Hats With Eternal Vision: A RamCatholic Conversion and Success Story
These are "just hats", and yet they are actually not "just hats." Glory Be Hat Company started with an intense interior conversion story that played out during our founder's college years at Colorado State University (CSU), where John XXIII Parish and RamCatholic were key instruments of God's loving Providence.
Jacob Coatney is the founder, chief of creative, and hat maker bringing the Glory Be Hat Co. vision to life. He's even been known to brew a decent beer every now and then (thanks Fort Collins for spoiling him). A brewing professional and familiar face around RamCatholic even once said, "The beer is good." With names like Resurrection Red Ale and Ascension Amber though, we know who is really behind his beers turning out. But back to hats and RamCatholic... for now.
A RamCatholic Inspiration & First Major Product Release: St. Michael the Archangel
Every practicing Christian knows that living the Faith isn’t just magically easier after a moment of consolation, conversion, or reconversion. Even if that moment is more like a series of graces that build into something totally life-changing.
It’s probably more truthful to say that it gets harder because the reality is this: there is a war afoot, and your soul is the target.
The Evil One hates you, and works constantly to rob you of Heaven. He is willing to employ whatever means necessary to separate you from God. We all struggle with sin, with dejection, and with discouragement, and the Enemy works to leverage our weakness to make us give up and forget God's infinite mercy and love.
Jacob's Battle With Doubt, A John XXIII Parish Inspiration
One of those times of discouragement occurred during the spring of 2024 while getting ready to officially launch the GBHC brand. Jacob tells the story as follows:
We had just passed our target deadline for launch, and after working on this venture for 3 years, I just couldn’t help but be tempted to give up out of discouragement. How? How could we still not have launched a website and started marketing after so much time and effort expended? Were we missing critical pieces necessary for the business to get off the ground? Were we committing enough time to the endeavor? Was I stalling because of fear?
Doubt crept in and I even wondered if my heart was really in it if we hadn’t given it the “full send” yet.
It was in the midst of this internal struggle that I was prompted to remember the spiritual battle and call upon St. Michael’s intercession.
As a creative mind, sometimes when an idea strikes you just have to follow it and develop it. And so, I started to draft a hat design for St. Michael.
Now, part of the motivation to launch a Catholic hat brand was that I couldn’t find a company dedicated to filling the space in a way that spread the Faith, but was also stylish. So, I knew we needed something particularly unique, and the Holy Spirit inspired a thought to use the statue of St. Michael at St. John XXIII as a key design to launch our brand.
I had seen the statue in person just once while back in Fort Collins for a wedding, but I remembered my view from when I walked by it. So I went onto St. John XXIII’s website to study the statue. And I started to draw it from the perspective you would have walking past it to enter the church. And the struggle to keep drawing it was so strong that it was confirmation that it needed to be done.
I actually do not have any formal education or background in graphic design, and I still found the design process to be very difficult at this point. Yet St. Michael seemed to be saying “persevere” while the Enemy chipped away: “give up, you suck. This is all doomed to fail.” I experienced more and more freedom as I continued to call upon St. Michael's intercession during the process.
After months of edits to get the perspective and other aspects of the drawing correct for my liking, I reached out to Luke Hecker at St. John XXIII to introduce the idea of collaborating to create an opportunity to financially support RamCatholic in gratitude.
Luke responded with excitement and told me more context to the statue and their efforts thus far to propagate the story of the statue. After learning that other attempts to create and produce relevant merchandise had been met with many obstacles, I was inspired even more to bring this project to fruition. The sculptor of the statue, Herb Mignery, gave the rights to reproduce and replicate the statue as a gift to St. John XXIII, making the concept of this project possible.
From Vision to Reality
After refining the design in collaboration with RamCatholic, we are making these hats with the official approval of John XXIII Parish and Herb Mignery, and will be giving 15% of all revenue from hat sales back to RamCatholic in gratitude for the impact the ministry has had on our lives, and our company.
We're excited to build our brand in partnership with RamCatholic and John XXIII, and look forward to you enjoying and representing your Faith with our St. Michael Collection.
See below for the St. Michael Hat styles available for purchase, and give back to RamCatholic with your purchase today.
Glory Be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Jacob Coatney attended CSU and was active in RamCatholic from 2013-2016, participating in Bible studies, FOCUS, Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity, Retreats, and more.
