The hats are good. The business is underpriced and under-told. Both are fixable this month.
I went through every reel on your Instagram (Sept 17 to Nov 5), your Etsy shop, and what other burned-hat makers and hat bars charge. What follows is what I saw, then the practical pieces: a pricing worksheet, a holiday and Derby plan, three reels you can shoot this week, a hat bar package, and a custom-order form.
None of this is about making different hats. It is about getting paid properly for the ones you already make, and letting people see them on a person.
Matt
Plenty of people burn designs into hats. What you do that I didn’t find elsewhere is everything around the burning: painted crowns, ombre fades, torch-scorched edges, hand-painted fawn spots, stitched X marks, and a hidden design under the brim that only the owner sees. The painted pieces are your signature. Lead with them.
The line work holds up close. Across the reels the burns are clean, with no scorched halos on the felt, and the under-brim lettering is even.
You posted 25 reels in seven weeks, about three and a half a week. Most small makers can’t keep that pace, so the habit is already there. The reels just aren’t doing any selling yet.
In every reel I checked closely, there was no spoken word, no text on screen, no price and no instruction for how to buy. Only a handful showed the hat on a person. The usual pattern is burning at the worktable, then turning the finished hat on a rug or the brick floor, set to a song.
Likes ran from 6 to 36, with a median of 11. The five that beat the median each did something the others didn’t:
| Reel | Likes | What it had |
|---|---|---|
| Pink on denim | 36 | Painted, a face on camera, worn at the end |
| Belknap Fall Festival prep | 35 | A real event and a date |
| “Imagine being a 12-year-old horse girl” | 29 | A buyer, a gift moment, a kids option |
| “Help me pick a band” | 25 | A question that invites people in |
| “Burnin up” | 22 | Fast cuts on the beat |
The plain turn-the-hat reveals sit at 6 to 12. People respond to a story, a person, or being asked something.
Smaller things: drop hashtags like #mountainsarecallingandimustgo that reach hikers instead of buyers. And keep the songs in Instagram; licensed music can’t go into an Etsy listing video.
Your shop lists a blank hat at $99 and finished hats from $125 to $220. Put those side by side and the burning, painting and trim are priced at roughly $25 to $120. That is a few hours of skilled, one-of-a-kind work for less than the hat underneath it.
Here is where you sit against what others charge, using prices from real listings, with my suggestion at the bottom.
| Who | Price |
|---|---|
| Your blank hat | $99 |
| Your finished hats | $125–$220 |
| Etsy burned hats, most listings (average about $106) | $100–$250 |
| Established brand (Bourbon Cowgirl) | $254–$265 |
| Hat bars, per guest | $75–$250 |
| Suggested: painted, one-of-a-kind | $250 and up |
Sources at the end. These are listing prices, not proof of what sold, so treat them as a range to stand in, not a rule.
Then do the worksheet once, honestly, with your own numbers. It will tell you whether $250 is generous or still too low.
On a US sale: 20¢ to list, 6.5% of the price (and of any shipping you charge), and 3% plus 25¢ for payment processing. Call it about 10% plus 45¢.
If a sale comes through one of Etsy’s off-site ads, add 15% more. On a $250 hat that is $24.20 in normal fees, or $61.70 if it was an ad sale.
Fee rates from published 2026 seller guides; confirm on Etsy’s own Fees & Payments page.
| Cost line | Example | Yours |
|---|---|---|
| Blank hat, delivered to you | $40 | |
| Band, feathers, pins, lace | $15 | |
| Paint, tips, torch fuel, glue | $5 | |
| Box, tissue, shipping | $20 | |
| Your hours × your rate (4 × $30) | $120 | |
| Cost before Etsy | $200 |
The example numbers are placeholders to show the math. Replace every one with yours, and time a few hats with a timer, including trimming and photographing.
| Sell at | Etsy fees | Left after the $200 |
|---|---|---|
| $180 | $17.55 | −$37.55 |
| $220 | $21.35 | −$1.35 |
| $250 | $24.20 | $25.80 |
| $295 | $28.48 | $66.52 |
With those example numbers, a $180 hat pays you nothing for your time and then costs you $37 on top. That is what “priced like a hobby” means in dollars.
Your own caption on the “Embrace Chaos” reel says it best: “Custom, baby. Your vision burned into a hat.” That is the business.
Etsy is crowded, and a four-month-old shop with five sales won’t get much search traffic for a while. A hat with the buyer’s own words under the brim is something people find through Instagram and word of mouth. It is also the easiest thing to charge a premium for, and the buyer has paid a deposit before you spend anything on a blank.
Right now 23 finished hats are listed and waiting for the right person. Keep making some ready-to-wear pieces, because they are your portfolio and your market-day stock. Make custom work the thing you talk about.
Every hidden under-brim design is a personalization you can sell: a name, a date, coordinates, a ranch brand, a line from a song.
The bags have the best story in the shop, and right now it is hidden. Your sacks come from Heine Brothers’, but the listings only say “a local roaster.” Most people in Louisville already have a Heine Brothers’ habit. Put the name on every bag listing and every post about them, with their OK, along with the thrifted-dress linings.
The bags are also where your one Etsy review came from: “So cute & original. Very well made.” Yet they don’t appear on your Instagram at all. Give them a reel.
Three things to ask Heine Brothers’ about: a few bags at a shop counter or a holiday pop-up, a reshare on their Instagram, and a gift set of a sack bag with a bag of their coffee inside. Then burn your mark into the leather handle tabs, so every bag also reads as Nicolette Mercantile and points back to the hats.
You can’t take a dozen custom orders today and finish them all by December 24, so don’t try. Sell the custom hat as a gift instead.
Derby is the biggest hat moment in your own city. Two things to plan around.
| When | Do |
|---|---|
| This week | Do the pricing worksheet. Reprice the painted hats. Remove the blank and leather listings. Rewrite the bio. Turn on Etsy personalization. |
| Nov 16 to 28 | List the gift certificate. Ask Heine Brothers’ about the gift set. Shoot reels A and B (Department No. 6). Gift-certificate post for Small Business Saturday (Nov 28). |
| December | Two to three reels a week, every one with text and a worn shot. Last-day-to-order post. Pitch three venues for January hat bars. |
| January | Gift-certificate design sessions. Run the first hat bar. Sketch the race-season designs. |
| February | Book Derby-week events. List the race-season capsule. Look back at what sold and what got DMs, and do more of that. |
Each is under 30 seconds and built from what already worked for you. Prop the phone at head height for the worn shots, and shoot outside in shade or near a window.
Use a real customer’s story, with permission. This is the reel that sells commissions.
Asks a question, so it earns comments the way the band poll did. Reply to every one.
Now
Hand-burned, 100% wool hats. Each piece one-of-a-kind ✨ Made slow, worn proud. DM to inquire ⚜️Louisville, KY ships…
Suggested
Hand-burned & painted wool hats, made in Louisville.
Custom orders: tell me your story, I’ll burn it in.
Hat bars for your party. Shop ↓
Leads with what you make, then the two things you most want people to ask for.
Swap the mood tags for ones a buyer searches: #customcowboyhat #burnedhat #handpaintedhat #customhat #louisvilleshopsmall #louisvillemade #shoplocallouisville #bachelorettehat #giftsforher. Keep #pyrography for other makers.
Hat bars are where groups spend real money. At $150 to $250 a guest, one twelve-person party can bring in more than the Etsy shop has so far. Louisville already has them (Flea Style downtown, and The Hat Shoppe on Shelbyville Road, which brands hats), so the demand is proven. Your edge is that you burn and paint, not just trim.
Your constraint is your own time, so be honest about it before you price. A full design takes you hours. At a party, guests need to choose from quick designs you can burn in 10 to 15 minutes each, and bigger custom pieces finish at the bench afterward.
| Option | Includes | Per guest |
|---|---|---|
| Trim | Wool hat, band, feathers, pins | $95–$125 |
| Trim + burn | Plus one quick design from your menu, burned live | $165–$195 |
| Full custom | Designed with you at the party, finished at the bench, delivered in two weeks | $250+ |
Minimum 8 guests. 30% deposit to hold the date. Travel fee outside Louisville. Prices sit inside what other hat bars charge; adjust after your first two events.
I’m a Louisville maker who hand-burns and paints wool hats. I’d like to bring a hat bar to your space for an evening: your guests pick a hat and trim, I burn a design in front of them, and you get a full room. I handle setup and ticketing; you keep the bar.
Send this to anyone who DMs about a custom hat. It saves a dozen back-and-forth messages, and step 9 protects you: a burn can’t be undone, so get approval on the sketch first.
Prepared for Nicolette Mercantile, Louisville, Kentucky, November 2026. Photographs are stills from Nicolette Mercantile’s own reels and Etsy listings.