You’ve most likely heard of the drama surrounding the Jayne hats… Fox sent out a Cease and Desist to Etsy sellers and others without a license. ThinkGeek does have a license for the hat, and was getting some flack for carrying something mass produced that others aren’t allowed to hand-make anymore. So, being the awesome company they are, they decided to give all proceeds from the sales of the hats to Can’t Stop the Serenity, a charity organization run by Browncoats. If you missed out on getting a Jayne hat, you can grab them now AND feel good about the decision. They’ll continue doing this until they run out of the hats. Find them at ThinkGeek.com.
Prefer hand-made? You’re still able to make the hats, and I’m guessing you’ll still be able to find hand-made hats for sale, just not with the words “Jayne” or “Firefly” associated with it.
From my understanding it was ThinkGeek licensing the hat that started the C&D letters, which is why there’s a bit of a gripe. Not their intention, but it happened. It is nice they’re making something good out of it, since they certainly didn’t have to. Still can’t help myself from going “ew, acrylic yarn”, though.
There’s an etsy seller who has “Controversial Hats with a Backstory” (Jayne hats that aren’t called Jayne hats) – http://www.etsy.com/shop/CraftOtaku
She’s currently backlogged with requests for the hat…but you can read the description of the hat, on a sold listing, for a good laugh – http://www.etsy.com/transaction/126485084?
That’s really nice of them! I might just have to get me one of these hats. 🙂
Yeah, it definitely sounds like they somehow got all mixed up into it, but I appreciate that their PR strategies end up doing some good! And yes, homemade is definitely better if you can get it.