Why Lindsay invented TOPTOTE the hat holder…

Ever wonder what it’s like to launch a successful brand? Well, one female founder has brought her passion for hats and making peoples lives easier to life with the first of its kind (aka invention!) – TOPTOTE the hat holder.

For this founder, the idea of starting an accessory brand and inventing a product wasn’t born overnight… It was when she realized that there was no other product out there like it and that it actually didn’t even exist that she knew she had something special. So, she decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship and started her own business.

But before we became a marketplace that spotlights and sells female invented, innovative products alongside Lindsay’s namesake brand – we got our start with one accessory that paved the way for us… That idea we mentioned that didn’t exist? Yep, that was TOPTOTE the hat holder.

Every brand has its story and this is Lindsays…

I used to be a Fashion Stylist, and when I would travel with my clients, I would always have to carry their hats, and my own! A lot of times I would safety pin the brim of my hat to my bag after countless trips for business and personal and many lost or left at home hats later I realized I had to find a better solution. After googling, pinteresting and searching all over digital creation, I realized that nothing had been created for hat travel since the hot box in the late 1800s! Crazy. I knew I had to invent a solution because if I was dealing with this problem, I knew there were tons of other people out there who felt the same.

My husband and I explored tons of different ways we could create a hat clip for traveling. Our first trip was to Home depot! I knew I wanted to design a something that was sophisticated and stylish that held your hat, securely, and hands-free when traveling. Or after about a year of trial and error, we finally figured out the components needed to make this hat holder a reality. Then started the long journey of trying to figure out how to actually produce a sample and manufacture this idea that we realized had never been designed before!

Once we had a viable product, we hired a Patent Attorney to submit the patent for our design, and less than a year later, the examiner approved our invention, and awarded us a utility patent!! It was such a thrill I screamed when the lawyer told me. I think I scared him. Haha! The best patent you can get! From there we found a factory partner to produce our invention and we launched the product into the world in late 2018!

That wasn’t all…

After designing and launching her first TOPTOTE Collection in 2018, which included some of our best-selling styles that we still sell on our site today – such as The Drop, The Luggage Tag and The Hex – things only got better and harder as they do in business…

With the success of TOPTOTE (selling out in Nordstrom over 20x times, designing exclusive styles with major brands we admire like Lack of Color) – Lindsay realized if she was experiencing the same hassle she had with her hats before inventing TOPTOTE the hat holder – that those other things in her life that annoyed her or she felt there had to be a better solution for had to be dealt with… Aka taking matters into her own hands.

First came TOPTOTE, then came a brand…

Being the entrepreneur and creative Lindsay is, her wheels started turning and the ideas for more serviceable style products that help make peoples lives easier kept coming. Beyond TOPTOTE, Lindsay has designed cult favorites like our 2-Sided Travel Laundry Bag (because we never knew where to put our dirty socks and undergarments when traveling), The Collector (we needed something to organize our hats at home and save space), The Daily Laptop Clutch (we couldn’t find a sleek, stylish laptop case that held all our work stuff so we designed one!) – the list goes on…

This expansion enabled her to reach more customers than ever before—allowing them to shop and discover stylish, everyday products that make their lives easier – without breaking the bank!

But she wasn’t going to stop there… Lindsay realized if she invented a genius product that makes peoples lives easier – there has to be more female inventors out there like her. So it only made sense that she help pave the way for other female inventors and their genius ideas which is why we launched the fileist! Because there was no handbook for Lindsay when she invented TOPTOTE, nor any resources or even a retailer that spotlighted and sold female invented products – this is when Lindsay knew she was tapping into uncharted territory…

If you read this far you know Lindsay never stops with one idea and the fileist marketplace and community is only going to continue to grow and expand (into who knows what areas!) – the options are endless. We already have some VERY exciting things in store (pun intended!) this year that we cannot wait to share.

Until then… Support female founders and their genius ideas by tapping the links below to shop serviceable style products that make your life easier…

+Shop TOPTOTE the hat holder here

+Shop all here

+Follow us here