Need a way to stand out and help your friends find you in the middle of a festival crowd? This LED arrow hat is equal parts fashion statement and functional beacon. With a vintage diner-sign vibe and bold ball-shaped LEDs around the edge, it points straight at you—because obviously, you're the one they came to see. Mount it on a top hat and you’ve got yourself a wearable sign that says, “There they are!” wherever you go.

This project runs on Adafruit’s Sparkle Motion Stick—an ESP32-based board with a built-in USB plug, perfect for plugging straight into a USB battery. It’s powered by WLED, a brilliantly flexible open-source LED controller that lets you choose dazzling animations, sync with music, and even control it from your phone. Setup is fast, the interface is easy, and the results are way more eye-catching than they have any right to be. Whether you're using it to lead your group through the crowd or just to complete your outfit, this arrow will make you stand out.

Parts

Additional Materials & Tools

• 1/8" rigid poster board (or download our file for 3d printing or laser cutting)
• Hot glue gun
• Stylish hat

I also used a band saw and a drill press to shape the poster board, but you could do it with a sharp knife and a 5/8" leather punch.