"As retailers opened their doors in the Indianapolis area, 20,000 caps produced overnight in Gainesville were there to meet them.
For the past 10 years, Chattahoochee Marketing Group of Gainesville has been one of the vendors producing the 'locker room' cap identical to those worn by the Super Bowl champions.
Rick Boyd, president of the firm, said the caps, which are identical to those seen immediately after the game, were being made in Gainesville by 10 p.m., just eight minutes after the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Super Bowl XLI.
The official cap, which is sold by Reebok, carries an embroidered emblem that is heat-sealed to the front. Chattahoochee was one of four firms around the country producing the caps.
Boyd's company was shipped two emblems, one for Chicago and the other for Indianapolis. The Chicago emblems were returned to Reebok, Boyd said.
"We produced hats all Sunday night and early Monday morning," Boyd said. "Then, a courier picks them up and takes them to the airport, and they were in the Indiana market by the time the stores opened."
Boyd and a crew of 19 watched the game at his plant on Georgia Avenue in Gainesville.
Moments later, production started and continued until 4 a.m.
This is not new territory for Boyd, who has produced championship hats for other Super Bowls, as well as NBA championships, World Series and the Stanley Cup.
Just two weeks ago, his crews worked into the night producing caps for the NFL's conference championships.
"Last year, one of the store chains chartered a plane and waited at the Gwinnett airport until we were done," he said. "It's pretty competitive as to who can have the hats in their store and sell them out."
The workers were able to complete 3,000 caps per hour.
"The design was favorable to our production," he said. "We've had some in the past where it was slow."
Chattahoochee Marketing Group was founded in 1992 in Boyd's hometown of Charleston, S.C. A year later, he moved the company, which was then known as Stitch Tech, to Gainesville.
In 1997, Boyd took a group of college students to the NBA finals in Chicago to be the on-site producer for hats.
"We actually stayed in Chicago a week doing hats," he said. "When we finished in Chicago, we went over to Detroit and did the Stanley Cup. We were gone for about 10 days."
Among his production feats was the 1999 NFC championship hats for the Atlanta Falcons.
"Sometimes, I see people wearing those hats at a game and I think, 'We probably made that hat,'" he said.
Boyd, 49, said the late-night hours are not as fun as they used to be.
"The problem is I'm 10 years older than when I started this, and staying up all night is not as appealing," he said. "
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