Creation of the HoC Zombie Army Caps

They are awesome and no you can't have one

We only made six.

When we run a HoC LAN party we always like to come up with something to give away. Megablocks figures, Assassins Creed Hoods, Halo Burgers, ID cards. Something with which to commemorate the event. Collaboratively Coxxorz and I came up with the Zombie Army Caps. Coxxorz claims I came up with the Patrol Cap idea but I don't remember. I do remember making him take care of everything else. I also remember that searching for a Canadian supplier was complicated by the name for this type of cap. Patrol Caps are also know as Fatigue Caps. And BDU Caps. And Field Caps. Make up your damn mind!

An image of the cap from the original distributors page

We found a Canadian supplier through Amazon and ordered six. Fortunately for the hats and the Name Tapes we started early and ordered well in advance. With so many steps we didn't want to leave this to the last minute.

Zombie Army Trilogy logo. We only used the graphic portion

We found a good copy of the Zombie Army Trilogy logo and determined that the graphic portion was appropriate for the front of the cap.

We went to a bit of trouble to find a store who would print and transfer our image onto the hats. It had to be someone with a Hat Heat Press Machine. We found a store with a manager who was amazingly helpful. The image is cut into a heat transfer sheet and the individual details are picked out with a X-acto knife before being heat pressed onto the caps.

Front of cap after image applied

To create this already awesome cap with the logo on the front.

Name tapes next to printed hat

At the same time we ordered the caps we also ordered name tapes from a US supplier. The US supplier were significantly cheaper than Canadian options with way more colour options available. We ended up going with our second choice, 1800nametape because our original choice charged extortionate rates for international shipping.

Back of cap after name tape sewn on to Velcro strap

It turned our the name tapes fit perfectly onto the caps' adjustable Velcro straps. They added a little length so we attached extra Velcro onto the overlapping portion. Since the caps seemed to fit a little small this worked out perfectly.

Awesome caps on amazingly attractive (and free) models

After completing the caps we discovered a minor glitch with the number of hats. In the HoC letter to Jason Kingsley we described the problem:

We made six of the caps. One for each of the attendees and one for my son. My son who promptly informed me he wasn’t wearing anything that had zombies on it. Great.

Yes. When Rolly decided he did not want a Zombie Army cap Coxxorz and I had a discussion over what to do with the extra. We remembered that Jason Kingsley had Favourited our tweet about the original Zombie Army Trilogy LAN invite. Since this meant he acknowledged that Herd of Cats actually existed we figured he deserved a cap. That he was also the CEO and Creative Director behind Zombie Army Trilogy may also have been a factor. Surprisingly, despite Coxxorz's trepidations we have yet to receive a Cease and Desist letter. Although since it took the cap six business days to get to Oxford it is possible the Cease and Desist order is in the mail.

So the HoC Zombie Army caps turned out well. They ended up being more expensive than most of our LAN party giveaways but the final product made it worth it. They really look good and are something everyone is going to hang onto for a while.

One last final step to each cap: