Hats Off to Heaven: How One Entrepreneur Is Using Fashion to Share the Gospel
- Guest Contributor
- 7 minutes ago
- 6 min read
What began as a college student’s encounter with Christ at Colorado State University has become a creative mission to evangelize through GloryBe Hat Company's Catholic design.
By Joe Donelson
Jacob Coatney is the founder and lead creative behind GloryBe Hat Company, a faith-based headwear company focused on Catholic-centered designs and audiences. He has a passion for creating and selling Catholic goods, but his mission runs deeper than the products themselves.
In a recent collaboration with RamCatholic, Colorado State University's on-campus outreach based at St. John XXIII Parish in Fort Collins, GloryBe Hat Company released a special St. Michael the Archangel collection, featuring the iconic St. Michael statue at the parish.
A Personal Journey
Before starting GloryBe Hat Company with his friend Ben, Coatney’s life was changed by his experiences with RamCatholic.
“It’s well known that the college years are some of the most formative and important years in a person’s life in general, especially for the faith," Coatney told the Denver Catholic. "RamCatholic had a lot of opportunities for me to engage positive components and make positive decisions, especially in terms of integrating the faith as my own.”
While he was born and raised Catholic, Coatney attributes his time with RamCatholic as being necessary to making the faith his own.
“There’d be an Easter party every year, and you just got excited," he explained. "During Holy Week, a bunch of guys would get together, we’d fast together, we’d pray together, we’d grieve together, and then we’d celebrate and feast together. It was just like, this is a good, joyful life. Even amidst tragedy. And I experienced a lot of tragedy during that time.”
While camping in the summer following his sophomore year, Coatney and some friends were caught in a canyon flash flood. The flood took the life of one of Jacob's fellow campers and very well could have taken his own, had he not felt an urgent call to move from the spot that would quickly become a path of watery destruction.
Returning to campus the following fall, Coatney knew that God had protected him for a reason, but the pressure of that thought and the grieving process sent him spiraling into depression and destructive habits. That is, until a friend brought him to speak to the campus pastor, and Coatney was brought deeper into the RamCatholic community.
“The practice of prayer that started, and formed, and became solidified there, during my time at RamCatholic, has carried all the way through," he said, reflecting on what the campus ministry had given him during an intensely difficult time. "It gave me the capacity to discern, and to discern going to seminary in the first place.”
Coatney’s deepening of faith during college led him to leave school in pursuit of his vocation, landing him at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, and aided in his discernment out.
“With so much time, space, safeguard and honor put into that part of my life — being in spirituality year — by the time I left seminary, which was after a 30-day silent retreat, my heart was just on fire," he expressed. "I needed to do something in loving response. That’s the natural movement … when you receive love, you want to reciprocate. That’s driven my career thus far: having the intention to place my ear at the chest of Christ, like ‘What are you asking of me?’”
A Call to Serve
His reliance on Christ's will, the development of skills he had a natural interest in and following opportunities that the Lord presented have led Coatney to commit to the launch of GloryBe Hats.
“I asked the Lord, ‘Is there a particular way in which you want me to steward the gifts you’ve given me, and be excellent at stewarding them?’ And that’s what remains today … so many of these designs are a fruit of my prayer life. A fruit of what I’m experiencing in relation to God. It’s good to have an image or reminder of that experience,” he said, referring to the St. Michael statue that serves as the basis for GloryBe's RamCatholic collaboration.
“In terms of the business, every time I encountered doubts or frustration, upon examining them, it wasn’t necessarily because there was any conviction that this was wrong or it wasn’t going to work out," Coatney reflected. "It was always either a natural part of the process of doing things that’re uncomfortable, or some form of supernatural attack from the Enemy to discourage us from accomplishing the work we’d set out to do. That happened in a particular way with the St. Michael design.”
After having missed the target date for the GBHC brand launch in 2024, Jacob was tempted to give up the endeavor altogether.
"It was in the midst of this internal struggle that I was prompted to remember the spiritual battle and call upon St. Michael's intercession," he said, detailing how he was inspired to develop a design matching that of St. John XXIII Parish's St. Michael statue.
“That experience [at RamCatholic] was so impactful, so transformative, and has been the source of so much consolation, faith and joy, and peace … I owe so much to that ministry and program," Jacob said. "To be able to give back to that, both to propagate the story of the statue — that would be enough — but to also pair that with the opportunity to help ensure that RamCatholic has the resources to continue offering the formation that I got for years to come … I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that I’m able to chip away at that so-called ‘debt.’”
An Opportunity for Evangelization
In his doubts about whether the effort and time spent on GloryBe hat is worth it, Coatney reminds himself that a hat isn’t just a hat.
“They are just little things, but the little things make a difference,” he said.
He shared a story that has kept him going through the doubts about the importance and impact of his mission: “I knew a student at RamCatholic who ran into a FOCUS missionary on the plaza at CSU, and they started a conversation about his hat.”
Coatney told how, initially, the student wasn’t the most engaged with the idea of learning about the Church, but he accepted an invitation from the missionary to go fishing. They got to know each other, and after further conversation, the student agreed to attend Mass with the missionary.
Eventually, the student came into the church, became a FOCUS missionary himself and served on staff with Coatney.
“The conversation started because of a hat. How much more can we accelerate that sort of encounter if we created the opportunity for it to go the other way? For people to see a stylish, high-quality, interesting hat that is inspired by faith, and then they’re also asking questions,” he said.
Coatney’s heart for evangelization helps lay the foundation of GloryBe as a company. The mission to serve Christ and his Church elevates the craft and business of hatmaking.
“An important message we would hope that anybody who encounters us learns and understands is that this isn’t just a business for us," he said. "We didn’t start this just to be another company selling Catholic goods. This isn’t a side project. This is an extension of our personal mission, which is the Church’s mission. We want to be a successful business, but that’s not why we’re doing what we’re doing.
“We would be content to serve him in any other way," Coatney continued. "But it’s just a tremendous joy and bewilderment that this is the way we get to love and respond."
Why is it that Coatney and GBHC do what they're doing?
"I love making things, I love creativity, love the process of developing ideas, and I love business," he shared. "I love evangelization and I’ve always wanted my work to contribute to the Church and his Kingdom, to advance the Gospel to all corners of the Earth. The way in which we do that is by making and selling hats.”
To check out the St. Michael collaboration and to see more from Jacob and GloryBe Hat Company, click here.
