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Borsalino Bankrupt?

suitedcboy

One Too Many
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1,348
Location
Fort Worth Texas or thereabouts
MAP= Mean Ass Pricing ???

I have been wearing the new Stetson I picked up at the outlet in Garland for most of the last two weeks and there is not one thing to not like about the felt or any other part of the hat. The sweatband is a high quality leather that feels nice on my head. The edge binding ribbon and crown ribbon look and feel nice. The liner is not silk but still fits well and looks nice but is a printed piece and not embroidered.
I wish I knew what it would be retail and knew more about what composition the felt is supposed to be.

Borsalino does have to make a good product or Stetson's new stuff will push them offshore.
 
Last edited:

KingAndrew

A-List Customer
Messages
312
Location
Shanghai
""wait for it...Stetson..."

This is so true. Not only do both brands license extensively after the founding families sold out, but when I read the headline "The Make of the World's Coolest Hats is Bankrupt," I immediately said, "What's wrong at Stetson?" In America that Stetson mystique looms larger than Borso.

I can't imagine that jacking up Borsalino's already high prices is a strategy for improving sales, but if you raise the price high enough, you don't need to sell many to stay in business and there are always a few rich show-offs happy to buy an overpriced thing just to show they can (see the Italian sports car market for details).

As for the quality of the new Stetsons, I am very happy with my Stetsonian and it sounds like these new Excellent Quality hats are even better (I've got one on order in that truck).
 

KingAndrew

A-List Customer
Messages
312
Location
Shanghai
Steve, that's my understanding, too. The article cites strong sales among Orthodox Jews, and lists Israel as a strong market for Borsalino. And I know that Besdor's shop does a strong business with the Jewish community.
 
Messages
17,517
Location
Maryland
Also a large share of TONAK's business (felt hoods / hat bodies, finished hats). When I visited TONAK in 2011 they were preparing large orders of stiff wide brim stiff open crown black Velour hats.
 

Bob Roberts

I'll Lock Up
Messages
11,201
Location
milford ct
Messages
17,517
Location
Maryland
There is one report of even the religious hat market using another maker, Fernández y Roche in Spain. I have two fedoras from them, and they are way better than anything recent I've seen from Borsalino or Stetson. Here's an article about them. I bought the hats at J.J.'s, who is provae-labeling them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/w...klyn-made-to-precise-order-in-spain.html?_r=0

There are others but from what I have read the Borsalino name recognition can carry extra weight.
 

Daniele Tanto

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,252
Location
Verona - Italia
From La Stampa Alessandria edition
"A historical group
But why a historic company , which has nearly 160 life , 130 employees and is considered in the fashion world almost as much as in that of Ferrari engines , is likely to fail ? The Borsalino is now the plastic representation of how a financial storm will affect an industry healthy and profitable : the origin of his trouble is just a financier , the Asti Marco Marenco , at the center of major Italian bankruptcy after Parmalat , a crash on the estimated three billion . Since June last year is in fact hiding abroad ( apparently in Switzerland ) after the arrest warrants issued by the courts of Asti and Alessandria".
"With the background of this chaos , the board of directors ( Marco Moccia , Francesco Canepa , Raffaele Grimaldi ) acts from time to groped to save the situation , using the proceeds to pay employees and suppliers at least in part : to use the banks will not speak because judges have also frozen goods for a couple of million , due to a process for tax evasion . The biggest problem was a few months ago when the debt to the largest supplier of rabbit fur (essential for the felt ) rose to levels that ensure the suspension of shipments . But through other channels the company was then able to go back to source."
"The puzzle of the property
The request for an arrangement with creditors therefore comes almost as a liberation , because eventually you will have to solve puzzles related to the property and it is needless to say that Borsalino is a brand that could be tempting to many in the fashion world : there are already rumors of possible cordate . A change of hands that resembles that of the early 90's , when it passed the hat factory owned by a wicked political and the business entrepreneurs astigiani Gallo - Monticone . Roberto Gallo , who has run well for fifteen years , has only one flaw : it is a relative of Marco Marenco .


This is the actual situation, the rest is only gossip :D
I'm not the right person to judge the quality or the marketing applied by Borsalino on the hats market (civilians and religious), so I say nothing about the mentioned argument that seems very popular in these days about L'Antica Casa di Alessandria.
I find very inopportune the paragon with Stetson. The Hatco is raising the quality and appeal of theirs trademarks, above all Stetson. The market for Hatco in mainly the widest hats market in this world: the USA, they have to conserve and expand first the home sales, Borsalino has an international market that is more difficult to conserve and improved. So every paragon and ill-omened refered to these mainly recognized hats producers are inappropriate.
We will see what happens and my personal hope is that Borsalino has from this fire a new life like the Phoenix. The chance for Borsalino to die for ever is very high, this could be an hard knock on the hats market.
This is really not my goal.
 
From La Stampa Alessandria edition
"A historical group
But why a historic company , which has nearly 160 life , 130 employees and is considered in the fashion world almost as much as in that of Ferrari engines , is likely to fail ? The Borsalino is now the plastic representation of how a financial storm will affect an industry healthy and profitable : the origin of his trouble is just a financier , the Asti Marco Marenco , at the center of major Italian bankruptcy after Parmalat , a crash on the estimated three billion . Since June last year is in fact hiding abroad ( apparently in Switzerland ) after the arrest warrants issued by the courts of Asti and Alessandria".
"With the background of this chaos , the board of directors ( Marco Moccia , Francesco Canepa , Raffaele Grimaldi ) acts from time to groped to save the situation , using the proceeds to pay employees and suppliers at least in part : to use the banks will not speak because judges have also frozen goods for a couple of million , due to a process for tax evasion . The biggest problem was a few months ago when the debt to the largest supplier of rabbit fur (essential for the felt ) rose to levels that ensure the suspension of shipments . But through other channels the company was then able to go back to source."
"The puzzle of the property
The request for an arrangement with creditors therefore comes almost as a liberation , because eventually you will have to solve puzzles related to the property and it is needless to say that Borsalino is a brand that could be tempting to many in the fashion world : there are already rumors of possible cordate . A change of hands that resembles that of the early 90's , when it passed the hat factory owned by a wicked political and the business entrepreneurs astigiani Gallo - Monticone . Roberto Gallo , who has run well for fifteen years , has only one flaw : it is a relative of Marco Marenco .


This is the actual situation, the rest is only gossip :D
I'm not the right person to judge the quality or the marketing applied by Borsalino on the hats market (civilians and religious), so I say nothing about the mentioned argument that seems very popular in these days about L'Antica Casa di Alessandria.
I find very inopportune the paragon with Stetson. The Hatco is raising the quality and appeal of theirs trademarks, above all Stetson. The market for Hatco in mainly the widest hats market in this world: the USA, they have to conserve and expand first the home sales, Borsalino has an international market that is more difficult to conserve and improved. So every paragon and ill-omened refered to these mainly recognized hats producers are inappropriate.
We will see what happens and my personal hope is that Borsalino has from this fire a new life like the Phoenix. The chance for Borsalino to die for ever is very high, this could be an hard knock on the hats market.
This is really not my goal.


I don't think you have to worry about Borsalino dying. There will be a Borsalino name no matter what happens to the company. Someone will come along and at least buy the name. What happens with it from there is anyone's guess. The name is already associated with numerous items that aren't hats. It could turn into a line of handcrafted pens like Mont Blanc. :p
 

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