KC on top: Hat maker’s best-seller spotted on ‘GMA,’ ‘Ted Lasso’ as brand shapes its national profile

Sandlot Goods wears the spotlight well, said Thomas McIntyre, noting each high-profile media close up of its signature dad hat is another step toward establishing Kansas City’s only hat manufacturer as a national brand.

After being featured on the “Made In America Christmas” segment of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, Sandlot was again highlighted on Good Morning America’s “Steals and Deals” featuring U.S.-made products before the Fourth of July.

Thomas McIntyre, Sandlot Goods

“It’s building momentum and increasing familiarity with the brand,” explained McIntyre, CEO of Sandlot, one of Startland News Startups to Watch in 2023.

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Tory Johnson — who hosts the “Steals and Deals” segment from GMA — reached out to the Kansas City company after buying a hat for her husband; she’d seen Sandlot Goods featured on ABC News before Christmas.

“It ended up being her husband’s favorite hat,” McIntyre said.

The Sandlot team knew that offering a deal to be featured on the program was an exciting opportunity for exposure, he continued, but recognized to could present a new challenge: high inventory requirements from GMA (so participating companies don’t sell out too quickly), which would result in margins taking a hit with the deal being offered.

“We decided we were in the right place as a company, and yes, that exposure is worth taking on all those things,” he explained.

KC hat by Sandlot Goods and Made in KC; photo courtesy of Sandlot Goods

Team members at Sandlot Goods produce Kansas City-made hats at the brand's Southwest Boulevard headquarters; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Founder Chad Hickman traveled to New York to appear on the show and to introduce viewers to the Sandlot dad hat.

Chad Hickman, Sandlot Goods

“We were very strategic, very smart about it,” McIntyre added. “It really worked out well with customer orders coming in. We were able to turn our production floor over to Good Morning America-strictly production to get numbers up, and then the show itself worked out great in that sales were OK, but nothing crazy. So we were able to fulfill all the orders.”

Most importantly, McIntyre shared, they had companies reach out after seeing the segment, asking Sandlot to be their hat manufacturer.

“That was the main goal,” he said, “getting those tack-on orders from people who heard about Sandlot.”

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“It’s a slow build, but it’s definitely momentum,” he added.

 

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And GMA isn’t the only recent national spotlight for Sandlot. The company’s KC cotton dad hat was spotted on “Ted Lasso” actress Juno Temple during the filming of the hit Apple+ TV show in the Kansas City area. Even though it might not lead to viral sales of the hat, McIntyre noted, it’s just fun for the team to see something that they made being worn by a celebrity.

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“Of course, I would love for it to be something that leads to a bunch of sales of that hat specifically,” he explained. “But to me, it is another layer of Sandlot and quality and people wanting to wear our hats.”

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Sandlot Goods headquarters in Kansas City; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

After switching to hat manufacturing during the pandemic, Sandlot has been focused on the manufacturing process: quality, hitting numbers, and the right team, McIntyre said. Now, the company has reached a new phase and every piece of national exposure is a boost.

“We’ve figured out a pretty good baseline of manufacturing,” he continued. “We’ve got quality we can count on, numbers we can count on. So now, ‘Let’s go out and let people know who we are and start generating a whole bunch of sales.’ And sales come from a familiarity of a brand, so each time we have something like this happen, that’s another layer of being familiar with Sandlot Goods.”

While focusing on brand recognition and sales, McIntyre said, the team at Sandlot next plans to be strategic about licensing agreements with sports teams outside of the Midwest region.

“From a strategy standpoint, I think licensing comes after brand recognition,” he explained. “I want to grow the brand more and more. Regional licenses make sense. Local licenses make a lot of sense. And then as we expand that list of licensed professional teams outside of our city, I want it to come when there is already a knowledge of who Sandlot Goods is and what our hats are.”