Update: The co-founders of Noggin Boss scored a big investment during their appearance on ABC's "Shark Tank" on March 11. At the top of their segment, Gabe Cooper and Sean Starner asked for a $50,000 investment for a 25% stake in the company. Despite only having $30,000 in sales at this point, they convinced "Shark Tank" judge Daymond John to take the plunge, and he agreed to invest the $50K for a 30% stake in Noggin Boss. The co-founders said they pay $12 per hat sourced from their manufacturer and pay an additional $8 for logo embroidery done locally, then sell the finished hat for $65. In addition, judge Mark Cuban said he would help facilitate an introduction to the Dallas Mavericks' marketing team.
Original story: London, Paris and Milan can take a hike; the latest fashion trend has been born in Phoenix.
Noggin Boss is a Phoenix company that makes oversized hats, comically oversized one might say, and Friday, March 11, co-founders Gabe Cooper and Sean Starner will appear on ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ to pitch the panelists on investing in the company.
Starner and Cooper (not to be confused with Gabe Cooper of Virtuous Software) are longtime entrepreneurs that decided to commit to building Noggin Boss after taking the hats out to the Waste Management Phoenix Open in 2020 and seeing their popularity.
Cooper said now, more than ever, people need positivity and elusive happiness that can be found under the brim of a Noggin Boss.
“It only takes a few seconds for somebody to wear it before they understand the power of it. Because you literally give away so many smiles and people want to engage with you, take pictures with you,” Cooper said. “It's truly a rush. And you can't describe it until you actually wear it.”
Noggin Boss is currently based out of the Canyon Ventures Center at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, where Cooper earned undergraduate and graduate degrees.
The pair would not share the number of hats that they actually sell each month. The company gets free rent at GCU and access to GCU students, whom the company pays, as a source of labor.
Cooper said part of their inspiration for starting Noggin Boss came after realizing a lack of innovation in this realm for quite some time.
“There has really not been any innovation in the promotional space for decades,” Cooper said. “If you think about, like, the foam finger was literally over 50 years ago.”
Catching on
In the modern world where online virality is a click away, Noggin Boss has found fortune on social media.
Christopher Bridges — the rapper and actor better known as Ludacris — has donned a Noggin cap on his Instagram, captioning his post with “BIG HEAD Energy” earlier this year.
Cooper said Noggin was working on a promotion with Gila River Casino and someone decided to slip one of these caps into Luda’s dressing room ahead of his Jan. 21 show there, which led to him posing with it online.
Cooper said the Arizona Cardinals have used their gear in the past and that the Noggin would soon be “launching in the NBA” with its first team later this month, but did not say which team specifically; The pair previously told ABC15 that they are hoping to work with the Phoenix Suns.
Noggin Boss was originally supposed to try out for Shark Tank earlier, but the pandemic pushed their plans back. This time around the company applied online, worked with producers for a few months and then finally shot the episode last September.
Starner said their main hope was to add a Shark that could open doors for them, giving them more pathways to grow the business, and more opportunities to put a huge hat on a head near you. Tune in tonight to see what happened.
Greg Barr with Phoenix Business Journal contributed to this report
