Andrew Buckland said he hit a rough patch in his personal life a few years ago.
The Chattanooga man said he lost his younger brother in an accident and began struggling with depression.
"It was hard to hold down a job," said the 34-year-old former restaurant worker.
When the pandemic, and later a shoulder injury, threw his landscaping business into a tailspin, Buckland -- who is originally from tiny Hephzibah, Georgia, near Augusta -- said he struggled to find his work niche.
Around this time, he started wearing a small black hat that was originally part of a Halloween costume. For kicks, he decorated it with fabric, a bolo tie and some bird feathers his mother had given him.
For Buckland, who likes 1970s music, the hat was an echo of that era's rock 'n' roll styles. Some of his favorite acts are Stevie Ray Vaughan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Steve Miller Band. He sings songs such as "Dancing in the Moonlight" (1972, King Harvest) at karaoke nights in local clubs and gets incredulous looks from older people in the audience.
Before long, people started noticing his evolving clothing and accessories style. He would be stopped in restaurants and nightclubs by people -- mostly Gen Z folks -- who had never seen hats with feathers and seemed genuinely thrilled by the look.
"Why the feather?" the young people would ask.
"Because nobody else has one," Buckland would say with a smile.
"I've had at least three people try to buy (my hat) off my head," he said during an interview at the Chattanooga Times Free Press last week. "I'd say, 'No I won't sell it to you, but I will make you one.'"
He said the offers to become a hat maker were half in jest, but then he started thinking, "Why not?"
Slowly, he began to build a custom-hat inventory. He bought fedoras and cowboy hats for men and floppy, '70s-style hats for women. He collected feathers from his mother's home in North Carolina and bought more hats at flea markets and discount stores.
Buckland had business cards printed that show him in an all-white suit and a white hat with a feather. The card has a QR code that links to his social media accounts, which have become sales platforms for his hats. (See chattanooga_hat_guy on Instagram.)
He designs hats for both men and women, and has embraced the title "Hat Master." Meanwhile, to make ends meet, he makes money flipping cars, he said.
Buckland acknowledges that he's just getting started in the hat-making business. He has only sold a few hats so far, he said, mostly in the $30 to $50 price range.
Still, Buckland said he believes the time might be right for a hat revival.
"History repeats itself," he said. "Remember when bell bottoms came back in style?"
Buckland said he still struggles some with depression. Some days, he said, it's a chore just to get out of bed.
"I'm still climbing," he said. "The moment you stop learning is the moment you stop growing. And no one knows everything. I'm constantly learning and elevating myself."
One of the things that lifts him is being complimented on his hats, he said, and he generally thinks his life is on an upswing.
"The journey has been a roller-coaster ride," he said.
And as everyone knows, when you are riding on a roller coaster, you hold on tight to your hat.
The "Life Stories" column publishes on Mondays. To suggest a human interest story, contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Andrew Buckland is pictured Wednesday with a variety of his hats.