Student's 'bucket list' mission to create world's tallest hat proved rather tricky
A student who set himself the mission of breaking a world record found out it was actually much harder than it seemed.
Joshua Kiser (USA) required much patience and perseverance to finally create the world’s tallest hat in a years-long project.
His final masterpiece measured in at 5.422 m (17 ft 9.5 in) when it was verified in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, on 19 April.
And it was a long old road to get there.
Joshua, now 24, said it was when his college closed its doors during the pandemic that he decided to finally tick breaking a world record off his bucket list.
He said: “I thought, ‘hey, this will be a great way to spend my time and feel productive during my free time while cooped up in my parents’ house’.
I was browsing the records on the GWR website looking for some inspiration. Eventually I stumbled upon a picture of the eccentric man posing with a gigantic top hat on his head – the world’s tallest hat.
That hat (pictured above), created by Odilon Ozare (USA) in 2018, stood at 4.8 m (15 ft 9 in).
Joshua confessed: “For no one single reason, the image of a ridiculously tall hat stuck with me. I shut my laptop and went off to search for materials to make a tall hat. I was convinced I’d be able to set the record and have my name in the history books in no time.”
Little did Joshua know, designing and creating very tall hats is no walk in the park.
His first attempt was an “utter failure”… his words, not ours.
He created it from stacked cardboard blocks that were held together by Velcro.
“I doubt it made it to 5 feet tall,” Joshua confessed.
“The Velcro couldn’t hold the blocks together tight enough and I had no way to keep it on my head.
This was my first glimpse into the fact that this is going to be much more difficult than I thought.
His second design and second “utter failure” was made from wooden dowels that he planned to connect together.
He said: “I had planned on attaching nuts and bolts to the tips of the dowels to attach them together the long way. It wasn’t nearly sturdy enough to point over 15 feet straight up in the sky.
“I needed something sturdy - I thought about rebar, or metal rods, but I knew those would be too heavy. This idea did not work. I still had no way to attach it to my head even if it did.”
Joshua explained his strategy was always to build a frame, find a way to keep it on his head, and then cover it with material.
“Three steps, not so bad,” he thought. “But it was hard, and I gave up for a little bit.
“Penn State gave us the green light to return to campus in the fall of 2020. I left, and all hat materials stayed at my parents’ house. Months pass, then a new idea pops into my head.”
During a trip home from college, Joshua came up with the idea of using chicken wire that he fashioned into a tall cone shape.
It was his best attempt so far, but still didn’t work.
But then, Joshua had a “lightbulb moment” while shopping in Home Depot.
“The clouds opened up and rays of sunshine were streaming down on the 10-ft long aluminium gutters,” he joked.
“They were light, sturdy, and CHEAP! I was a college student who had put way more money into this (admittedly silly) project than I ever thought I would. But this was promising. I bought two.”
Joshua figured out how to connect the gutters together and reworked a metal Philadelphia Eagles trash can into the base of the hat after realizing “the bottom looked about the circumference of my noggin”.
Explaining the process, he said: “I took an Exacto knife to the bottom of the trash can, cutting it into triangles like a pie, which were still attached to the outer rim. Little did I know that this would prove hugely beneficial later on.
“I’d be able to ‘form’ the metal slices tightly against my head to create a secure hold, but not yet. First, I needed lots and lots of duct tape. The metal slices were sharp. I was not ready to stick my head into that.
“I duct taped around the rim and up along the slices, effectively creating a duct tape barrier between the metal and my skull. Also beneficial – duct tape is flexible, which creates a strong almost suction-like hold when you stick your head up in the opening as far as possible.”
Joshua attached the gutters to the trash can and reinforced it using expanding foam so it would be sturdy enough for him to walk 10 m while wearing it – something he had to do to qualify for the record.
He also had to cover it in material so it would look like an actual hat, with him taking inspiration from Santa’s red and white hat.
Joshua’s final design weighed a whopping 26.4 lb (11.975 kg).
He headed to his local Breinigsville Park for his official attempt – with the hat sticking about 10 ft out of the back of his car – and a crowd quickly gathered to see what was going on.
I knew that it was tall enough, but the act of walking 10 m with this gigantic, precarious item on my head in front of a crowd was nerve-racking.
He added: “Once the hat was on, I took my hands off and started walking slowly. The hat stayed on my head the entire 10 m, there was no touching it with my hands/ropes/straps whatever and… I did it! Success!”
Erm, forget what we said earlier… Joshua literally claimed this record with a walk in the park...
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