Taxidermy Hats

Taxidermy is a bigger trade than most people picture. IBISWorld counts 3,877 taxidermy businesses in the United States in 2024 and puts the industry at about $1.0 billion in 2026, a fragmented field where no company holds more than 5 percent of the market. Part of the growth comes from pet owners who want a companion preserved, and the rest comes from every hunting season that ends with a trophy waiting at a shop. The freezer is the heart of the humor here. One Straight Dope poster remembers a wife who never knew what she would see when she went to grab a pound of hamburger. Hunting forums argue over how a mount should be judged, and one taxidermist's answer is that you always start with the eyes. The outsider's word for the work is stuffed animals, which is exactly the joke one of these hats takes on. This collection covers two plain badges for the trade, a few lines about freezers, glass eyes and the division of labor between the hunter and the mounter, and a creed for the bench. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to the next hunting-season drop-off, or give one to the person who still has a deer head waiting in the freezer.