Innovative Sunhat Gaining Kickstarter Success for Jobless Man Living in Parents' Basement

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Jul 05, 2017, 09:00 ET

LARKSPUR, Colo., July 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Shapeshifter™ Sunhat has reached over 75 percent of its $35,000 goal in the first two weeks a 60-day campaign, and shows no signs of slowing. Not a professional inventor, nor a savvy businessman, the Shapeshifter's designer, C. Damien Henning, is an average Colorado outdoorsman and world traveler who wanted to share something useful with fellow adventurers. After spending 11 years and thousands of dollars developing the hat purely on his own, he has now garnered grassroots support that continues to grow.

The majority of highly successful Kickstarter campaigns are launched by established companies with pre-existing press contacts, substantial advertising/PR budgets, experienced teams that fashion campaign pages into professional-looking websites, thousands of dollars in pre-orders to boost "launch" donations, and a substantial established customer base.

It's hard for the Average Joe to compete with that. However, in the case of the Shapeshifter™ Sunhat, a Nobody coming from Nowhere (unemployed, living in Mom and Dad's basement, driving the same car since 1995) began with nothing but an idea and determination, and has utilized crowdfunding to its keenest potential.

"The Shapeshifter™ Sunhat" had no pre-orders and zero PR exposure at the time of launch. All it had was Damien's personal Facebook network composed of local friends, travel buddies, and work mates — from the frozen wasteland of Antarctica, to the tropics of the Marshall Islands — who put their trust in Damien and his abilities; his personal network helped spread the word from his parents' basement up.

Noticing a Need

Through his love of the outdoors and adventure travel, Damien noticed that (with outdoor recreation growing in popularity all over the world), the threat of significant sun damage to our skin is as real as ever. However, the magnitude of this threat is often overlooked by many outdoor-loving consumers. No significant advancements have been made in recreational sun protection technology for years.

Via his new one man company "Roamin Republic LLC", Damien was pleased to announce the pending release and Kickstarter launch of the latest revolutionary product in personal sun protection. "The Shapeshifter™ Sunhat."

The Shapeshifter is a bendable, shape-able, crush-able, durable, super portable, machine washable, waterproof, extra wind resistant, wide-brimmed sunhat.

Although sun hats already exist in the market, they are not fully adequate. Wide-brimmed hats that have softer brims lose their shape very quickly and blow into or out of the face in the wind. Also, using them for facial rain protection results in the soft brim buckling, and more often than not, warping the hat's shape for good.

Stiff, rigid sunhats (such as those utilized by many outdoor workers) are great in the wind, but are heavy and impossible to collapse for easy storage and transport.

If the brim has a thin cable support, it's similarly not compactable, and is still pretty useless in the wind.

A Better Solution

Damien searched for and finally discovered the best way to get a strong, bendable, shape-able, resilient and waterproof cable into the brim of a high-quality sunhat.

He calls it "The Shapeshifter™".

With the unique cable in place, the Shapeshifter can do what no other sunhat can:

The brim will not fold or flop in a head wind up to 65 mph.
The brim will not buckle under heavy rain, keeping drops from smacking the face.
The back can be bent up and fine tuned to give clearance while hiking with a backpack or while playing sports.
It can be folded to increase its compactness and portability, and can be put into small bags or larger pockets.
It can be bent and shaped into an unlimited amount of styles, and HOLD that shape indefinitely.

In addition, the Shapeshifter™ also includes other features that many consumers will find useful:

A neck cape that folds up into a pocket and deploys at the user's convenience (this pocket can also be useful for hiding cash and credit cards).
A zip-off crown that can allow hair to be un- constricted (this is a useful feature for those with thick hair or those who prefer the free feeling of a visor to a hat).
An adjustable cord to fine-tune the size to the wearer's exact needs.
A locking chinstrap that secures the hat firmly to the wearer's head (what's the point in having a super wind-resistant sunhat if the hat won't stay on in heavy wind?).
Side mesh for ventilation.
A moisture-wicking sweatband stitched into the crown that won't flop out.

This is a unique Kickstarter project in the "Product Design" category, considering the forum is dominated by high-tech items from larger companies with greater backing. Relatively few outdoor items have had the success or exposure that the basement-begotten Shapeshifter™ Sunhat promises to have.

For more information, please visit "Shapeshifter Sunhat's" live Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2053304302/shapeshifter-the-worlds-first-shape-able-stiff-bri

https://www.facebook.com/shapeshiftersunhat

Media Contact:
C. Damien Henning
Phone: 720.688.5695
Email: [email protected]

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