Emma King bringing people smiles through hats

Everyone could use a pick-me-up, something that will put a smile on their face. Emma King ‘22 wanted to do just that with her hat business, The Happy Trucker. 

What started out as seeing hats on Instagram and joking with her teammates on the golf team about names for her business has turned into a growing business. King said she had seen hats similar to those she designs for The Happy Trucker on Instagram and realized that no one in her area was making anything like them and decided to do it herself. 

Through The Happy Trucker, King makes customized trucker hats and allows her customers to choose from various patches, prints and colors. The design options include anything from the original smiley face, to butterflies, lightning bolts and city names. With so many options for hat designs, King said that she gets inspiration from the customized hats that people order. 

King is a finance major and computer science minor, which she says has helped her learn more about the business world and working with money, helpful for running The Happy Trucker. 

When King first started The Happy Trucker, most of the customers were Wofford students and friends from her hometown of Atlanta, but as the business has grown, King has seen her orders spreading across the southeast and to other parts of the country. 

“I love seeing people from random places ordering my hats because I know that I can keep growing from them,” King said. 

King said that what she loves most about The Happy Trucker is the connections it has allowed her to make with so many new people. 

“This past year has had its lows for sure, but the Happy Trucker has helped me so much to get through those times,” she said. “When I see someone wearing one of my hats around campus, it brings me so much joy!”

While King is unsure as to whether or not she will continue making customized hats as a career in the future, she is enjoying the connections and happiness it is bringing her in the present. 

“I have learned way more than I thought I would about how much work goes into something like this. It has been the most fun thing to do, so it could definitely be something that I do for a while as a side job,” King said. 

On The Happy Trucker website, King says, “I think that seeing a hat with a smiley face on it could make anyone’s day better, so that is what I am trying to achieve!”

The Happy Trucker hats can be found on Instagram @thehappytrucker_ and the website https://truckerhats.wixsite.com/thehappytrucker.