PAUER HATS: my own cap brand and its two online stores
I designed and launched PAUER HATS, my own cap brand, including the product, the box, the early-access page and two online stores. More than 150 people have joined the waitlist.
people on the waitlist by October 14, many from outside the ads
average cost per Meta-attributed lead (75 leads, US$33.43)
of landing page views from ads became attributed leads
numbered caps in the Founder's Edition
TL;DR
- Problem
- I wanted to sell premium performance caps in a price-sensitive market without carrying much inventory, and the caps had to look credible next to the PAUER wellness brand.
- What I did
- Defined four caps and a limited-drop model, designed the packaging and an early-access page, and shipped two WooCommerce stores (US and Dominican Republic) with local payments, delivery pricing and a numbered Founder's Edition.
- Results so far
- More than 150 people on the waitlist by October 14, many of them from outside the ads. Meta attributed 75 leads to US$33.43 in ads, about US$0.45 each.
1. Where it started
PAUER started as a wellness brand for active people. PAUER HATS sells caps to that same audience. The open question was whether people would pay for a distinctive cap without the main brand starting to feel cheap. Runners and athletes were the first audience, but the caps also had to work away from sport.
Since it's my own brand, I handled the product, the site, the numbers, the suppliers and the launch decisions.
2. The product
I developed four variants on one shared build. Blanca and Negra are the base colors, and Lavanda and Pulse add variety, with a printed pattern on Pulse. A single build kept sourcing, sizing and quality control simple. Each one is a 6-panel unstructured cap, 60 g, with laser-cut ventilation, water-repellent quick-dry fabric and a foldable brim.
The price had to cover the margin without scaring people off. The Dominican checkout adds 18% ITBIS and payment fees, so I built the cost model line by line: manufacturing, import and customs, packaging, ads, creative production and payment processing. Delivery shows up as its own line, separate from the cap price.
Limited drops
Each drop has a fixed number of units and there are no restock promises. For a first collection, that keeps the inventory risk small.
Limited stock means more stock states to design for, and some people will miss out, so I kept the registration path short.
3. The box
I designed the box, sticker seal, care tag and protective paper together and set a cost target for the packaging. I also wrote the care instructions. The box also holds a manifesto card about PAUER.
4. Early-access page
Before opening sales, I put up an early-access page to measure interest. It shows the collection first, says what signing up gets you and asks only for an email.
Two-step signup
The first step asks only for an email. WhatsApp updates and promotions come on a second, optional step, so nobody has to share a phone number to sign up. Each member gets a personal link that opens the store one hour before the public. Those emails go out in small batches to protect deliverability.
The headline went through several versions, from "Reserva tu gorra" to "Pocas gorras. Asegura tu acceso." Two short lines under it say you can register and buy one hour early, that units per color are limited and that there is no restock. The brand video plays in the background.
5. The store
I designed and built the store on WooCommerce with a custom block theme, using AI coding tools to get from prototype to production quickly. It includes:
- Two stores. A global store in English (USD, Stripe) and a Dominican store in Spanish (DOP, local payment gateway). Visitors are sent to the right one.
- Drop settings. Units per drop, a purchase limit per person and a closed state between drops, all editable without code.
- Local delivery. Rates by province, municipality and sector, a searchable sector field for Santo Domingo, and a message with a WhatsApp contact where there's no coverage. No order goes through without its delivery cost.
- Clear pricing. ITBIS and delivery appear as separate lines at checkout.
When the drop opens, the store replaces the landing page. The home page uses the same video and the line "Reset. Rise. Repeat.", shows the four caps with color swatches and gives Pulse its own section as the limited print. Before checkout it covers delivery, secure payment and paying in pesos.
6. Founder's Edition
The first 200 caps are a numbered Founder's Edition. Each number is reserved at payment and never reused. After delivery, the buyer enters the code printed on the box and gets a story image with their name, model and number, ready to share.
7. Ads and the waitlist
Paid Instagram traffic went straight to the landing page (Instagram ad → pauerhats.com/do → registration → early-access audience). I set up the Meta pixel with a Lead event that only fires on a new sign-up, ran a lead-optimized campaign with UTM parameters on the URL and tested three creatives. One was a product message ("63 gramos"), one used product images ("Hats Images") and one was a brand video ("Commercial | Direct").
| October 1–13, 2026 | Result |
|---|---|
| Total waitlist registrations (to October 14) | 150+ |
| Meta-attributed leads | 75 |
| Average cost per lead | US$0.45 |
| Impressions · link clicks · landing views | 30,520 · 534 · 464 |
| Landing views → attributed leads | 16.2% |
The waitlist passed 150 people, and a good share of them came from outside the ads, through organic Instagram posts, word of mouth, shared links and direct visits.
8. Creative test
| Creative | CTR | Landing → lead | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| "63 gramos" (product) | 2.85% | 23.0% | 43 |
| "Hats Images" | 2.80% | 16.2% | 24 |
| "Commercial | Direct" (brand video) | 5.85% | 6.2% | 8 |
Clicks and sign-ups by ad
The brand video had about twice the click-through rate of the other ads and the lowest share of visitors who signed up. The two product ads brought in 67 of the 75 leads.
About 13% of link clicks never showed up as a landing view. It could be load time, tracking gaps or Instagram's in-app browser. The data doesn't say which yet, so it's on my audit list.
9. Next steps
- Budget. Move it to "63 gramos" and "Hats Images" and watch frequency and fatigue.
- Brand video. Recut it with the product in the first seconds and the early-access benefit up front, then test it against the current version.
- Mobile funnel. Check load time, the first screen, form validation and success states inside Instagram's in-app browser.
- Measurement. GA4 events for page view, form start and lead, matched against the waitlist by source, campaign, ad and device.
Status
The early-access page, the email signup with its optional WhatsApp step, both stores, delivery pricing and the Founder's Edition flow are live.