A little Flaphat History
I have been in the cryogenic field for over 25 years, manufacturing, prototyping and testing equipment. How does this play into a hat you might ask, Well like a lot of people they want to grow and to be challenged, in leaving a very secure position, myself and a engineer friend were asked to build on another company (same field) that was barely existing. We had gotten it profitable and a bigger client list. Promised that we were going to be there for a long time, with no contract and 3.5 years later we were told we were being downsized. They took our trained personal and move that business operation at another location (we had another word for downsized). Trying not to be angry with this I had to look forward, I had gotten back up and dusted myself off.
About 4 years prior we had gone to a nascar race like we have gone several times before, I remembered this one in particular, we were in the stands and a brisk wind came through and I seen a few hats fly off some heads, at that moment I said to myself why can't anybody make a hat that doesn't fly off. I pondered on that for a moment and forgot about it.
The first day after being (downside) blind-sided I thought about what had happened, I have never been out a day of work since high school. The second day off for some reason the hat idea came into play; I thought I should take a chance and just throw caution to the wind. But also knowing I had to get another job on my mind.
I met another engineer a few years prior to this (downsizing) and got along very well with him. (In sort of the same field) Once he heard what had happened, I had gotten a call and started the following week, but it gave me time to think, should I continue with this venture. My mother once said, if anything should ever happen in taking a chance, take those falling blocks and turn them into stepping stones.
Three years a thousands of dollars later I have a patent, now trying to keep other pricing down I had to learn everything from sewing techniques, 3D modeling to produce engineering drawings for plastic prototyping and manufacturing molds for my producer in Texas, to web page design, with all those years of experience in manufacturing you would think making a mechanical hat would be easy, Yea. So here we are today, still learning what I need to do to get an excellent product out there, going to inventor's convention and reading stories of successful inventors, just trying to pick up some good tips.
Thank you,
