My team is considering knitting and selling hats that look like the Nothing But Net foam balls. A photo of a couple of handknitted examples that I’ve already made are attached below.
If this idea generates enough interest, we will invest in a small knitting machine that will cut production time for these from around 4-5 hours to about 30 minutes. Please note that while I tried to make these hats as close as possible to their machine-knit counterparts, the real hats would appear narrower and would be more stocking-cap style, stretching to fit the head. In addition, we may decide to take the black circles off of the orange hats and just use a simple black VEX logo instead, similar to the green hats, because the circles generate an extra 30-40 minutes in finishing work. We plan on selling the hats at anywhere from $15 to $20 each.
The goal of this thread is to see if this idea generates enough interest to be viable. If you would be interested in ordering one or more of these hats, let me know. I’ll be sure to post updates, order forms, photos of machine-knit hats, etc. if this develops further. Let’s get Nothing But Knit off to a good start!
I really like the hats Duck Muffin. They look really good, and I like seeing some teams going out there and being creative with ideas other than robot designs. These would probably sell more better the Winter, and in colder climate states if you would ship them. I’m sure you are aware of that, however make sure you approach Vex’s logo on them in the appropriate legal manner because you would be selling them for profit that Vex could potentially be losing. Nevertheless, I like the idea and the creativity. So go verify with Vex about possible marketing issues, and get rolling after that!
Thanks for the advice! I actually emailed the VEX branding company before posting this and they said that selling them will be absolutely fine, as long as proceeds go towards my school’s robotics program. In fact, they’re the ones who came up with the title of “Nothing but Knit”.
Awesome, sounds good! I’m really impressed with your work, and I very much enjoy you guys branching out of the basics of robotics, and working in other untouched areas like this product manufacturing. Keep up the good work that the Cyber Pirates always do, and update us when you start to sell them!
That is a really great idea. I know of some of our team members who would want to buy one, including myself. When our team gets back together, I’ll show them this and I’ll see if you have any buyers from 6419. Great idea.
Thank you all for your interest and for spreading the word! Due to so much interest, Nothing But Knit is a go and we’ll be purchasing machines and materials soon. I’ll be sure to make another post here as soon as possible with a link to an order form, as well as photos of the actual machine-knit hats so you can see what you’re really getting. Thanks for helping us get this under way!
