CHUCK ORIGINALS

Chuck Originals: Retro Style Gets New Look

For more than 15 years, Putnam Accessory Group has made baseball caps for many of the major action-sports companies and fashion labels, including Hurley, Neff and Guess?

But working behind the scenes did not entirely satisfy John Putnam, president of the Vernon, Calif.–based company.

In 2011, he started his own baseball caps and accessories label, called Chuck Originals. But Putnam wanted to go beyond the borders of baseball caps.

At the recent Agenda trade show, which took place at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Putnam was intent on reintroducing the bucket hat.

“We always wanted to bring something fresh to the table, not just a baseball hat,” Putnam said. “It’s a community of hats, and the wholesale novelty hat biz is becoming more relevant today than ever.”

He has a point. According to market-research firm The NPD Group, total sales for hats grew 4.8 percent in June 2013 over the previous year. In pop-culture memory, the soft, unconstructed hat was seen on the heads of TV characters such as Gilligan of “Gilligan’s Island” as well as hip-hop pioneer LL Cool J.

Putnam tested the bucket hat last year at a handful of popular specialty retailers, including Dr. Jay’s in New York City. When retailers made reorders for the retro hat, the test was deemed a success.

Putnam put the bucket hat in almost as many categories as baseball caps for Chuck Originals’ Spring/Summer 2014 collection.

Some of the buckets are reversible and offer two prints in one hat. Other bucket hats mix fabrics with different trims, such as a leather brim attached to cotton fabric.

All the bucket hats use unique prints. One of those is the reversible “Cat Fight” hat with one side featuring a red-and-black polka-dot design. The other side features pictures of cats with paws bound in boxing gloves.

Another look is the “Modelo,” which features pastel and gray stripes.

For more information, email brian@chuckoriginals.com.