Thanks Kay!

You are seriously the bestest ever


*calgarycosplay was kind enough to re-create the famous german shepherd hat for me... and I was absolutely blown away. The superior quality of v2.0 is overwhelming. My original request back in 2009 was to see if she could use brown fleece to piece together all the markings and make them actually look like GSD ears and not something generic. It was a huge challenge but she happily took on the project. We decided to go with a painted version instead for simplicity and because the goal was to make it as realistic as possible we thought it could be better achieved that way. The original hat also had wires to help hold the unique ear shape and it became one of the most unique, lifelike fleece hats you'll ever see. In fact if you do a search for "german shepherd" on da, the hat is the top result!



Over the many years of the crazy amounts of use and loving wear, the original hat's markings have faded almost completely, the fleece showing its age, and most of the wires snapped. Yet despite this, the hat still looks and wears great and I get compliments everyday. I love that thing to death and it's become infamous- most people can't even imagine me without it on my head.


So I'm proud to once again introduce the amazing and talented Kay of CanadaCosplay for her beautiful custom work in the GSD hat 2.0! This one has sewn-in markings with a touch of painting around the edges, and an updated design unique to Kay's hats that requires no wires to hold up its shape with a lot of depth inside the ears. She created it shorter in the front and longer in the back with a forward tilt in the ears, so when you wear it the ears look natural and it hugs your whole head. Mine also includes a specialized small brim. The craftsmanship of her work has always impressed me, but she absolutely outdid herself this time... it's everything I could have ever hoped for and more- what an amazing improvement over the years!


If you haven't heard of Calgary/Canada Cosplay, you are severely missing out!!! Like asdfghjkl


Seriously, tell her Riley sent you so she knows where you came from!



German Shepherd Hats © *calgarycosplay
Riley design, photos © =CanineHybrid