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Joshua Kiser, a student from USA, dreamed of breaking a world record.
Who doesn’t, right?! 🤪
Well, he was on a mission and nothing could stop him – but he soon found out it was actually much harder than it seemed…
Turns out, he needed much patience and determination to finally create the world’s tallest hat in a project that took him YEARS to complete.
His final masterpiece measured in at 5.422 metres (17 ft 9.5 in)!
You know what they say, nothing worth having comes easy. ❤️
So how did it all start?
Joshua, who is now 24, said it was back in 2020, when university closed its doors during the pandemic, that he decided to finally try breaking a world record. 🤓
He said: “I thought, ‘hey, this will be a great way to spend my time and feel productive during my free time while cooped up in my parents’ house’.
“I was browsing the records on the GWR website looking for some inspiration. Eventually I stumbled upon a picture of the eccentric man posing with a gigantic top hat on his head – the world’s tallest hat!”
That hat (pictured above), created by Odilon Ozare (USA) in 2018, was 4.8 metres (15 ft 9 in) tall!
Joshua confessed: “For no one single reason, the image of a ridiculously tall hat stuck with me. I shut my laptop and went off to search for materials to make a tall hat. I was convinced I’d be able to set the record and have my name in the history books in no time.”
Little did Joshua know, designing and creating very tall hats is no walk in the park…
In fact, his first attempt was an “utter failure”… his words, not ours! 🤣
He told us: “This was my first glimpse into the fact that this is going to be much more difficult than I thought.”
We never said record breaking was easy. 😆
Joshua had no better luck with his second attempt…
His strategy every time was to build a frame, find a way to keep it on his head, and then cover it with material.
“3 steps, not so bad,” he thought. “But it was hard, and I gave up for a little bit.”
Joshua noooo! 😭
Well, in the fall of 2020 he returned to school, leaving all the materials for the hat back at his mum and dad’s house, so for a while, he thought that would be it.
But then…
During a trip home from school, Joshua came up with the idea of using chicken wire that he fashioned into a tall cone shape!
It was his best attempt so far, but still didn’t work. 😫
Just when he was ready to give up, Joshua had a “light bulb moment” 💡 while shopping in Home Depot.
“The clouds opened up and rays of sunshine were streaming down on the 10-ft long aluminium gutters,” he joked. 😆
“They were light, sturdy, and CHEAP! I was a college student who had put way more money into this […] project than I ever thought I would. But this was promising. I bought 2.”
Needless to say, his idea worked, and the rest… is history! ✨
Of course, after creating the hat, Joshua had to walk for 10 metres wearing it, which was also super hard considering it weighed a whopping 26.4 lb (11.975 kg).
So he headed to the park near his house, and started his attempt:
“Once the hat was on, I took my hands off and started walking slowly. The hat stayed on my head the entire 10 m, there was no touching it with my hands/ropes/straps whatever and… I did it! Success!”
Erm, forget what we said earlier… Joshua literally claimed this record with a walk in the park... 🤪
Congratulations, Joshua, you are Officially Amazing!