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Yes! Let’s talk about Aussie Trucker Hats and how this all came about

Marde Wiltshire (inventor/designer/owner) started out in 2001 with the custom business Design My Hat to offer a truly original unique design custom hats and caps for individual client businesses.

Aussie Trucker Hats has been in the making for the past seven years. Although trucker hats have been around in the USA since the 1930’s, in Australia up until 2014 the only trucker hat available was a very cheap promotional foam/mesh that you could purchase for a few dollars a piece.

At this time Marde wanted to develop a hat that fulfilled all branding and marketing aspects including being able to stand the ruggedness of wear and tear of rural life. Working closely with a large rural customer known as Landmark at the time now known as Nutrien, a global company.

I chose the humble trucker hat as our new development hat.

The fit is everything!

We all know that the fit of the trucker hat was the most important design aspect. Marde came up with the first Australian Head fit crown in the world, all other crowns are designed to fit an Asian head. I was fedup with watching men walking down the road having to keep pulling their hat down toward their ears to keep it on as it was a regular annoyance to them, the hat simply did not fit them but that was all that was available until now.

Now with Aussie Trucker Hats the best selling feature is the FIT. The most spoken about best and first feature is always the fit and just how much our client loves the fit.

Unique fabrics, colours and designs

We were the first to introduce Acrylics, Cottons and Camouflage premium fabrics along with strong buckram crown supports with upgraded snapback rear closures for our Aussie trucker hat not only to Australia but around the world in 25,000 possible colourway combinations.

The next step was to be able to provide a much larger variety of colours to the Aussie trucker hats as the main colours available were black, navys and greys. This meant if we were to use lighter colours such as whites, creams and pastels then there had to be an easier way to launder the Aussie Trucker Hat.

A super simple way to clean your hat

After many months using different washing processes we discovered using the kitchen dishwasher gave the best results as there is no push and pull effect like there is in a washing machine. We found that by simply putting the Aussie trucker hat on the top shelf of the dishwasher and going through a normal cycle the white trucker hat with the accumulated outback red dust and sweaty bands and allowed to cool dry at room temperature come out new like the day it was purchased. This reinforced that we had to use premium fabrics. This is first time in the world that any trucker hat was labeled “DISHWASHER SAFE” on the care label.

This care label is now on all our available products.

Unique branded decorations, not seen anywhere else

With the introduction of social networking gaining a strong foothold in the new digital world of marketing Marde wanted to include some important design decoration placements so the Aussie trucker hats looked very balanced and cool and included the main decoration requisites required for any of today's businesses.

We designed and introduced some basic decoration design elements that every business would require such as:

Woven Side Tab - ideal place for web address, phone number or facebook address
Full Crown decoration with possible 2nd layered decoration
Rear Arch Text - ideal for web address or company text slogan
Inner Woven Label - this label ensures that this trucker hat was custom designed for the client with their social networking contact applied
Woven Side Labels - To add any additional advertising for sponsors & contact points
The Fabric Side Bands - to give design and colour balance.

To give the Aussie Trucker Hat balance for colour and a cool look Marde introduced the two side bands on the mesh running down each side of the Aussie Trucker Hat now with side bands.

Unique branded decorations, not seen anywhere else

Ground breaking innovations that our competitors copy

We are the first in the world to design this feature. Yes Aussie Trucker Hats is the originator of the trucker hat with two side bands.

I make this point I am the inventor/designer of this trucker hat with the side bands. Many other try hard companies have copied my design and are claiming it as their own so please be aware of copies and fakes as we are the one and are the original designers.

Ground breaking innovations that our competitors copy

You Get More Than What You Pay For

Let’s talk about one of the reasons that the Aussie Trucker Hats are a little more expensive than the other blatant copiers and fake websites have stolen from my trucker hat designs and passing them off to their customers by saying “ yes they are exactly the same as the ones made by Design My Hat or Aussie Trucker hats. Some of those copier websites are making their trucker hats in 3rd world countries like Vietnam and not telling the customer exactly where they are made other than saying “yes they are made in Asia”

We want to clearly state that we only use Premium Fabrics & Premium Mesh & Premium Buckram. (Buckram is the solid backing on the front crown)

Premium Hat Fabrics are made exclusively in China for China manufacturing. The actual fabrics are of the best quality yarn and a much higher gram weight per oz than the usual trucker hat fabric but there is a premium cost to use those fabrics.

China has a ruling that the premium hat fabrics and mesh cannot be exported to other manufacturing countries, something to do with competition So you can understand while some leading surf brands and other copiers who use to make all their hats and caps in China now making them in other third world countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Why weight matters

Like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan, at much reduced costs mind you they have not reduced their retail prices but the weight of the trucker hat is ⅓ lighter than the Aussie Trucker Hat with double side bands.

If you are not using a Premium Hat Fabric then you are using a much lighter cheaper fabric which is what they make shirts and dresses from. So you can imagine the wear and tear longevity of those custom trucker hats. You will find collapsing of the front crown only weeks after with custom trucker hats from these countries.

Similar situation with the mesh that completes the Aussie Trucker Hat with double side bands. Our basic trucker hat, the midrange trucker hat, the power trucker and the foamie trucker hat all have premium mesh that does not collapse three to six months after constant wear. This also allows us to use a 12 month guarantee with every order and allows us to use the “DISHWASHER SAFE” on our care label.