How One Promo Distributor Created Natural Light Vodka’s Custom Trapper Hat (That Holds Miniature Bottles of Alcohol)

Natural Light, the beer of choice of college students and penny pinchers (or both), released a line of flavored vodka last year.

To make sure patrons stay warm, the brand is selling a trapper hat that not only insulates your noggin during these cold winter months, but also stores little bottles of vodka to make sure you're wearing your alcohol blanket in case you venture out into the tundra.

INTRODUCING THE NATTY VODKA TRAPPER HAT. We made a hat that lets you stash your Natty Vodka nips so you can take them anywhere.

@ someone who needs to preorder one now so their pregame never has to end: https://t.co/WjbkSE0mhg pic.twitter.com/WKM2Y3QXZ3

— Natural Light (@naturallight) January 11, 2022

BAMKO, the promo distributor that worked with Natural Light to create the hat, said Natty was looking for something "bright and vibrant that matched the brand colors," so it landed on an eye-catching pink that stands out amongst the frozen white landscape and gray urban winter alike.

"The trapper concept was born out of a desire to highlight the core product in a way that would be a real attention-grabber," Alex Diamond, business development manager for BAMKO, told Promo Marketing. "Evaluating the construction and color needs of this concept, we quickly realized this would need to be a custom item, something that BAMKO excels at."

After a few rounds of back-and-forth between BAMKO and the client, they decided that the best way to further the branding experience was to add pockets for little bottles of alcohol. That created a few issues to be straightened out, though.

"Aesthetics was always the core focus of this project—it’s a promotional item designed to capture social media engagement," Diamond said. "The flaps of the hat needed to be able to fold up to hide the bottles once closed. Our initial sample, while it looked great, did not function as desired. The client provided excellent feedback once they had the sample in hand. Our factory worked with our overseas sourcing team to provide all possible and realistic solutions to the issues our sample had. We decided to lengthen the flaps on the hat to make sure they could close properly and secure the bottles."

That attention to detail resulted in an original and eye-catching promo that certainly accomplished what the two parties wanted. As Diamond pointed out, it's not every day you see a pink trapper hat, much less one that holds airplane bottles of alcohol.

"I am so glad we pushed ahead with this project," she said. "I was initially discouraged when I could not find a simple stocked item that could be transformed into what they wanted. I thought the [minimum order quantity] on an overseas item would cause them to walk away, but they never wavered. I am grateful they had the foresight to know how awesome these would be and put their trust in me and our team to make it happen. It taught me never to assume, because you might just be pleasantly surprised!