When you go to a sports game, whether that be baseball, hockey, basketball or football, there is a sea of fans wearing jerseys for their favorite players. This may be changing in the future because Lynnfield native Charles Arakelian has a new product for sports fans to wear: “a hat that resembles a jersey.”
“The way I really started the hat business was an idea I had, of instead of wearing a jersey to a game, why not wear a hat. So I know a lot of people aren’t fond of wearing jerseys that can be bulky sometimes,” Arakelian said.
So he started his new business called ChucksBuckets in 2019. The first hats he made were for the local teams like the Bruins and Patriots which he sold to fans.
“The idea was to have a hat, the color of their jersey, and the number in the numbers on the front, the same color as their numbers on their jerseys,” Arakelian said. “So that would be the front of the hat and the back of the hat would either be a logo or a nickname that describes the athlete.”
After the initial success of the hats, they grew in popularity spreading to professional athletes.
“Through networking, and a lot of people I know. I was able to get them on to the professional athletes heads themselves,” Arakelian said. “So we’ve had a lot of professional athletes wear our hats, which has been really cool. We’ve had hockey players nationwide wear our hats, we’ve had people in the music world wear our hats, people on Barstool Sports have worn them.”
For the future of the hat business, he is thinking of extending to other clothing such as shirts.
“Maybe have a large number on the front of a T-shirt. But really my goals and path is towards the hats end of things but I may incorporate clothing as well,” Arakelian said.
The hat business isn’t the only endeavor Arakelian has in the athletic world, he is also the franchisee of a Stretch Zones in Wayland and Woburn. The company, which is based out of Fort Lauderdale, “provides a service called assisted stretching,” he said.
“At Stretch Zone we use patented equipment to position and stabilize muscles, allowing for long lasting results, some benefits of practitioner assistance stretching, or keeping your muscles strong, flexible and healthy,” Arakelian said.
They also can prevent injuries, reduce soreness and improve posture. Their clients range from age 15 to 80 and those who are and aren’t active.
“We stretch people that are professional athletes, people that are runners, cyclists, tennis players, golfers, we service all sorts of ailments from lower body to upper body. The first stretch we provide is always free. So there’s no strings attached,” Arakelian said.
Before finding success in his professional life, Arakelian grew up in Lynnfield and graduated from Lynnfield High School in 2008.
“They provided an amazing education for me that led to the path of me going to college,” Arakelian said. “But a lot of the things I learned growing up in the Lynnfield school system, I can definitely relate to the success I’ve had in the business world and the designing I’ve done.”
Being an entrepreneur is something that he has wanted to do since he was a kid.
“I grew up in a family where my father was a business owner, my grandfather was a business owner, and my great grandfather was a business owner. So it was kind of always instilled in me and I’ve always wanted to just own my own business,” Arakelian said.
