Cynthia Booth produced her first wool hat in 1992. Named after a move popularized by her snowboard coach husband John Gage, Libble-D, the hat was “wardrobe staple in our stomping ground of southern Vermont.” Booth’s creations became the unofficial uniform of the US Open. While ubiquitous on heads in southwest Vermont, the lid also proved to be challenging to locate, but in most cases, one just had to ask the kind-hearted Gages. In more than one instance, a Gage literally gave the hat off their head. "He was always part of the scene and he was friends with everybody. He can tell stories like the best of them and he was never a pro but he was he was friends with all the pros,” Steve Hayes felt that he “was very effective in promoting Libble-D lids. As he gained … popularity, he got some of the right people wearing the hats and would always come up with a custom hat and hook up the right people with the hats on the podium. John's definitely been a fan and part of the scene for many, many years. Built some great friendships and relationships around there." Rich Titus recalled “Johnny Gage was funny like that. He could take one joke and beat it to death and beat it so much that it got funnier as he did it. One year he brought a rooster. He went around for three days asking people if they wanted to touch his cock. And by Sunday it was hysterical." Gage also had a profound impact on future Olympians. Betsy Shaw recalled that Gage “has probably been waiting nearly 30 years for me to admit that he was the one that convinced me to stop skiing and start snowboarding.”