Draper small business outfits Garth Brooks' crew with custom hats

DRAPER — A local hat maker was invited backstage to outfit Garth Brooks and his touring team during his Friday night concert in Salt Lake City.

Avree Eveson, owner of The Hat Haus, a custom trucker hat business, said the experience was a pinch-me moment — especially when she got to meet Brooks himself.

"It was super cool! A lot of Garth's crew, they've all been with him for 25 plus years, so we were making hats for the band, his wife and the chef," Eveson said. "He came in and he had actually just finished playing basketball, and he's just a regular guy."

The October 9 encounter included a lighthearted exchange between Brooks and Eveson's husband, who was helping her that night. Brooks was holding his Kobe basketball shoes when Eveson's husband complimented them.

"He was like, 'These Kobe's are older than you, dude!' Eveson said. "It was super cool to connect with people who live completely different lives from me but also completely normal lives."

Eveson started The Hat Haus about four years ago. She makes custom trucker hats featuring personalized patches, many of which showcase her own Utah-inspired designs. Her one-woman shop offers customers a variety of patches to reflect their tastes, personalities and interests.

"I love this one: Utah's desert, sunburnt and stoked," Eveson said of one of her designs. "Anything to show off Utah, I really love it!"

About a month before Brooks' Salt Lake City appearance, Eveson said she received a call from the Delta Center asking her to bring her business backstage and make custom hats for Brooks' entire team, more than 100 tour members.

She quickly designed a few new patches highlighting the "Blame It All on My Roots" tour and its Salt Lake City stop at the Delta Center which included four performances last week, October 8-11.

The experience also included a special touch for Brooks' wife, country star Trisha Yearwood, who was back home in Tennessee. Eveson said Brooks selected a hat for Yearwood with the patch "Lucky Wifey."

For Eveson, the experience went beyond making hats for a celebrity.

"I'm super grateful because I never thought when I started the Hat Haus that I'd be able to do anything anywhere close to something like that," Eveson said. "It was super meaningful because this showed how all my hard work just paid off the last four years."

Her only regret? Not asking Brooks for a picture.

And Brooks appeared to enjoy his time in Utah, too. During the concert, he said he was considering starting his next tour in Salt Lake City.

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