A sign posted on the window of HatWRKS in December 2021
HatWRKS, the Nashville headwear distributor previously famous mostly for various MAGA-adjacent messaging on the side of its Eighth Avenue store, found itself in a bit of a pickle last year. Its owner, Gigi Gaskins, posted a picture of a woman wearing a yellow Star of David, similar to the ones the Nazis made Jewish people wear, with the words "Not Vaccinated" printed upon it. The ham-fisted comparison was not original to Gaskins — which didn't make it any less idiotic of course — and it's one that's been repeated over and over since then, which doesn't make the comparison any more true.
The backlash against HatWRKS and Gaskins, you may recall, was swift and decisive. Stetson almost immediately announced its products would no longer be sold through HatWRKS, and then lesser lights in the hat world followed suit. The fiasco landed Gaskins on the cover of the Scene's Boner Awards issue back in December.
According to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, HatWRKS wants those hats back (or at least several million dollars for their trouble).
HatWRKS alleges that Stetson's (more correctly, HatCo, a Stetson licensee and downstream distributor) refusal to sell to HatWRKS, while continuing to sell to competitors in the Nashville market who did not post something dumb on Instagram, violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and Tennessee law as an unreasonable restraint of trade because, after all, Gaskins was simply exercising her free speech rights on "a matter of inherent national and public concern." The suit, filed by Brentwood attorney Larry Crain (see it via the PDF below), then links via footnote to other examples of people using the symbol to protest vaccine mandates. One of the linked stories is about a Canadian anti-vaxxer who urged his followers to stop using it after he had some kind of epiphany that it missed the mark.
HatWRKS further alleges that it has an outstanding order with HatCo, a Stetson distributor, of $130,000 worth of hats. Further, every time HatWRKS places an order with HatCo, it keeps getting these pesky "Order Confirmation" notices, kind of like the thing Amazon sends you when you order various stupid things. These (very obviously automated) confirmations are an implied contract, according to the suit, and every time an order isn't filled, it's a breach thereof.
HatWRKS is seeking $5 million in compensatory damages (trebled, so $15 million) and $5 million in punitive damages.
