Magill Hat Co Montreal Canada.

[59Lark]

Dear loungers; when I first posted this forum years ago I never thought a simple request would result in some of this information,, a small company making hats well there not perfect and certainly the people aren't responsible for fraud from hundred years ago today. but considering they are all about whats left, for a everyday business mans hat it will do fine, two years ago I inquired about some hats and put the order off due to my daughter being really ill due to a tumour, I told them I was too busy with her surgery and would order later , was dealing with her recovery when the hats showed up and I was happy with their service and the hats, I still am. you get what you pay for, and they aint Chinese. 59lark

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Magill Jackson. This is an Open Road styled hat, but not a clone. I got it for a great price and have no regrets. The hat quality is unimpressive. I’d rate it behind the Canadian made Biltmore hats and behind the Akubra Campdraft. As the Jackson is $195 US, I don’t see this a a good bargain anywhere near retail.

The felt isn’t horrible, but it’s toward the bottom of the spectrum for rabbit fur felt. The felt isn’t hard like modern Stetson 6X felt, but it’s thicker and firmer than any of my Campdrafts. The roan sweatband is serviceable, but nothing special. The crown has more taper than I’d like, and it’s approximately 5 1/2” when open. The 2 3/4” bound brim has quite a bit of flange. The felt took repeated applications of steam to hold the shape I wanted, and it has an almost waxy feel to it. The fit is true to size and easily accommodated my long oval head. The crown ribbon is 1/2” wide (wider than what you’ll see on an OR) and the trimmed ends of the ribbon are quite long. The hat does come with a wind trolley.

if you can get one cheap, as I did, then why not? At even half of its retail price I’d say the Campdraft is a much better choice; although, the Campdraft is not available in black.

https://www.magillhats.com/product/jackson-black/

 

[AbridgedPause]

The only reason that this company has remained opened after all of these years is because they cater, almost exclusively, to the Hasidic Jewish community located in Outremont, Montreal. If you visit the factory, you'll see that almost their entire inventory is made up of the hats they wear. And I mean the modern hats that they wear (look it up on Google), not the wider-variety of hats they once wore (Woody Allen's flashback scenes in his films often have rabbis wearing gorgeous Stetson Whippets!) This is most certainly an entry-level hat manufacturing company.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

The only reason that this company has remained opened after all of these years is because they cater, almost exclusively, to the Hasidic Jewish community located in Outremont, Montreal. If you visit the factory, you'll see that almost their entire inventory is made up of the hats they wear. And I mean the modern hats that they wear (look it up on Google), not the wider-variety of hats they once wore (Woody Allen's flashback scenes in his films often have rabbis wearing gorgeous Stetson Whippets!) This is most certainly an entry-level hat manufacturing company.

The Whippet was an entry level hat in it’s day The felt on all the vintage Whippets I’ve handled was acceptable, but definitely lower quality. Sad to see how far in we’ve moved the goalposts.

I expect lower quality at lower prices, but at MSRP my Magill was not a good deal. I don’t know what they stock, but their catalog contains many non black hats and many models not designed for the religious market. I’ve since sold my Magill and I’m not interested in another.

 

[johnnycanuck]

20 years ago you could find Robert Hall hats (Magill made hats) locally for about $60 Canadian for a fir felt hat. No, not the best quality but serviceable and a price you could not beat. With the prices now I can’t see why you would bother. Just my opinion.
Johnny

 

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That's right, Robert Hall was one of the brand names that Magill used for retail markets! They pop up pretty often on Kijiji, but like you said, they weren't very good quality. Magill also currently manufactures the store-brand hats of Montreal hat shop Henri Henri.

Magill has plenty to show-off in their catalog (but you have to bulk order a dozen or more, or wait for a dozen orders of that same hat to be placed); but their bread-and-butter hats are for the Hasidic Jews. I'm not saying that their fedoras, bowlers, homburgs, etc are made for Jews; I'm just saying that the huge market for Hasidic Jewish-wear in Montreal has kept the Magill company afloat all these years. Without that continuous customer base, Magill would have gone under by the 1940s, since there were much better, and bigger, hat manufacturers in Montreal. That's also partly because the francophone population was never big on hat-wearing to begin with, so Montreal's hat-buying customer base was largely anglophone or Jewish.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Magill pure beaver fedora (unknown model name). The open crown is 5 1/4 inches with a lot of taper and the raw edge brim is 2 1/4 inches. The beaver felt is nice, but vintage rabbit fur felt hats can be much thinner and more malleable and in just about every way “better.” The ribbon is petersham, but even with that aside the ribbon has a cheap look to it. The sweatband printing also looks low-end, but the leather is pleasingly substantial, soft, and supple. I think the felt is decent, but I’d never consider buying this hat anywhere near its retail price. The blocking and the cheap ribbon/bow work really brings this hat down in my eyes.

 

[belfastboy]

Magill pure beaver fedora (unknown model name). The open crown is 5 1/4 inches with a lot of taper and the raw edge brim is 2 1/4 inches. The beaver felt is nice, but vintage rabbit fur felt hats can be much thinner and more malleable and in just about every way “better.” The ribbon is petersham, but even with that aside the ribbon has a cheap look to it. The sweatband printing also looks low-end, but the leather is pleasingly substantial, soft, and supple. I think the felt is decent, but I’d never consider buying this hat anywhere near its retail price. The blocking and the cheap ribbon/bow work really brings this hat down in my eyes.

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One of the fellows in my hat making class just bought 2 Magill Hats from a shop in Victoria. He paid somewhere around $200 for them. Decent looking hat but I concur with your review. I owned a Magill stingy about a decade ago and I paid $150 for it or thereabouts. Both his hats and mine were rabbit

 

[AbridgedPause]

Oh Brent... what were you thinking???

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Oh Brent... what were you thinking???

I was thinking I could probably triple my money by selling it on eBay.

 

[AbridgedPause]

I was thinking I could probably triple my money by selling it on eBay.

Haha! Good luck with that You'll definitely have to withhold the Magill name for anyone to click on your listing. But that sweatband with the Greek motif is a dead giveaway.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Haha! Good luck with that You'll definitely have to withhold the Magill name for anyone to click on your listing. But that sweatband with the Greek motif is a dead giveaway.

Here are my predictions:
1. I’ll easily triple my investment
2. The buyer will have never heard of Magill
3. The buyer will really like the hat

I expect the buyer to not be a “hat guy,” but see a 100% beaver fedora in their size and in proportions that aren’t stingy but also aren’t imposing. The buyer won’t notice any of my biggest complaints about the hat and will be happy he got such a great deal on an “expensive” hat. I doubt I could sell it at my cost in TFL classifieds, but on eBay to non-hat guys…if the past in any predictor of the future it will be easy.

 

[AbridgedPause]

Here are my predictions:
1. I’ll easily triple my investment
2. The buyer will have never heard of Magill
3. The buyer will really like the hat

I expect the buyer to not be a “hat guy,” but see a 100% beaver fedora in their size and in proportions that aren’t stingy but also aren’t imposing. The buyer won’t notice any of my biggest complaints about the hat and will be happy he got such a great deal on an “expensive” hat. I doubt I could sell it at my cost in TFL classifieds, but on eBay to non-hat guys…if the past in any predictor of the future it will be easy.

Are you being serious? I thought you were joking and was just teasing you/going along with it.

By the way, I thought anything under a 2.5 inch brim was generally considered stingy.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Are you being serious? I thought you were joking and was just teasing you/going along with it.

By the way, I thought anything under a 2.5 inch brim was generally considered stingy.

I’m being completely serious. I bought this hat with the sole purpose to flip it for a profit. I bought it cheap (really cheap), so tripling my investment isn’t setting my sights too high. I’ll let you know what I sell it for.

There isn’t an agreed upon definition of a stingy brim. I think few would consider anything under 2 1/2 inches as stingy; this is particularly true of smaller sizes where a 2 3/8” brim still looks like a wide brim fedora. A lot here would even argue that two inches isn’t a stingy, but it sure looks stingy in my size.