Layla's First Drop: The Story Behind the Paw Mountain Hat

Art of the Collab

Every Grassroots hat starts somewhere. A sketch on a napkin. A late-night obsession. A feeling that hasn't been put into fabric yet. For Ryan, the founder of Grassroots California, it started at age seven — alone in his room with a notebook, drawing logos for crews that didn't exist, sketching boards for a skate brand he called RC after his own initials.

He never imagined that thirty-some years later, he'd be sitting across from his seven-year-old daughter watching the exact same spark catch.

Meet Layla — the youngest creative director in Grassroots California history. And this is the story of her first drop.

It Started in Her Head

Layla didn't set out to design a hat. She didn't pitch a concept or map out a product roadmap. She just had an idea — fully formed, vivid, and completely hers — and she drew it.

"I didn't want to design one," she said on the podcast. "I was in this room and I had a great idea to make a hat. And I did. And I made it. And I asked my dad if he could make it."

That's it. That's the whole pitch meeting. That's the whole creative brief. She handed her dad a drawing, and Ryan — who has spent years building one of the most respected headwear brands in the game — looked at it and said yes.

The design features a blue sunset across the front panel, a Paw Mountain — a peak formed entirely from paw prints — stitched in bold embroidery on the crown, paw prints sublimated beneath the brim, and Layla's own hand-drawn crayon artwork lining the satin interior. Every detail came from her imagination. No mood board. No reference images. Just a kid who had something to say.

The Hat Itself

This isn't a novelty. This is a full Grassroots California production — same craftsmanship, same intentionality, same collectible energy as every piece in the catalog. It just happens to have been designed by someone who still believes fully in the power of imagination.

On Set With the Creative Director

When it came time to shoot the campaign, Layla already knew what she wanted. She brought her best friend Layton. She picked the vibe. She told anyone who'd listen that if you really like the hat, you just have to have one.

"It was about me, like, showing off… well, not really showing off," she clarified, with the kind of self-awareness most adults take years to develop. "Like telling about how my hat was like made. So I took a picture holding on the pole and you could just experience how it feels."

That energy — joy, pride, the unself-conscious confidence of a kid who made something real — is exactly what Grassroots has always been built on. Culture doesn't care how old you are. Creativity doesn't have a minimum age requirement.

She's not wrong. Somewhere along the way, most adults stop drawing. Stop sketching. Stop believing that the thing in their head is worth putting on paper. Ryan never fully let go of that — it's what built Grassroots — and Layla never learned to let go in the first place.

Why This Drop Is Different

Grassroots has collaborated with legendary artists, muralists, musicians, and underground creatives. Every collab tells a story. Every piece carries the fingerprints of the person who made it. That's the whole ethos.

This one just happens to carry the fingerprints of a second grader with a very strong point of view about mountains, paw prints, and the importance of never letting anyone talk you out of your imagination.

There's also the detail that Ryan started designing hats at seven years old too. In his room. With a notebook. Drawing logos for crews that didn't exist. It took him decades to build the machine that could actually make those hats real. Layla had the same idea — and handed it to the machine at age seven.

What Comes Next

Before the podcast wrapped, Ryan asked if Layla was working on anything new.

"Well, yes. With another animal. I'm thinking about it, and I think it's gonna be really cool, but I'm not telling you guys yet."

The youngest creative director in Grassroots history is already onto her next drop. Keep your eyes open.

The Paw Mountain Snapback is available now in both kids and adult sizes. Limited run. This is not a restock situation. When it's gone, it's gone — and it goes back to being what it always was: a drawing from a kid who believed her imagination was worth something.

Turns out, she was right.

Watch the Full Episode

Ryan & Layla on The Art of the Collab — hear the whole story in her own words.