The Toucan Hat Company
BRAND STRATEGY | IDENTITY DESIGN | VISUAL DESIGN SYSTEM | IMPLEMENTATION
Selling a Business by Design
Defining a business to
bring clarity and add value
Carole Amper and Alberto Flores formed Carole Amper, Inc. in 1983, making hats in a Brooklyn basement. They soon acquired Toucan Hats and adopted it as the company name.
Toucan creates stylish mid-priced hats primarily for wholesalers, boutiques, specialty catalogs, and museum shops. They have a longstanding reputation for creativity, commitment to quality and tradition, and exceptional customer service. These values helped Toucan thrive through industry shifts, the rise of online retail, and evolving fashion trends.
Now based in the Hudson Valley, Toucan Hats continues to make artisan hats using century-old presses, preserving the craftsmanship and techniques that set their products apart.
The situation
The hatmaking industry is very different from the early days of Toucan Hats. With many retailers now ordering online and directly from importers, the need for sales reps and trade shows has greatly diminished. This shift creates both challenges and fresh opportunities.
Carole and Alberto are approaching retirement and want to sell their business and the building it occupies within two years. To maximize its value to potential buyers, Toucan Hats must transition from a mom-and-pop operation to a streamlined, scalable enterprise with a strong brand presence that aligns with today’s industry standards and supports future growth.
The challenge
While Toucan’s product range continues to grow, including custom work for new markets, there was no clear distinction between its product lines. Hats were grouped by attributes such as “packable,” “vintage,” or “dressy,” rather than by brand or audience.
The challenge was to strengthen Toucan’s organization and market position with a brand structure and identity that would help wholesalers, customers, and potential buyers easily understand the company, its offerings, and its development potential under new ownership.
The opportunity
We asked Carole and Alberto to complete our BrandMap exercise, a strategic exploration that helps companies discover brand opportunities and chart a route to becoming a compelling choice for customers and buyers.
The results revealed that while Toucan Hats was recognizable, it lacked a clear identity and supporting visual design system. We would use design to unlock the brand’s full value. By creating product labels that capture the essence of each line, we could clarify Toucan’s offerings, highlight its reputation, and provide a structure that a new owner could confidently build on.
Unlocking value
A clear brand identity was essential to showcase Toucan Hats’ potential to buyers. We began by defining the company’s personality, business operations, and market position—the key elements of a unified brand strategy.
From these conversations, we developed a brand architecture and new visual identity to contemporize and unify the business:
The Toucan Hat Company
A new umbrella brand for the business. We introduced “Makers and Traders” to emphasize a manufacturer with a global network of suppliers. The new tagline, “Every hat tells a story,” speaks to Toucan’s originality and the belief that a hat is a creative expression of the person beneath it.
Toucan Hat
The reimagined original label embraces its stylish yet practical, casual, creative vibe for everyday wear.
Toucan Hat Collection
The original catalog name becomes the label for hats with vintage charm and a modern touch, designed for museum shops, botanical garden gift shops, and specialty retailers.
Toucan Millinery
A new label offering unique, bespoke pieces that blend classic and contemporary style for unforgettable occasions.
This structure gives future owners a clear framework for adding, refining, or retiring lines while staying true to the brand.
The result
The Toucan Hat Company is now an appealing opportunity for buyers: a business with a comprehensive product range, strong supplier and customer relationships, and a workshop equipped to produce hats of superb quality.
The new company and label logos express essential values of quality, professionalism, and trust, defining Toucan’s product lines and presenting a cohesive, contemporary brand. Defining each label under The Toucan Hat Company umbrella brings organizational clarity and elevates their market presence beyond the image of a mom-and-pop business.
These changes showcase the strength of Toucan’s proposition, give Carole and Alberto the flexibility to segment the business for sale, and make it easier for the next owner to manage, develop, and grow the company with a clear, scalable brand system.
Once all the pieces are in place, Carole and Alberto can sell the company they’ve poured their hearts into and finally enjoy the retirement they’ve worked so hard for—while the next owner inherits a brand built for the future.
As we started thinking about selling Toucan Hats, we knew we wanted the brand to be in the best possible shape for its next chapter. We asked Ditto Design Agency to help us strengthen how the business presents itself and attract the right kind of buyer.
Rick and his team quickly understood what makes Toucan Hats unique. They created a thoughtful brand strategy, designed new logos for our company and products, and built a design system that brings our story into focus. From the business cards, catalogs, and trade show materials to all our other materials, every piece feels connected and genuinely ours.
What we value most is the foundation they helped us build—it makes the business easier to manage now and clearer for whoever takes it forward.
We’re proud of what’s come out of this work. In fact, it’s so encouraging that we’ve decided to wait a little longer before retiring. We’d like to see this new direction unfold before handing it on.
Carole Amper & Alberto Flores
Change is fuel for growth and possibility.
SETH GODIN