Asia Hall Is Building the Neon Future We Want to Live In
Neon has always felt hopeful because it’s fun, and fun is hopeful. Cowboys, too, have an American optimism that draws us to western wear, even if you’ve never been to a livestock show. Like the ingenious Fat Tony mash-up of Too Short’s “Blow The Whistle” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Neon Moon”, there is Neon Cowboys, a company throwing a party somewhere between the club and a country dancehall. An emporium of western wear that glows, Neon Cowboys might be the only brand I know that fits easily into both a Boot Barn and a New York Fashion Week runway.
Asia Hall, creator of the light-up hat you’ve seen on Missy Elliot and Kacey Musgraves, and on the heads of festival-goers, is inventing a new kind of inclusive Americana. Growing up in Los Angeles listening to the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill, she looked forward to the national parks vacations her family would take. Her dad, designer Kevan Hall, introduced her to the fashion world through his own line, and his time as design and creative director of Halston.
Before there were the Yeehaw Agenda and space cowgirl-themed parties, Asia was pioneering an incandescent wild-west future. I’m always mesmerized by Neon Cowboys’ Instagram, the hats glowing at music festivals and in parking lots and bedroom photoshoots, making any place seem like it’s one LED light away from something exciting.
Neon Cowboys is very much pioneering this kind of tech meets fashion—I’m curious to know how that’s something you became interested in?
I studied computer science in college. I was interested in tech and played video games as a kid. I was always fascinated by lights, but it wasn’t really until college when I started going to country concerts and felt like I needed a hat that represented me a little bit more, represented LA or the younger people in the crowd. It was like a new wave of country where it was more pop-y.
Stagecoach is the festival that I went to. When I went there, I was like “OK, this is a country version of Coachella, and these kids need light-up hats.” Then I had to pursue how to make that happen; I think it took me a year. I had the idea, and I was there with my friends, and they didn’t really know what I was seeing visually. I already knew the tech was on the market, it’s just that no one had integrated it into a cowboy hat.
We actually wore the hats to the festival the year after, and I saw how many people were losing their minds over the product, and I was like, I guess there’s a business here. It became a whole exploration of American identity and allowing people the ability to glow and lose their inhibitions.
Over the last two years, there’s been this resurgence of western wear being repurposed or reinvented in cool ways and movements like the Yeehaw Agenda. What’s it been like to see this new interest in western wear?
I think initially I was—and probably because of pride—more bummed that no one was mentioning Neon Cowboys as being part of that conversation. The first couple months, it was a little harder because it was like, how does nobody know? At the end of the day, it comes down to PR and getting your name out there. Again, I think it just stuck in my head that we were only a hat because that’s what a lot of investors had told me the previous years.
But it’s been so liberating, too, to see with the Yeehaw Agenda being so African American-focused, that I was part of something I didn’t even know was a thing. I had always loved the country life because we used to vacation out in the national parks in California. I kind of had a fantasized version of it to begin with, but to show up wearing what everyone else was wearing and not acknowledging that I was different felt incorrect.
I wouldn’t even necessarily say that I would wear the hat out anymore, but it’s definitely that channel for me where it’s like, “OK, if I were to think about who I am as an American and what do I see the future of inclusivity and being American to be, I think it should be bright and loud.”
It’s interesting, in spite of the increased interest, it doesn’t seem like a lot of brands have come out that are indicative of this bright, inclusive western-wear culture. I feel like you’re the pioneer!
When people talk about it as a trend, I’m just like, “If you think about your entire life of being an American, at what point did you think cowboys weren’t cool?” Cowboys have always been cool, and they will remain cool.
I started this as an artist, like I’ll just make a few hats, then everyone wanted them. Then it was like, alright I’ll learn business. Now I gotta get it right, for the idea and goal to always be an artist, which is tricky.
We had always talked about making sure the hat was Disney-ready. Is it ready to be in the parks? Is it ready to be in Walmart? It wasn’t, because I was hand-gluing all the hats for the first three years.
Even just that challenge of realizing, I’m more on the Etsy level right now than something that is distributed nationwide or worldwide, and how do I get there? And having the grace to understand that I don’t know what I’m doing, and that’s OK because I have to learn. But the most painful part about all of that is the money that you invest in.
What place do you feel like Neon Cowboys is at now in terms of somewhere between Etsy and Disney World?
We’re vending Disney tomorrow, so that is great. They have a program for artists, and we’re here locally in Orlando, so that’s cool and really beneficial. The product now is more beautiful than I thought it could be; I didn’t think I would go this far into the rabbit hole. It’s been the vehicle for me to learn everything about business and manufacturing specifically, also importing internationally.
Last year, we did a collaboration with Kacey Musgraves. Working with Kacey was really, really validating because we had other country artists who had reached out in the past wanting to sell the hats at their concerts or have them on tour, and we just weren’t ready. To be able to have the hats mass-produced and put her logo on the front—on the inside it says Kacey Musgraves x Neon Cowboys—they sold out so quickly. We get emails every day asking for a restock.
To know that we’re able to deliver on that scale and please a celebrity’s clientele, it was a major deal.
I know you’ve been posting a lot of new designs, light-up boots and stuff like that. Where and who do you get your inspiration from?
I just really love plastics, I don’t know what it is about them. I grew up on the Game Boy that was clear, you could see all of the electronics inside it. For me, if it’s plastic, and I see it in person and it’s colored, I get very excited about it.
Do you design the products yourself, or do you have a team that you work with?
I do design them, and my boyfriend works with me now, too, he’s the other designer. When we see a new lighting technology, we think about how we can integrate it into apparel because no one else is really doing that. We’re thinking, “How can we make it into overalls?” That kind of thing.
Definitely, something that’s more commonly wearable. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of that yet.
We all grew up with light-up shoes or wearable gadgets—‘90s kids, it’s so nostalgic for us. So we’re revisiting that and creating more stuff that plays into your childhood and what you thought was cool when you had no inhibitions.
We all grew up with the same stuff—Nickelodeon, being slimed on. It’s kind of recreating that in our adulthood and being able to afford it now. And just keeping it fun. I spent a lot of my summers in high school and college as a camp counselor, so for me, it was always what can we do that’s silly or dressed up, what can we have a good time doing, and that’s completely just translated into this. If I look back on it, I’m really just appealing to kids who would have a good time at camp.
Also, it’s crazy that “space cowgirl” is now a themed party that everyone is doing. It blows my—well, it doesn’t blow my mind, I am a camp counselor. I did see it coming, but it’s still wild.
You mentioned earlier going to Stagecoach. How did you become a country music fan?
I’m not entirely sure. I did have a housemate in college who was really into country, and she definitely turned me on to the current country. I got really into Lady Antebellum and a few others because I liked their ballads. I really liked the lyrical storytelling side of it for the slower songs. But when I started listening to country, I realized that all of my favorite songs growing up were by the Dixie Chicks and Faith Hill.
I think I really fell in love with the lyrics again, and I mean Kacey, especially, she is very good. They can take you to this place of escape, and growing up in LA, I always wanted to be at our river house rather than in the city. Hearing music that was talking about open plains, it was so soothing. I didn’t feel so claustrophobic.
In college, we drove an hour to go line-dancing a couple of times during my senior year. And I went to Stagecoach/Coachella, and it became such a highlight in terms of my year. It’s very much an age thing. Now that the hats are mass-producible and shelf-ready for Disney, I can think about, in terms of apparel, it doesn’t necessarily have to be for festivals.
We did a New York Fashion Week show last fall, and we put together a collection of whatever we could. We did two months of, like, what samples can we bust out now and how does it glow, and some of those pieces we’ll probably manufacture.
That’s an exciting unknown, seeing what the company will evolve into, what a lifestyle brand could look like.
As far as apparel, maybe pieces that look regular during the day and glow at night, but I don’t even know why. Are you glowing because you’re going out or because it’s a safety protection, what do you need to really glow for? But we have a lot of performers and celebrities who want pieces for performances on stage or TV, and also thinking about all those different facets, that’s different lighting technology.
There are a few people who have done beautiful pieces for the Met Gala and they put lights on a ballgown, but that dress is like $30,000. It’s going from selling hats at 60-80 bucks to how do we convince somebody that we can put something together that’s $20,000-$30,000, and them not necessarily knowing that we already specialize and have couture backgrounds.
I remember you’re based in Orlando, and I think that’s so cool because it’s an unusual spot for a fashion brand. How did you end up there, and what have you liked about running your business from there?
Everyone was always like, “Oh you’ll always live in LA, you’ll never leave,” but I think over the years it just got really oversaturated for me in terms of everybody was moving to LA. I’ve always wanted to be somewhere slower or a little more spacious because of the vacations to the country. I had visited Orlando once for the PGA Tour and another time when I did my first festival out here in Panama City, the Panhandle. I fell in love with Florida because it’s a lot like California, it’s just slower-paced and a little backdated. It’s just not as up to speed which I really appreciate.
For me, it makes a lot of sense, and in the ’90s, growing up, this is where everyone went for their giveaways. If you won a giveaway for Nickelodeon to get slimed on or for Universal Studios or Disneyworld, you were going to Orlando. As a child, I never had a misconception that it wasn’t gonna be awesome. When I finally moved out here, a lot of my LA friends were like, “Why would you go to Orlando?” but the weather is amazing, the people are really nice, there’s Southern hospitality and it’s not as fast-paced. There’s not any traffic, and I’m around all the theme parks. It just seemed like a no-brainer.
I was also dating someone who got a job out here, so I moved for that reason, as well, but Orlando has been so amazing. They’re really big on women entrepreneurship, their community is great out here in the downtown tech scene. We’re by all the theme parks so we’re actually able to have meetings with all these people in person and figure out what it takes to get in there.
It’s just an under-the-radar perfect spot, and I really love to fish and there are a ton of lakes here. It’s very country, but there’s also the city to an extent.
What’s next for Neon Cowboys?
I think mostly just trying to figure out the celebrity game, and figuring out mass-produced products that will excite the customers. We’re really trying to cut out doing all the festival vending and traveling, and just focus on getting the business right and making sure we continue to develop. When we create new products and post them on Instagram, we get the most reach because people want new stuff.
The fact that people are still following and interested after five years with just one hat, is very humbling. They deserve and want to see what else we can do. It’s hard because we don’t necessarily have the budget for R&D, but we’re trying to show people that we have more to offer.
I remember the last time we talked, you had talked about this idea of opening up a Neon Cowboys meets Coyote Ugly sort of place, and that sounded unbelievably cool. I hope that happens someday!
I hope so, especially down here in Orlando, we have so much tourism that comes through. We have IAAPA, which is the number one theme park and entertainment convention in the state. Every year we go there and look around at all the family entertainment centers, so we’re definitely still learning about all that and what we can really do once we have the capital to launch the first one. People could come if they’re taking a trip to Disney or doing a bachelorette party or whatever out here. The concept is certainly there, and I do believe we have the audience that would love it.
