The Black Cherry hat I had made for Daniel from Alley Kat hats, was finished with what Tim called a long "luring" process, and in up close it looks a lot different then what a cell phone picture can capture.IIRC, his had a special finish applied that makes it almost like a long hair finish. I asked Art to do a suede finish on mine, which is something akin to a velour, but it seems to catch a bit more light than the standard pounce job, and thus appears a teeny tiny bit lighter.