This Unique Pro Snowboarder Is Changing the Beanie Game

The year 2020 saw a lot of new hobbies embraced. Sourdough starters were all over TikTok and Instagram. Women were cutting their own bangs in droves. Sewing, baking, crafting and crocheting were everywhere.

Coal Headwear

If you kept up your hobby and turned it into a bona fide passion, you’re not alone. Pro snowboarder Naima Antolin is one who stuck with her craft, crochet — and recently launched her own beanie collaboration with one of our favorite snow sports accessory brands, Coal Headwear.

The Seattle native and 2020 SNOWBOARDER rookie of the year nominee is known for her uncanny ability to spot and jib features others don’t even see — but to her 26,000-plus TikTok followers, it’s all about what she does with knitting needles, not shred sticks. I sat down with Antolin to talk beanies, the connection to her sport and the power of putting yourself out there.

Let’s start from the top — how did you get into crocheting? What led you down this path?

I learned how to knit first in high school, knitted maybe a few months and then 10, 15 years down the line Covid happened. I had stopped knitting throughout that time, and I just wanted something to do, like most people. I decided to pick knitting back up and my sister knew how to crochet and I was always interested in crocheting. I thought, ‘You know what? I’m gonna try this out.’ And so I taught myself how to crochet and then I just never stopped.

What were the first things you made? Was it straight into beanies or were you doing other stuff?

Beanies and hats were always the easiest, especially ’cause I like to travel and pop around for snowboarding. Having a smaller project was always easier to travel with as opposed to making a sweater — which I’ll still do, but you end up carrying a lot more yarn in your bags than with a hat.

“Taking up crocheting was born from a need for craft and community.”

I didn’t know anybody personally in my circle that crocheted or knitted. I was yearning for that community to nerd out on. Around 2020 was when I first heard of TikTok and someone was like, ‘Well, you should maybe look into making a TikTok account for your crafting. You might find something there.’ This was still like during a time when a lot of lockdowns were happening. I started just posting crafting stuff on TikTok and then I found a whole crafting community on that platform and that helped push my creativity and yearning to want to learn more about the craft.

How did the Coal Headwear collaboration come to be?

It started about a year before this current hat concept came to be. I had been testing patterns with my followers on TikTok, and my first pattern ended up being the beanie that my partner wore in the Paper Tiger project. That was maybe the first spark of collabing with Coal with my crocheting.

Coal Headwear

We did a small batch where I crocheted like 20 hats and then we used those as giveaways for promos for that project. And then I had what I thought was one of those ‘crazy ideas’ — I was talking to a friend and had an idea to pitch Coal on a crocheted hat concept where I can design it, but then they mass-produce it to get it in more people’s hands.

And I thought if people want to or know how to crochet or wanna learn how to crochet, we should attach the pattern to it. My friend encouraged me to approach Coal. I thought it would be like three years out, but after I put the idea out to Coal, they immediately got back to me saying, “Yes, let’s do this.” What I originally thought was this three-year plan to start the project turned into within two years it’s now out in the world.

What is the difference between the handmade beanies versus factory produced?

They’re honestly really similar. Other than maybe the yarn, because when you handmake it, you might not be able to find the exact yarn that the factory’s using. I made a handmade beanie and they sent it over to the factory so they could try to get it as close as they could. The different materials will make it slightly different but overall, I would say it’s very similar.

Do you think there’s a correlation between extreme sports and crafting?

I feel like sports or maybe anything in life and crafting, whether it’s art or, you know, knitting, sewing, that it helps ground people. Especially when they do extreme sports. It’s a really nice balance.

What’s the most unique thing you’ve crocheted?

One of my favorite hats I’ve made is this hat I wore when I did an interview on The Bomb Hole — I call it the ‘Who Are You’ hat because there’s six little square panels that have different faces, like smiley faces or frownie faces. I really like that concept of being able to choose which particular face is facing forward for the day.

The Bomb Hole

What are your takeaways from this experience?

I can’t get over the fact that it all started as a crazy idea. Something I’ve personally been trying to be better at is to take those risks, to try, and every time I’ve done that in the past two years, I keep being surprised with how many ‘yeses’ I’ve been getting. Every experience, it’s another reminder to just try. I’m here to try and this is the outcome of that. So I’m just thankful for working with Coal and everybody else that’s believed in these ideas.

You can snag the Naima Crochet Beanie at coalheadwear.com in four different colorways. Want to make one yourself? Check out Antolin’s patterns here.

Coal Headwear

Coal Headwear The Naima Crochet Beanie

• $36.00 at coalheadwear.com

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