about us

about jojo & the earhart caps

Following JoJo . . .

Eleonore Jordan Anderson

at the foot of Prosper Ridge Mountain where she lived in her cabin for 3 years in Northern California and in her 10th year with the National Parks, and .org’s with Sustainability, Forestry, as her focus.

Below, wearing a different kind of hat, current day, now in North Lake Tahoe, CA, a Faller 1, leading a 8 man team in the Tahoe Donner Area. Woman spokesperson & cover girl for the Nature Conservancy, 2023-24.

An artist in many mediums, a photographer & world traveler. Visit her website at ejaart.com

Welcome again!

This is our 2nd newly designed website which also includes Wholesale Ordering for our stores. Wholesale markets are in the US, Canada, UK.

Welcome to JoJoCo Hatmakers of Chicago & our active Instagram site @earhart.pilot.caps . Please follow!!

We are an Illinois company, registered - 2313 1300 IL. since ‘99.

thank you!

I cannot say that enough for reordering & suggesting the Earhart pilot ear-covers to your friends, sons & daughters. I am hearing back from folks that have purchased the Earharts and are now grandparents. They know the fit.

Pictured in 2023:

Janne Anderson, at her professional day job at a Fortune 500 company for over 2 decades.

My beginnings in sewing & applications led to our brick/mortar shop, Good Night Moon at 125 W. Main Street, in Cary, IL - to your feed today.

You will find the next Earhart cap size in any color you want for baby from our amazing fabric collection - 34 Organic cottons and 38 Polartecs & sweater knits.

You have made the Earhart pilot cap beloved & famous since 1991. Meanwhile, here in Illinois, we have had a love affair with the tactile-ness of organic cotton & non-pill Polartec™, which is oddly hard-to-get, but we have it — and it is all purchased & milled in the US, mostly in North Carolina. We also have a love for sewing, analytical design around babies heads, started in our own children’s shop, Good Night Moon. We had plenty of heads to fit with the earhart cap & the sizes were developed.

Babies & Toddlers are keeping warm with my own hand-stretched designs in ear-covers as we continue to follow JoJo & Max, where it began in Cary, on the river.

our four fabric weights for earhart pilots

for every kind of day

• All Season Organic Cotton in 34 colors. On the menu in color groups.

  pure, no modal, no poly, milled in the USA - best for next to baby’s skin. An early wool allergen can be present in a newborn, so cotton is a good choice. We have two Bamboo colors as well, coffee and a deep aubergine.

• Heavier warmer organics from a 12oz weight to Organic Sweater Rib 20oz. very warm. Also, a dual sided warm Sherpa organic - luscious. See the Ecru, Sherpa, Sweater knit color group

• 100 wt polartec™ and recycled lightweight polartec™ 16 colors

• 200 wt polartec™ (22 colors to choose from in this very warm weight)

earharts on the timeline and Our headwear

• The Earhart pilot cap, named for Amelia in 1991, hand-stretched for the windproof fit - newborn to toddler. plain to bling

• The Harvard RISD CSU Project: For a brief time, Earharts & my design, the Eyeglass Earharts, were supplied to hospitals and Doctors Without Borders for newborns with an early detection with newborn eye issues, enabling them to see as newborns. We gave that design to Doctors Without Borders. I was working my day-job and could not keep up with that demand & it was an amazing project. The Harvard RISD CSU Project; and JoJoCo Hatmakers of Chicago was the supplier.

• The Rosetopper, named for Rose Spero in her spirit and Rose Kennedy because the Rosetoppers were being sold to the Smithsonian, National Museum of American History in 2003. They adorned the gift shop like a garden.

• The Rastatopper, our fun pull-on for winter. Slouchy fit in (2) styles. The Original Rastatopper and the Shaggie Rastatopper.

• Organic Plain Pull-ons - kids to adult sizes, see special program way below.

We are now offering our wonderful childrens hats direct in all our captivating colors. Earhart ear-covers are grouped in color collections; blues, sea greens & on.

My wonderful stores nationwide can't possible carry all of our colors to you! You may not know we carry Clackamas Moss Organic or Klamath Sap green Recycled Polartec, then we can rib in 3 Organic cotton colors of your choice, like Muir Red and offset it with Sierra Brown organic. These are called the Prisma Earharts , a 3-color cap for baby and can match any bunting or jacket.

We only use Malden Mills Polartec™! Also, the next size for your baby will be available by visiting your favorite childrens shop or here.

How the caps have always been made: 

JoJoCo Hatmakers, just before 1990. 

owsi ?

Judy Comstock Baker and I had a children's shop, Good Night Moon, opening a week before Eleonore Jordan (JoJo), my first, was born, Judy introduced me to pure cotton. I became very conscience of the difference in great cottons , then organics. I was hooked. 

I designed JoJo's first Earhart cap, when all her store-bought caps no longer worked or fit, and she still needed an earcover. We live in windy Chicagoland. JoJo had to go outside three times a day easily. She had to look up and see tree-tops. She wore Earharts until age 3. She would grab her Earhart at the door and say ‘Owsi??” which is Jordan speak for . . .

Lets Go Outside!

Let’s go outside indeed! For 8 years, JoJo has worked the Pacific Crest Trail in various locations with the US National Parks, with her trail crew , in the backcountry of the Sierra’s, Mount Hood, the BLM, the Mattole Restoration Council, and other precious places protected by our National Parks.

You never know where they will end up, or do you?

Our 20th Anniversary logo sewn on each Earhart is crested with the Marble Mountains of Klamath NP because she worked there first. Many of our organic irreplaceable cottons are named for our irreplaceable domestic treasures.

20th Anniversary Logo - over 65,000 sold

`

Back at Good Night Moon at 125 W Main St, Cary illinois . . .

where we dared to bring our babies to work each day . . . . circa 1990.

Spoiler: Even with separate bedrooms upstairs for the infants, Sam and JoJo, it does not work! You cannot do both. We hired nannies like everyone else.

Good Night Moon started carrying the Earharts in 3 cotton colors and in 3 sizes because parents wanted my daughter’s headwear: JoJo's Earhart cap .

After 10 months of prototyping sizes Small, Medium, and Large, the Earhart pilot caps were developed and sold to other Chicagoland stores. They can be found in many shops nationwide and catalogs and here - direct. 

‘ our caps do not lay flat ‘

Simply — because they are not assembly-line made. Each cap is hand-made, hand-cut - start to finish with your order in mind. They are hand-stretched at certain comfort spots, then sewn, and then it fits baby.

This cannot be done in a manufacturing scenario. I tried twice.

A square-ish flat cap means it is assembly-line made and you will have gaps and the wind will come through, then baby is cold.

Our caps do not lay flat because of all the shaping going on with the exclusive hand-stretch method. 

I did hire two manufacturers about five years apart.

I taught the sewers. I met with them.

I made flow chart posters for ‘how-my-caps-are made.’ Unfortunately, It did not work out. Then I tried again with another company by referral 5 years later. Parting with my organic cotton was hard, especially since I could not use any of the caps made by assembly line.

They were flat & squarish and did not fit a baby’s head. They were not Earharts.

Manufacturers will not make them the way they should be because of their cost efficiency. They would not stop and stretch at certain points around the face and neck. Our sizing is not an enlarged version of the smaller size. One of our sizes is longer in the back. Another is wider all around plus.. Larger sizes accommodate the larger forehead because of the baby's growth, etc. Recently, in 2007, sizes were re-evaluated and at the 17 year point on this timeline, I adjusted my size Medium, L, XL - larger. Deduction: This was my own scientific analysis that babies have larger heads now.

Thank you for visiting our secure website where you can purchase the next size for the next season, while your baby is growing, or drop ship your functional organic shower gift if you cannot be at the event.

Sending a functional gift, the Earhart:

Inspired by one of my customers who sends an earhart in advance of her visit with a card, is the GIFT ME page. Send a newborn ear-cover or Rosetopper, and the next size too, ahead of the season . . . How thoughtful!

inspiration for ENTREPRENEURS - from me

For years I have been inspired by people,

and their love for people, respecting them

or how they take their passion with a ‘thing’ &

not listen to anyone’s advice

and they just go for it.

I love how creativity on a finished project

can be better & better with practice & thought.

You think ‘it’s done’ but with more love and tilting of the head,

it is even better years later.

Each cap or late night designing or writing, has been inspired by something like that. Have you ever stayed up all night because of an idea?

The Earharts are being resized periodically and the ties are much thinner now, rethinking based on the size questions on each earhart cap sale chatting with parents.

Once in a while, we hear from our nationwide roster of childrens store owners or a friend. They let us know when there is a child or adult victim of cancer. We dropship a pure organic pull-on directly to the child or adult whatever color or stripe that pick.

I love that they never pick charcoal or black. It is always a bright color! We have donated many pure organic pull-on caps while they heal from chemotherapy and the color to inspire them turning a new corner in their lives. 

All of our fabrics are CPSIA compliant. Certificates available upon request. Also on Etsy under Earhart Organics, where we also sell organic fabric.

Please Follow us!! Our Instagram is a place you can see what folks are buying for their babies!

@earhart.pilot.caps