One student. One idea. One hat.

He didn’t walk in with a résumé.
He walked in with a sketch...

A high school kid named Karsen - quiet, local, curious - had spent a day job shadowing our marketing team.

Almost a year later, he came back – this time with two hand drawn hat designs. Scribbled notes in the margins. Color codes. Rope placement. Every detail mapped out like it mattered.

Because to him, it did.

Then he left them at the front desk with Robin.

That could’ve been the end of it.
But that’s not how CARE works.

Emily Hofstetter, our Art Director, took one look at the drawings and that creative spark hit. “Let’s bring this to life.”

She pulled in our Apparel Team.
Brandon Schroeder to hunt down the right colorways. Gina Brown started cutting ropes off other hats - literally taking them apart - to stitch together something that didn’t exist anywhere else.

Sometimes you just need to break the script…and follow that feeling.

When Karsen came back to HQ, we handed him a 1-of-1 hat, built exactly to his specs.
He couldn’t stop smiling.
Neither could we.

And suddenly, that baby blue hat wasn’t just a design anymore.
It was a story. A spark of connection that can’t be measured in units or margins…
only meaning.

Because that hat was 1-of-1.
Just like Karsen.
Just like every customer.

You see, when you treat people like they’re 1-of-1, it’s no longer just a transaction…
it’s now a story worth telling.

You don’t scale by chasing scale.
You scale by creating something so human, so personal, that people can’t help but share it.

CARE - Creating A Rare Experience does the scaling for you.

So to Emily, Brandon, and Gina…thank you for reminding us what real CARE looks like.

One student. One idea. One hat.
One unforgettable reminder that every story worth telling starts with someone worth caring about.

Story > Scale.
Story → Scale.