The Shanahat.

Odds are, you know what that is. If you don't, it's the red hat (pictured above) with the small San Francisco 49ers logo inside a tiny black patch worn by head coach Kyle Shanahan that became an instant hit. Personally, I like the black version that he donned for a short time.

The headwear became known as the Shanahat, and almost immediately sold out when offered on the team's online store.

It turns out, Shanahan designed the hat himself. The 49ers coach joined the Chris Simms Unbuttoned podcast this week and was asked about the Shanahat, and its origins.


"The problem was I never wore hats during games much because I just didn't like how the hats worked," Shanahan told his friend, Simms. "This (a Hurley hat he wore during the interview) is actually a hat I wear a lot, and I wear hats like this; mainly surfer hats and stuff like that.

"But when I went to New Era and they were asking why we didn't wear them, I was wearing one like this, and they said, 'Well, you could design one.' So they flipped the laptop around, and they let me kind of design one. And I picked out a logo, and I kept shrinking it. I made it a netted hat, and obviously I got a flat bill and stuff. I just made it like a hat that I like to wear.

"And then I started wearing it, just in a couple of games, and we actually won in those games. Then, eventually, throughout the year, I was ready to take the hat off. I mentioned that to my wife one day before a game, and I never mentioned it again. She said that's why we were winning."

Shanahan added that he wouldn't make wearing the hat a routine thing next year, but if he does, it will be a similar style.

"I wore the hat just because I liked it for myself," Shanahan continued, "and they sold it in our gift shop down here. After I wore it one game, they sold out right away, and they didn't make any more because they just made them for me personally, and then for our gift shop.


"And then I had buddies sending me pictures of eBay, where those hats were going for $600 and stuff, which blew my mind."


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