NEW STETSON 2015 Dress catalog

[jlee562]

On Stetson's website, there is a picture of the Gun Club on the far left, but oddly, they aren't selling it. Why?

http://www.stetson.com/

The Stetson.com webstore isn't actually owned and operated by Stetson, but rather, a third party vendor.

 

[Duper]

The Earhart is a ladies model but looks very nice.

Oh my. I didn't get that it was a ladies hat from the Instagram photo, but that picture with the ribbon treatment sure clears that up.

On the Akubra home site banner page I did see they have two new felt hats coming out soon. One is very much a ladies wide brim in electric blue and one they list as unisex. So they are all showing the ladies a bit more love.

,,,Mike in Canada

 

[EstherWeis]

Well, I'm thrilled about that for sure. Here and there I start to see women wearing them more often.

I have to say though, from all the stetsons i've seen ( only modern day ones) i've never really liked the quality/feel of the felt much.
But I imagine the vintage ones are way better.


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[makitright]

I saw a good color pic of the hat. It's a good lookin Panama at that grade. Stetsonian specs. Nice big finished brim. Big crown.

Bob - can I ask you what panama you are referring to here - with Stetsonian specs - where can I find it? Thanks

 

[Bob Roberts]

Jeff Dyer at Delmonico Hatters showed me a pic of upcoming Spring/Summer offerings. Its a higher grade Stetson Stetsonian Panama.

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[Frunobulax]

Apologies in advance for the long post.

Some of you have probably seen some of my posts intimating I’ve been waiting on a new Stetson for a while. This post won’t solve any problems, but I need to vent.

After a couple days discussion, on April 15, I ordered a Light Gray Stetsonian from DelMonico Hats, out of the 2015 catalogue. Now, in April, I was a lot greener in the hat world than I am now, but I was excited about the 150th Anniversary hats and the Stetsonian hit all the right notes (still does, actually). At the time, my hat collection was a tad smaller, and the need for a light gray hat made sense, and I thought it’d be a good summer dress hat, being light in color and all. Jeff informed me the wait was ~6 weeks, but expect eight.

So, OK, it’ll mid to late June when I get my new Stetson. I can live with that (had to wait longer for my first Akubra). I had my eye on a Racine and a Premiere, or possibly an Excellent, Strat, as well. The catalogue had piqued my interest and I wanted to support what they were doing by offering better quality felts. This has been bolstered by all the posts from you guys and your new Premiere and Excellent felts.

June came and went. July came and went. August, September –no hat. And no contact from the retailer, either (this is really the only beef I have with DelMonico). On October 6, Mr. DelMonico called to tell me the hat was in, but it wasn’t up to snuff. He described some imperfections in the crown and, when he said something to the effect of, ‘If I didn’t know it was a new hat, I’d think it had moth damage,’ I told him to keep the hat. He indicated that he would call Hatco to see “what can be done.”

Now, I would assume that would mean they’d get a more acceptable hat off the line from Hatco but, what I wasn’t told was that this meant the process started all over again, as if it was a new order. Again, no contact for a few weeks, so I called and spoke with Jeff on 11/12. He indicated he’d call Hatco and give me a call the next day with some solid information. When he called the next day, I was informed that Hatco was finishing production on my hat, and it would “hopefully” get on a truck to DelMonico yet that day.

Today I called DelMonico to ask what was going on. I was told that the hat is (really, really, truly) on a truck on its way to Connecticut, but nobody can tell me when it will get there. Nobody can tell me when I’ll get the product I ordered. In April. It’s going to be December before I see this thing.

So, I’m mad - frustrated. But I really don’t have anybody to be mad at that can do any good. DelMonico has done their job. They stopped a bad hat that got out of Texas as “OK” before it could get to me. I appreciate that, and apparently Hatco still says the hat is acceptable and DelMonico is stuck with it. Mr. DelMonico has indicated that he’s spent a lot of time on this order and I appreciate that but, as a customer standing here with $$ in my hand, a good portion of me is pretty callous about that, as well. One thing Mr. DelMonico did say to me is that the main reason the hat wasn’t produced in a timely fashion is that they didn’t have the material. I’m assuming that means light gray felt bodies in Royal Deluxe quality felt.

So, it looks like, if all is truly as stated, I might have a new Stetson on my noggin sometime next week. We’ll see. But the whole experience has just left a bad taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, I feel bad about DelMonico as well, though their part in this is small (some communication over the several months would have helped).

But frankly, how does Stetson/Hatco make any money if they won’t provide a product? Am I going to buy a Racine or a Strat now? No. Not unless I walk into a brick and mortar store and walk out with one.

This is a situation where there is little I can do, save cancel my order at the last minute. DelMonico doesn’t deserve that, and I’d still like a Stetsonian, so I wait. Were it not for DelMonico's efforts, I'd be really inclined to cancel the order, drive an hour down the road, and have Gus Miller make me one for a few more bucks.

But I’m no longer excited about my 150th Anniversary hat. I don’t have any desire to order anything else out of the catalogue. I’ve had better luck with crappy photos of vintage hats on eBay than ordering new from Stetson out of the catalogue.

So yes, no solutions, and I don’t expect anything from my compadres here on the Lounge, but I needed to vent. Maybe I’ll have one next week, I don’t know. I’ve lost faith.

But I do know a vintage Stetson Playboy is out for delivery to my house right now, and when I get home, I’m going to have a “new” hat.

So I ‘ve got that going for me, which is nice.

 

[tommyK]

Sorry to hear, Fruno. I want to support the effort by Matt Deckard and Stetson. I've bought 3 of the modern open crown offerings. I think they'll get there, they just need to rediscover the recipe. The delays and quality control issues are disappointing. DelMonico's are great to deal with. One of the times I was there they were sending back some sub par grey Premiere Strats.

On the plus side, You're going to love that Playboy!

 

[moontheloon]

as you know I had a similar experience with my Excellent that I ordered from DelMonico ... probably could have been ordered from anywhere and had the same problem ... but "6 weeks" turned into 5 months

HEY!!!

lets get a look at that Playboy !!!

 

[RBH]

I understand Fruno, I ordered one of the wool Stratoliners from 1791.
After two times to go past the ship date. [no fault of 1791] I received my hat.
Its nice enough, I dont mind it being wool. It was planned to be a 'rough outdoors' hat anyway.
But quality is sure lacking. There is a rather large place on the brim that oddly enough looks like a moth nibble.
I did not return it for the simple reason I did not want to wait another two months.
I will say that I plan on a reblock at Buckaroo Hatters the next time I am over there.
There is plenty of crown to raise it a bit.
Good luck on your hat.

 

[RJR]

All of these QC issues are disappointing to say the least.

 

[javadave61]

Fruno. How frustrating. You wonder why Hatco goes through the trouble of working on their brand, making this catalogue, and hoping for a revival of quality felt hats if they're going to do this kind of thing. Heck, Amazon realizes people hate waiting two days! Who waits 6 months for anything?

Have Delmonico send the hat back to Hatco and then pick it up for half price at the outlet when you go! Now there's an idea.

By the way, the outlet tells some of the story. I've picked up hats with quality issues that I thought were the exception. Except from what I'm hearing from you all, it may be the rule. What ends up at the outlet are their first run hats (with acceptable flaws - by their standards) that the consumer ultimately will not accept.

At least that's my guess. Too bad.

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[Bob Roberts]

I feel your pain Fruno!

 

[Frunobulax]

Thanks for the support, guys. Like I said, I just needed to vent on this. My wife's had to bear the brunt of my whining, so I thought I'd widen my audience.

And yeah, it's just so damned frustrating. I'll get over it. And hopefully, be happy with the hat. (Dave, I had the same thought you did, too!)

The Playboy's awesome. Let me clean it up and brush it and I'll get some pix up.

 

[Rogera]

...

The Playboy's awesome. Let me clean it up and brush it and I'll get some pix up.

Can't wait!

 

[Bob Roberts]

Thanks for the support, guys. Like I said, I just needed to vent on this. My wife's had to bear the brunt of my whining, so I thought I'd widen my audience.

And yeah, it's just so damned frustrating. I'll get over it. And hopefully, be happy with the hat. (Dave, I had the same thought you did, too!)

The Playboy's awesome. Let me clean it up and brush it and I'll get some pix up.

Cheers! Drink up my friend!!!

 

[Knotten]

Now I'm feeling anxiety over the Stetsonian I ordered from Delmonico two weeks ago. Six week wait, they said. We'll see, I guess.


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[moontheloon]

Thanks for the support, guys. Like I said, I just needed to vent on this. My wife's had to bear the brunt of my whining, so I thought I'd widen my audience.

And yeah, it's just so damned frustrating. I'll get over it. And hopefully, be happy with the hat. (Dave, I had the same thought you did, too!)

The Playboy's awesome. Let me clean it up and brush it and I'll get some pix up.

tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

lets go!!!

playboy time !!!!

 

[g.durand]

When it comes to quality, vintage still wins, custom comes in not far behind. Hatco will have to address the obvious QC issues if they expect to continue to get our share of the market. I'm not sure if they care, since they do enough volume in westerns and other styles and are trying to get more young people interested in their products. My guess is since few people know what a good vintage or custom hat can be like, they have no idea what a modern Stetson ought to be like. So there aren't many holding Hatco's feet to the fire.

I think it was Ole (The Dane) who several years ago here described the new Premier line as nothing more than reproductions, and not very good ones. I tend to agree with him more and more.

 

[gtdean48]

Having exact same situation with a 150th Premiere Open Road. Jeff said he would be in Garland to check personally but no update...

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[Kirk H.]

Wow, after reading about some of you all's experiences I feel lucky that I had to only wait a week to get my Tawny Stetsonian. I must say that the quality of the hat was OK and the felt was very stiff. The one issue I had with it was that the stiching on the hat band was not great. Several of the nylon stiches were sticking out and I just went ahead and trimmed them myself. I am hoping that the quality control issues are few and far in between.