Look: Pa. student spent years building world's tallest hat

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania man achieved his years-long dream of creating the world's tallest hat when he took a stroll wearing his 17-foot, 9.5-inch cap.

Joshua Kiser successfully broke the record in Breinigsville, Pa., after several years of failed attempts that began when Penn State University closed its campus in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"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," Kiser told Guinness World Records .

The "eccentric man," Odilon Ozare, had set the record in 2018 with a 15-foot, 9-inch hat.

"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," Kiser said.

His first attempt, involving cardboard blocks and Velcro, failed to surpass even 5 feet tall.

"The Velcro couldn't hold the blocks together tight enough and I had no way to keep it on my head," he said.

Kiser's next idea, wooden dowels, was similarly unsuccessful.

"I had planned on attaching nuts and bolts to the tips of the dowels to attach them together the long way. It wasn't nearly sturdy enough to point over 15 feet straight up in the sky," he said. "I needed something sturdy -- I thought about rebar, or metal rods, but I knew those would be too heavy. This idea did not work. I still had no way to attach it to my head even if it did."

Kiser also attempted to use chicken wire, but ended up giving up on that idea.

His final design was inspired when he came across some lightweight gutters at Home Depot, as well as a Philadelphia Eagles trash can that he said "looked about the circumference of my noggin."

The hat was reinforced with expanding foam and covered it with Santa-style red fabric to give it the appearance of a hat.

He successfully walked the required distance of 32.8 feet while wearing the 26.4-pound hat, successfully taking the title.