How does a 20-year-old UT college student innovate a way to interchange the bill and crown of a hat in his college dorm room?
The idea for TwoBill was born at a dinner table in Florida with my family. As a hat enthusiast with a keen eye for style, I often found myself wishing I could customize hats to my liking. "Why don't you make hats where the bill can flip?" my sister suggested. The idea intrigued me, but I had no clue how to make it a reality. Nonetheless, the seed was planted.
Back at the University of Texas for my sophomore year, the concept continued to nag at me. I had the catchy name – TwoBill, which embodied the product and had a nice ring to it. Step one, check. But how could I bring this revolutionary idea to life?
I started by attempting to interchange the bill of a Howler Brothers green corduroy hat with a navy bill using a basic sewing kit. After hours of handwork, the result was far from perfect, but it proved the concept was feasible. However, I needed to innovate a technology that could switch the bill and cap in seconds, not hours, while maintaining the same look, feel, and weight as a regular hat – all with a simple mechanism a 6-year-old could operate.
After learning how to sew with my grandma's sewing machine, daily life provided inspiration as I explored different ideas through trial and error, including snapbacks, c snaps, door hinge mechanisms, sliders, magnets, velcro, and metal hooks. But after over a dozen failed attempts, frustration set in. I was stuck, tired of trying to accomplish something that had never been done before.
Then, a lightbulb moment struck, sparked by an unlikely source – the corner connector for a soft-top Jeep, which my sister had on her blacked-out Jeep Sahara. The simple yet sturdy metal hook and plastic fold mechanism gave me the epiphany I needed. After iterating and refining, I finally landed on the TwoBill mechanism you see today. Against all odds, I had done the impossible. I immediately filed for a patent to protect my ingenious invention.
Now, the next challenge: how to share this revolutionary product with the world and turn TwoBill into a successful business.
Welcome to TwoBill
- Wyatt Leathers