unique options like floppy hats, and fedoras with varying degrees of brim width.
“Cotton or linen crusher hats, crownless straw hats with large brims and straw visors make for easy roll-up and traveling,” she says. “Straw picnic hats are colorful, printed, embroidered and beaded, and caps have tasteful decorations like metal, laces and inscriptions.”
Posh protection
Hats serve an important duty for beach-bound, outdoor active customers beyond making a fashion statement. Wallaroo’s sun protective headwear is designed to be both fashionable and functional.“With skin cancer on the rise, many customers are seeking options that will look good and protect from the sun,” says Stephanie Carter, Wallaroo founder and CEO. “Customers who wear hats aren’t afraid to be bold and show off their sense of style, but they also value functionality.”
Wide-brimmed hats with a fedora-shaped crown have been on trend and continue to gain traction, according to Carter. “We’ve also seen a movement towards packable hats with wide brims which provide great sun protection and are easy to travel with.”
Wallaroo offers a variety of colors and styles to help its fashion forward customers express themselves.
“People who wear hats also tend to collect them,” Carter adds. “It is important to have different styles to match every outfit and occasion, so collectors often have several hats in different shapes, colors and materials.”
Packed with power
Hats are powerful impulse buys, says Jones. “The margins are good, they don’t have to consume a lot of floor space if you display them right and they don’t tie up big inventory dollars the way a lot of other items do.”Headwear makes sense for a great many retailers, seaside ones included, she says. “People seem to gravitate toward hats, and if you can entice a customer to try one on, bam! It frequently results in a sale.”
