How a small Seoul hat maker crafted 'MASGA' hat that helped unlock tariff talks
A "Make America Shipbuilding Great Again" hat sits on a desk at the office of Moja Factory, a hat manufacturer in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Sang-moo
A red baseball cap embroidered with the slogan “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again (MASGA)” has emerged as an unlikely symbol of progress in recent U.S.-Korea tariff negotiations. Behind the scenes, a small Seoul-based manufacturer's urgent production of these hats shows how symbolism and speed can converge in diplomacy.
The order came suddenly. “The U.S. and Korean flags must be stitched side by side above the MASGA slogan on the front of the cap,” a Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) official told the Seoul-based hat maker, Moja Factory, located in Dongdaemun District.
The design was intended not just as merchandise, but as a key visual aid in high-level talks. The MASGA slogan, created by MOTIE staff as part of a strategic policy proposal for bilateral shipbuilding cooperation, had helped break a stalemate in tariff talks.
To make it stick, Korean negotiators needed a bold, tangible object, a hat echoing U.S. President Donald Trump’s iconic red MAGA cap, tailored to American tastes but delivering a Korean message.
In an interview with Hankook Ilbo on Wednesday, Moja Factory sales manager Shin Hae-seon recalled her surprise at the request: “They asked for confidentiality and said it was for an important negotiation. But when they even specified where to place the flag patches, I wondered if we could really pull it off.”
The first design draft of the “MASGA” hat, created using generative artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and sent to hat manufacturer Moja Factory. Courtesy of Moja Factory
High difficulty, tight deadline
Even with 15 years of experience, Shin said the task ranked among the most difficult her company had ever faced. That’s because the front panels of structured baseball caps are hard and curved, a challenge for conventional overlock machines used to stitch patches onto fabric.
“To stitch patches on that part, you normally have to press the cap down onto a flat surface, which ruins its shape,” she said.
The solution came from an unexpected source: a rarely used piece of equipment known as a post-bed sewing machine. Common in shoe and leather repair, it allows stitching on curved surfaces without flattening them.
“The machine costs more than 3 million won ($2,300), and we didn’t have one,” Shin said. “But without it, we couldn’t do the job — so we bought one immediately and had it delivered the next day.”
The machine worked. It allowed the team to securely attach both the American and Korean flags to the front of the hat without deforming its shape.
Shin Hae-seon, sales manager at Moja Factory and lead coordinator of the MASGA hat project, poses during an interview with the Hankook Ilbo in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Sang-moo
AI-generated design, hand-tuned details
The MOTIE had sent the initial design mockup, created using ChatGPT, via email on July 22. A few days later, as MASGA gained traction in Washington as a potential framework for tariff cooperation, negotiators urgently requested the physical hats.
By July 27, Moja Factory was racing against time. “We knew this was a matter of national importance, so we just pushed forward,” Shin said.
Rather than custom-producing new hats, they selected plain red golf caps already in stock — in line with MOTIE’s request to echo Trump’s MAGA hat in both style and color. The design team worked overtime, adjusting the angle and placement of each letter in the slogan using actual embroidery tests.
A post-bed sewing machine sits at the Moja Factory workshop in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Wednesday. The hat maker purchased the machine specifically to produce the MASGA hats. Korea Times photo by Lee Sang-moo
From Seoul to Washington — overnight
On July 29, a MOTIE official picked up the finished caps in person. According to government sources, 10 hats in total were hand-carried to Washington, D.C., in cooperation with Korean Air, arriving within 24 hours, just in time for use at the negotiating table.
The MASGA slogan, and the hat bearing it, had been conceived in early June by MOTIE's Shipbuilding and Offshore Plant Division as a way to encapsulate the benefits of Korea-U.S. cooperation in shipbuilding. The team had explored several designs, eventually settling on the red cap with both national flags and white embroidery.
According to presidential policy chief Kim Yong-bum, who led the Korean negotiation team, the project played a critical role in breaking through stalled talks.
Appearing on KBS’s Sunday Diagnosis on Sunday, Kim said, “If it weren’t for shipbuilding, the negotiations would’ve stayed at an impasse.” He brought the MASGA hat into the studio, saying, “We poured our energy into making a symbol like this.”
Although only five hats were requested for the immediate round of talks, Shin said producing them felt like the culmination of her career.
“Honestly, we were just doing what we always do — making hats. But I never imagined that our work would play a role in something this important for the country,” she said. “This MASGA hat is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
Design screen displays the slogan for the MASGA hat at Moja Factory, a hat manufacturer based in Seoul’s Dongdaemun District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Sang-moo
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.