When I started HAGS Clothing, I wasn’t trying to build a retro college apparel brand. I was thinking about a phrase people wrote in yearbooks: Have A Great Summer. It reminded me of friends, lake days, travel and having a good time.
Then I went to the University of Missouri. Being around Mizzou football Saturdays gave those same four letters another meaning: Have A Great Saturday. The idea was still to be with your friends and enjoy the time you have. It also got me thinking about what people actually want to wear to a game and afterward.
That’s why I think retro college style is finding its way back into gameday fashion. The pieces I like most don’t have to shout the school name or come off as a costume. A simple hat or sweatshirt can remind someone of a place, a Saturday and the people who were there.
I like the stuff that doesn’t look too perfect
Some of the college clothing I notice now looks as though it could have been worn years ago: old-school hats, faded shirts, oversized sweatshirts and straightforward lettering. Look at pictures from past college football games and you can spot things people would happily wear today.
It isn’t just something I’m seeing in Columbia. Vogue pointed to retro sportswear among its autumn/winter 2025 menswear trends. A fashion forecast isn’t a survey of stadium seats, but it does show that older athletic styles are getting a fresh look.
I’ve started liking simpler designs more and more. I don’t think every shirt needs a massive graphic or every hat needs five embroidered details. Sometimes one word on the front means enough to the person wearing it. That’s been a big part of how I think about HAGS designs.
That’s how I got into rope hats
Rope hats are probably my favorite example. They’ve been around for decades in golf, racing and other sports. Lately, I keep seeing them again. They have an old-school look without feeling stuck in the past.
When I started making HAGS rope hats, I wanted to keep them simple. Our COMO Columbia Missouri Rope Hat is a good example. COMO is what people call Columbia, Missouri, where Mizzou is located. If you’ve never lived there, it might look like four letters. If you went to Mizzou, you probably have your own memories attached to that town.
For me, the useful test is whether a hat works with the clothes you already wear. Check the fit, the embroidery and whether the reference means something to you. The rope detail should add character, not be the only reason to buy it.
Your college town becomes part of the experience
People sometimes forget how much of college happens outside campus. When I think about Mizzou, I don’t only remember classrooms or the football stadium. I remember where I lived, where we went after a game, the restaurants and bars, and the places where everyone met before going somewhere else.
Those places might not mean anything to someone who didn’t live there. That’s why I’ve become interested in college-town apparel. You can represent Mizzou without having “University of Missouri” written across everything you own. Sometimes COMO says enough. Every college town has its own version of that, and it’s an area I want HAGS to keep exploring.
I want people to wear it when it’s not gameday, too
One question I ask when we’re making a product is: Would I actually wear this on a random Tuesday? If the answer is no, I usually don’t like it as much.
Gameday is a big part of HAGS, and Have A Great Saturday has become important to the brand. But I don’t want someone to wear a hat to one football game and leave it in the closet until the next one. Wear it to class, to the lake, on vacation or because you haven’t washed your hair that morning.
That’s where the simpler retro style works for me. A piece doesn’t have to scream “GAMEDAY” to feel connected to it. If you can wear it the following week without building a whole outfit around it, it has a better chance of becoming part of your regular wardrobe.
I’m trying not to chase everything that’s popular
Running a clothing company makes it easy to get caught up in trends. You see something take off on TikTok and think, “We should make that.” I’ve had those moments. But by the time you copy what everybody else is doing, people may already be tired of it.
I’m trying to look at why people like something instead. With vintage-inspired college clothing, I think much of the appeal is its simplicity. A good hat has always been a good hat. Good embroidery has always looked good. College towns have always meant something to the people who lived there. Designs change, but those connections don’t disappear overnight.
Social media helps, but customers tell you more
I came into HAGS with an advantage because I had already built TheRealTbat. That audience lets me show people a new idea and hear reactions quickly.
But I’ve learned not to treat a comment saying “I need this” as a purchase. Likes, comments and views tell me what gets attention. Orders tell me whether someone wanted the product enough to spend money on it. I’ve had ideas I expected to do well that didn’t, while simpler designs performed better than I thought they would.
That doesn’t make social feedback useless. It gives me ideas to test. It just shouldn’t be the only reason we make something.
Where I want to take HAGS
I want to expand into more college towns, but not by putting a different city name on the exact same design and calling it done. Columbia has a different personality from Oxford, Athens, Knoxville or Lawrence. I want the products to feel connected to those places rather than like interchangeable souvenirs.
Retro college style gives us room to do that with simple hats, thoughtful embroidery, clean shirts and references local people understand. HAGS started with Have A Great Summer. College gave us Have A Great Saturday. Now I’m trying to build something that can represent the memories in between.
If someone puts on a HAGS hat because it reminds them of where they went to school, who they spent their Saturdays with or just a good period of their life, that’s what I want the brand to be.
