Ruga Explains His Love for Dad Hats!
It isn’t a surprise that GRC is now making Dad Hats, just like the Polo Sport Caps he used to rock as a kid. The Owner of Grassroots California, Ruga explains his love for hats and how at a young age he collected all sorts of caps from fitted and snaps backs to the now-trendy dad hat.
"As a child, I grew up adoring hats. In particular, I found myself always borrowing my dad or grandfathers' hats. My father rocked the classic adjustable Notre Dame snapback and my grandfather pulled off the classic Polo Sports Cap with ease. I later learned that our Irish skin doesn’t bare well in the sun. My mom would use my dad’s cap to shelter me from the rays on a regular basis.
Once I hit middle school and started caring about my appearance toward ladies, I started swagger jacking my grandfather and would rock strictly dad hats and in particular the Polo Sports Cap. I probably had close to 30 different colors of the same style hat, in order to match whatever I was wearing at the time.
In High School, I continued rocking a dad hat yet started to wear more fitted hats as well as my role models became more hip hop oriented with rappers like Nas, Method Man, Biggie, and 2Pac constantly playing on my MP3 player. It was always hard to find a fitted hat that felt correct and was dope enough to rock when you’re in middle school.
As college came upon me, snapbacks began to make a comeback in style. Therefore, I would rock the University of Colorado snapback where I happened to also graduate from in 2007. After college, I asked my grandfather for some important advice. He was still working at the company he founded until his late 80s and he told me, “Ryan, just make sure you do what you love, because it is going to be what you're doing for the rest of your life” and that really stuck with me.
After working for a few years in real estate and not enjoying it, I received a large commission check from a corporate building sale. With that check, I decided to follow my grandfathers advice and start Grassroots California.
My grandfather recently passed away, unfortunately without time for me to show him the new Grassroots California Dad Hats. I was fortunate enough to get to show my grandfather and my dad the company that I started and although they never rocked my hats as much as I did, it always brought a smile on my face to see them rocking GRC. I decided out of love and respect for all of our elders, to create our new GRC Dad Hat line.
For the first round of designs, we decided to keep them simpler in design to stay true to the dad hat style. Own a piece of Grassroots California history and grab the first of 7 new dad hats out now on the GRC website.
Be on the look out for a new Jerry Garcia Line and more Grassroots California Dad hats dropping this holiday season as well!