With more and more hats piling onto my desk, it was clear I needed to find a solution to my growing hat disorganization. After looking around online for other hat holders, I came across two options: a hook, which hangs your hat down rather than displays the front, or an inefficient and expensive display system that isn't particularly made for home use. Unhappy with these options, I started to design my own hat holder to be printed off of my 3D Printer.

Step 1: Initial Designs

Throughout the design process, the hat holder took many different shapes and sizes. I began with a stackable design, instead of a wall-mountable design, that would allow multiple pieces to slide together, holding multiple hats. I quickly realized that the balance problems and wasted material created a poor product, so I began slimming it down before even making a physical prototype.

Step 2: Finalizing the Design

Starting with the inefficient base in the last step, the design quickly grew shorter and slimmer. At each step of these designs, I printed a prototype to see and feel what needed to be improved for the next iteration (more on the 3D printing later).

Step 3: Final Design

After 8 different versions of the hat holder, I settled on this one. It was the perfect balance of snugness and looseness that held the hat securely while allowing easy access to remove the hat without harming it.