Local veteran changes the hat industry with new invention

One local veteran has flourished as a Yuma-area realtor and business owner.

Paul Cunningham had no intention of joining the military, but that all changed in 1988.

“I’m the youngest of seven and of the kids I was the least likely to join the military. I was the young spoiled one that didn’t’t want to do anything for myself so I mean my parents almost fell out of their chair, when I told them I wanted to join the Marines,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham excelled in the Marines and rose to the top of his class in boot camp.

He eventually became an air controller, stationed in Yuma.

He credited the military for teaching him a lot about himself.

“That experience showed me that if I put my head down and work hard there’s a lot of things I can do,” said Cunningham.

He left the military after three years and did exactly that. He went on to graduate from The University of Arizona and marry his wife.

He wanted to pursue dentistry school, but as that door closed another avenue of opportunity opened.

“Through a series of events, ended up in real estate. Which, I absolutely love. Now, in hindsight I can see the wisdom in what He had planned for me and I don’t think I would have been nearly as happy and certainly would not have had the opportunity or even been in a circumstance where I could have conceived of or launched Notch,” said Cunningham.

Notch is now the Cunnigham’s business.

He came up with the idea to alter hats so people could also wear sunglasses while watching golf.

“It just hit me. Why not notch out the bill? So, I jumped off the couch and I got a pair of scissors and a hat and I made my first prototype and thought, ‘holy cow! That works,” said Cunningham.

His next step was to make sure that he was the first to think of this new type of hat.

He was and in 2010 launched Notch. Cunningham sold his first hat in 2013.

“We’ve sold probably 70 or 80,000 units since the first day,” said Cunningham.

Cunningham’s two sons and wife are all in on Notch.

Starting Notch has also led Cunningham to rewarding moments that bring him back to the military.

He explained a time when a customer called in to place an order and told Cunningham their son was a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

“He’s a Marine also and he said that he’s just having a hard time. He’s really down, never smiles when he’s they FaceTime or whatever. The told him that ‘hey, we bought a Notch hat and we’re going to resend it to you.’ And he said it’s the first time he’s seen him smile. That was pretty cool. That was a good feeling,” explained Cunningham.

The local Marine turned air controller turned full-time real estate agent and business owner has truly fulfilled his dreams.

“It’s been a dream of mine for most of my lifetime to hold a patent and the fact that it’s for a product that actually entered the market and people will buy it and it’s doing well is exciting because the vast majority of patents never make any money. So, that’s kind of cool,” said Cunningham.

For more information on Notch, head to their website.