The Coolest Cooler
 

My boyfriend is alumni of a fraternity of whom is having their 75th anniversary this year. I was never involved in the Greek system so this is all very foreign to me. He's mentioned the tradition of girls making coolers for the guys and I'd love to make him one that is crazy orginal. :cool:
Advice? Help? Suggestions? If you currently are in a fraternity or have been in the past what is something you would have loved to see on a cooler?
Any help is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

The best coolers, IMO, are ones that incorporate the guy's interests on them. I just made one for Carolina Cup that was a pretty standard fraternity cooler because I didn't know my date that well, but for my upcoming event it's a different guy I know a lot better and I can make his cooler more personal. Whatever your boyfriend wants, use it! Pinterest is a great resource for ideas.

There was a thread on this in the past: Cooler painting (as in "the painting of coolers").

I'm trying to remember the first time I saw these, but I know I was staying at a hotel where TWO Winter Weekends were being held. There were some really cool designs! This was in Nashville, I'm guessing in 2006?

Clemsongirl, I am curious what do the guys do with all of these coolers? If each guy is getting a cooler for every major event, don't they end up with a ton of them? I understand having a couple of them, but in a fraternity house don't they eventually run out of room for them all?

I asked a couple guys about this! They end up getting used as seats/end tables/footstools/whatever other kind of furniture a cooler can be used for, or they just get stacked in the corner of a room. One of my friends is a senior who's accumulated quite a few of them in his time, and they're all over his house. If a guy went to every event at Clemson that expected a cooler, he'd probably get 2-3 a year.

I can see it now, fraternity houses adding extra space for cooler storage :p

I've always wondered does the paint job really hold up to all the use and abuse it gets?

It depends on how well the cooler is sealed, but none that I've seen have been intact after their event. I actually offered to repaint my Carolina Cup date's cooler because some of the paint had flaked off but he said it was okay. I suppose it depends on how rough you are with your coolers!

Advice: Check the cooler connection group on facebook

Commentary: I only painted coolers for formals, or for friends if they specifically asked me for one. Mine take about 4 weeks to paint, but that was also with the time constraints of school and work. Obviously as I got older, my guy friends who were asking me to events got older, and instead of coolers, we got creative and started with other gifts, like shot glasses, or flasks or whatever such have you, so they didn't end up with their 12th cooler

Oh, and sanding, priming and sealing are super important.

Sand with rough sandpaper, and then fine, to get off the plastic coating/texture. A power sander helps, and the fine sandpaper buffs out the scratches. Prime with krylon fusion for plastic, paint, mod podge in between layers, seal with mod podge and then seal with two to three coats of Minwax Polycrylic (in the teal can) and you should be good. Have to make sure everything is fully dry in between layers.

I got in on the Kickstarter funding on the last day for this product:
The Coolest Cooler
https://coolest.com/about-coolest-com/
It has everything: blender, speakers, speakers, iPhone dock, USB charger
Oh yeah, and a cooler!
(Wasn't even thinking about the thread I started when I bought it,)
For those that funded the Kickstarter project, you could buy in for $180 and the initial shipments for the funders begin in July, with a choice of 3 colors. When the come out in market (Fall 2015 or later) they'll be $220+.
I'm sure these will be all the rage for cooler painting next year!

Thanks for all the help! I think I have an idea of where I'm going to go with it, just need to look into maintaining the design. Maybe sanding it down a bit and starting with a primer.

Hey Jnsp, here's a tutorial on this website (that we don't ususally like to quote, but this article is pretty informative) with a step-by-step guide: http://totalsororitymove.com/how-to-...end-all-guide/

I love this coolers, especially the paints.