By Melissa Siig, Moonshine Ink

Look around your mudroom or closet or living room. How many hats do you have? If you are like most people, you have a lot. Trucker hats, baseball hats, flat billed hats, you name it — you most likely have one or two or three. And you probably have room for more.

That’s what Tahoe’s newest hat company, We the Trees, is banking on. Started in 2015 by bigtruck founder Kelsen Thompson, We the Trees takes a mindful approach to headwear. Thompson’s goal with his latest endeavor is to help people connect to nature and express themselves, and for him to get back into the business he loves.

Thompson, 35, grew up in Tahoe City and graduated from North Tahoe High School in 2000. He learned to sew from his mother, whom he calls an incredible seamstress, and the first thing he made was a bag for his ice skates. He created his first hat in high school, hand stitching a small truck on the front. One day while he was talking on the phone, Thompson’s father, who owned a garbage company advertised simply as a “guy with a big truck,” doodled the image of the now iconic bigtruck logo, which features a truck with the bed lifted up — exactly as he would park it in their driveway. Thompson trademarked the logo in 2000.

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