Too early?

[Darsa]

I'm going to be laid up for the next 5 days or so, and I thought I might start making hats for the upcoming winter craft fair season.  I was planning on making the animal hats that I had such success with last year; is it reasonable for me to expect that they'll be popular again next season? 

 

I just don't want to make all kinds of, say, owl hats, only to find out that nobody wants those anymore!

 

Any insight or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

 

[nancybanta]

That's a tough call.  What is popular one year might not be the next - or it can just take off and be popular for a few years - like those ruffle scarves.

 

I think the key to selling hats is to either have something classic or something very different.  I don't know what kind of hats you sold last winter, but perhaps you can tweak the design a bit or just create something new?  With summer coming up, they'll start showing styles for winter and fall - maybe you can get some ideas from that?  ....google skiing hats or unusual skiing hats and see if that's anything you can make.

 

I wish you lots of luck - it's just such a hard thing to predict.

[Real Deal]

If I was going to stock up on children's hats now, I'd do owls, puppies, kitties and teddy bears. I'd also do teen and / or adult beanies especially in the local school colors.

 

In my town, the school colors are orange and black. You'd think people would get sick of them, but nooooo, they love the year-round Halloween colors.