From Children's Sun Hats to now including Adult Sun Hats - The Little Hat Company was featured in Hat Life

THE LITTLE HAT COMPANY GETS THEIR HATS IN THE DAYTIME EMMY AWARDS GIFT BAG
The Little Hat Company owner Jen Houghton
The Cog Hat (above) was featured on NBC’s Today Show. It was in gift bags given to Daytime Emmy Awards nominees in NYC.
We want to honor a small hat company for their tenacity and drive to stay in the forefront of fashion. South Berwick, Maine hatter Jen Houghton, whose company is called The Little Hat Company, has been making news for getting her Cog Hat in the Daytime Emmy Awards gift bag (and on the Today Show).
The reason this was so bittersweet is that Houghton’s store was nearly forced out of business earlier this year because of a federal lead testing law for children’s hats.
The Little Hat Company made 160 "Cog" hats (short for incognito). The reason the hats were called “cog” is because their purpose is to allow celebrities to hide under their hat.
The gift bags were featured on Thursday's "Today" show on NBC, and one of the items hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb picked out was the Cog hat.
”The Little Hat Company’s dream is to become a national hat brand for children and adults. There's no better way to achieve that than by having celebrities use her product. We produce every hat in South Berwick, Maine and are proud to offer our hats at a price that everyone can afford,” said Houghton.
Houghton was going to make children's hats for the gift bags, but made adult hats instead because of a federal law requiring lead testing of all children's products. After an outcry from small business owners like Houghton, who said they couldn't afford the expensive testing costs, the Consumer Product Safety Commission delayed enforcing the law by a year.
The company’s original saying was “Put A Lid on Your Kid” because they only made hats for babies up to age three. Demand grew quickly for older sizes and adults started wearing their big kid sizes, said Houghton.
They also made fleece hats for the commissioning of The USSNH submarine in Portsmouth NH. “The commander saw the lids for kids and asked us to make adult ones for his grown children.”
Then they were hit with the CPSIA. “We were unable to afford the third party lead -phthalate testing for our children’s hats. It would cost $2000 to $3000 for each batch of hats – no economy of scale for a small start up. I am going to Capitol Hill June 2nd and 3rd to speak on behalf of small retailers and manufacturers.”
To contact The Little Hat Company:Email: friendlyperson@thelittlehatcompany.com 10 Portland Street South Berwick, Maine 03908Phone: (207) 384 - 0080