Trend Watch: Keep on Truckin’ with Trucker Hats!

Welcome to a new series covering all things trends, and how these trends impact the world of promotional products. Once a month, we’ll deep-dive into a current trend, share examples from the retail space, and inspire you to create beautiful merch for your next project!

Summer is finally here and with the sunny weather rolling in, hats have become an indispensable part of a day-to-day wardrobe. Trucker hats have gone from trashy to trendy, and back again over the past three decades, specifically among Generation Z. There are a lot of cool merch campaigns that prove noteworthy lately in the news that feature trucker hats, and many popular brands like Lululemon and Alo have added their iterations of the good ol’ trucker hat to their collections!

The 2000s are Back!

The star among trucker hats brands, Von Dutch, has been thrust back into the mainstream and back on-trend. Last year Hulu released a documentary about the rise and fall of the 2000s most iconic fashion trend, headed by Von Dutch (no pun intended). Today, in 2022,  we see the trucker hat trend rising from the ashes. 

Watch Out for Trendsetters! 

Putting the trucker hat trend into action was the one and only, Kylie Jenner, who wore a trucker hat to the Met Gala this year, and although it may not be the best example of how to wear a trucker hat, she’s a trendsetter, blazing the way for the trucker hats trend to enter into mainstream fashion outlets this season!

A-list celebrities aren’t just setting trends by showing up at the Met Gala in provocative looks, but also by dropping a merch collection alongside new albums! Kanye West recently created an exclusive merch collection following his new NEVER LIKED YOU album. It’s already sold out, but among all the cool items this collection had two beautiful hats. 

Brands like Arc’teryx, Nixon, Patagonia, and Carharrt included trucker hats with patches in their collections this most recent season, further indicating the queue that retail is taking from this increasingly popular fashion statement. Whatever your style, age, or occasion, you’ll find a trucker hat that will suit your needs and keep you on-trend! 

Suppliers Following the Trend

Trucker hats are booming and everyone wants to include at least one hat in their merch collection, including promotional products suppliers. Suppliers like OTTO Cap offer hats only, while other suppliers like Knoss, have hats alongside other on-trend products. 

This year commonsku keeping up with the trends game and including one trucker hat from Knoss to the skucamp Brooklyn merch collection!

PRO TIP: One of the advantages of being on commonsku is the ability to access Supplier Collections, curated groupings of new and exciting items created around a release, trend, or timely theme, and can add these product ideas to their Presentations and Shops for their clients with just one click!

Movie Magic

From the music industry to the film industry,  branded merchandise is dominating the pop-culture game! What would be the best gift if you are on the crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? That’s right, a trucker hat, and hoodie! The crew of the film was given merchandise to commemorate the wrapping of production, and celebrate a job well done. The most interesting of the two gifts are the trucker hat with a patch of an Aztec iconography, it'll be interesting to see if this Aztec theme will play any kind of role in Wakanda Forever.

Branded merchandise for movies has been taken to a whole new level, and the Black Panther is just one example of all the wonderful merch that’s being produced. A24 is doing an amazing movie swag and promo merch and we have a whole skucast episode about them!

Make sure to keep up with the industry, and the world's most exciting trends, so your swag is sold out in a wink!

Feeling inspired? Tag us on social @commonsku in your projects featuring the trucker hats this season! We would love to see and share your work.

commonsku is software specifically designed for the promotional products industry. It's a CRM, Order Management, and eCommerce platform wrapped up in one sophisticated hub. With software that intuitively connects distributors and suppliers, commonsku is like a breath of fresh air for your team. Learn more at commonsku.com

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Episode 226: Smart Sourcing with Isaac Hetzroni, Imprint Genius

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Episode 225: Tackling the Promo Products Labor Shortage with Rory Young, Delegate CX