- A small Etsy shop has seen an increase in business after Beyonce announced her Renaissance World Tour.
- Beyoncé was spotted in the announcement wearing a disco cowboy hat made by Abby Misbin.
It's not uncommon for 24-year-old Abby Misbin to make her custom hats for NFL fans who want to represent their favorite team or for bachelorette parties.
Now, enter Queen Bey and the Beyhive.
Misbin told Insider that one of her most popular items is the Disco Ball Cowboy Hat, which she started perfecting last year, and it was used as a centerpiece for one of her buyer's weddings. And more recently, it has been seen in Beyoncé's Renaissance tour announcement posted earlier this week.
Misbin said that one of the Grammy-nominated singer's stylists, Bea Åkerlund, reached out to her last year to purchase the accessory.
"They basically messaged me on Etsy, and straight up said, 'Hi, I'm working for Beyoncé, we would like one of these hats," Misbin said, noting she only had five days to fulfill the request. "I got to work right away and she paid right away, which was easy and great."
Based just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Misbin has grown a clientele who buys her blinged-out cowboy hats from her Etsy shop "Trending By Abby." She told Insider she launched her small business in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic while she was a student at Temple University.
"My friends liked them and everyone convinced me to start an Etsy for them, that was basically just the glitter hats that I had still listed in my shop," Misbin said.
The Disco Ball hat which is made out of mirror tiles is an intricate process and takes about six to seven hours to complete as she pastes each reflective tile by hand. The entire ordeal was a waiting game for Misbin as it was not until months later that she saw a glimpse of her creation in the teaser for the album, and realized that the hat was indeed for the singer.
"I was really just super relieved and grateful that they actually found a way to use it and people could see she actually did buy it. That wasn't fake or a scam. She did use it. So it was a lot of months of buildup, which finally paid off, which I was happy about."
Misbin said that her shop immediately gained traction after a fan account shared that the hat was from her small business, resulting in dozens of orders. Despite some reports that her shop shut down, she clarified that she's just grappling with the high demand and competing with copycats.
"The disco ball hats specifically are sold out and won't be restocked for another week or so until I can finish the current order, just because they take so long," she explained. "My shop hasn't shut down, I'm still making all my other hats too."
She continued, "They're hyper-expensive. I wouldn't want to sell anyone a $250 hat that's not well made or I didn't have complete confidence that it was a nice product."