Most hats make you choose: well-made or actually fun. We spent three years making sure you don't have to.

TL;DR

Two guys in a pool:
“Dude, let’s start a hat company.”

Two hours earlier:
“Why does every hat suck?”

Three years later:
DYLF Hats.

_____

THE FULL STORY... October 10th, 2020. Florida Keys.

We, Trey and Aric, were floating around in the pool with our wives when Aric started complaining about hats. How all the fun hats are cheap and all the well-made hats are boring. Why did it always feel like you had to choose?

At some point, Aric started throwing out names for our hat company that didn't exist. Most of them were terrible. Then he half-jokingly said, "What about DYLF Hats? You know... Do You Like Fun?"

It was the kind of name you hear once and don't forget. That night I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about how hard it really is to find a fun hat you actually want to wear. Before the roosters woke everyone up in Key West, I was already Googling hat manufacturers and textile suppliers.

A few days later we were back home in Indiana. We hired a freelance designer, put together some early patterns, and ordered samples. We figured they'd be bad, we'd tell the manufacturer what to fix, and we'd be in business in a few months.

We were very wrong.

Months turned into quarters. Quarters turned into years. Samples took forever. Every time one showed up, something was off. One had a brim that felt like cardboard. Another had stitching that looked like it was done in the dark. The colors on one looked great online and washed out in person. Close, but not right.

Friends and family kept asking when the hats were coming. We kept saying "soon." They stopped believing us way before we stopped working on it.

At some point we realized we weren't just tweaking a product, we were learning how hats actually get made. And more importantly, what not to settle for.

After three years and more samples than we can count, we finally got one that felt right. Structured front that held its shape. Fabric that didn’t feel cheap. A fit that worked on heads that weren’t identical. Not just on your head, just right.

That's really it.

DYLF didn't start with a big plan. It started with a complaint in a pool, turned into an obsession, and eventually became something we were proud to put our name on.

We just wanted hats that were well made and weren't boring. Turns out that takes a lot longer than you'd think.

So yeah. We like fun.

You Made It This Far. Might As Well See What We’re Up To.