PorkChop BubbleGum… What!?

One thing that sets your look apart from others is your hat, be it a sports team, a driving cap, beret, or a clothing logo. If you go to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, you might see Lindsey Walden’s hats getting walked around atop a bunch of twenty-somethings’ heads, and you can’t miss them. We sat down for a chat with her to get the scoop on her company, designs, and passion for making hats for everyone who wants their own look.

How did you come up with the name “Pork Chop Bubble Gum?”
That is the first question anyone always asks me, truthfully. My sister, her husband, and I were sitting around one night, and its when I first decided to start my own company and we were just brainstorming thinking of names and her husband blurted out, “pork chop,” and I blurted out, “bubble gum,” and we both looked at each other and I said, “that kind of goes weird together,” so since then it kind of stuck.

Are the hats you design unisex?
They are unisex, but I do have hats more geared towards guys and some geared more towards women. But I find guys tend to choose the hats that I designed for girls; it just matters if they are more comfortable wearing bright colors like pink and green, chains, and rhinestones, but yeah every hat can be unisex. Anyone can wear them.

How many specific lines do you have? Is there any specific line that seems to be selling more than other ones?
No, not really, I try to go with lines but each one of my hats are different, there really aren’t two hats the same. So I can do like the same print on a hat or put the same netting on a hat but it isn’t going to come out exactly the same, so line-wise I would have to go with “no.” I pretty much make what people are in the mood for, and people can come back later and say, “I like this, gimme this, gimme this and give me this color,” and I can make it happen.

They are basically all custom hats?
Exactly yes.

I know you live in Miami, and it’s filled with stars, have you sold any of your hats to any celebrities or stars of any kind?
Nope not yet. [C'mon, celebs! -ed.]

Have you done any fashion shows? How did it go?
I did a fashion show at Nocturnal in Miami. It went really, really well, the feedback was amazing. I also had a booth at Ultra Music Fest in Miami. I had a booth at Gemini Music Fest in Ft. Lauderdale. And July 3rd, I have space in Miami; and I have two other shows in July: I have Heaven Music Fest (I believe is the 26th), and another in Port St. Lucie, it’s a big house and stuff.

Have you ever decided in the future you may want to do shirts or pants?
Yes, yes, yes! Shirts: this is my next move. I am actually in the process of learning Photoshop and getting a screen printing machine. So yeah, shirts are definitely my next step.

Do you do hats with custom graphics at all, like heat transfers containing drawings you designed?
No, not till I get a screen printing machine. For now it’s just free abstract work. Whatever falls on the hat falls on the hat.

If someone wanted to get a hold of you to buy one of your hats, how would they go about that? What is the pricing on your hats?
Right now I just have MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/porkchopbubblegum) but my website should be done like any day now. The cost of my hats, depending what they are, usually run $24.00 plus $6.00 s/h.

Do you have anything you want to add?
I just hope that everyone can support me; I’m new. I started my business in 2006 when I graduated college. Just now I started to get serious and want to take off with this. Just want to get my name off and I’ll be happy!

If you like what you see here and want to help an aspiring local artist out, head over to her MySpace page and get yourself a new lid. We will update this interview when her website is done and help her out any way we can.