Open Crown Stetsons: A Call (Plea) to Retailers!!

[g.durand]

A revisit---I have to live with every hat for awhile, be it a vintage, a custom, or a modern production hat, and tweak it here and there before I'm satisfied with it. I have to make it mine. After a couple of days with the second Strat and doing some work on both of them, I'm going to give them both a fairly positive review. They're not near the quality of most vintage hats, nor are they as good as most custom hats, but they are serviceable and I will wear them.

Here they are after steaming and re-shaping today.

 

[facade]

A revisit---I have to live with every hat for awhile, be it a vintage, a custom, or a modern production hat, and tweak it here and there before I'm satisfied with it. I have to make it mine. After a couple of days with the second Strat and doing some work on both of them, I'm going to give them both a fairly positive review. They're not near the quality of most vintage hats, nor are they as good as most custom hats, but they are serviceable and I will wear them.

Here they are after steaming and re-shaping today.

Nothing wrong with serviceable, but for north of $200, I expect better than that.

 

[g.durand]

Nothing wrong with serviceable, but for north of $200, I expect better than that.

I would agree. Until I hear that they have improved the QC, I'm going to hold off on further buys and continue with what's available with vintage and custom options. Call me one of the guinea pigs in this experiment. But I've got 'em, so I'm going to damn well wear 'em!

 

[CRH]

Those Australian hats look like a better value to me but a Campdraft just doesn't have the slightly smaller Strat dimensions if that's what you're looking for. Yes, I'm in agreement concerning the QC/QA thing at Stetson. I work in manufacturing myself and it's hard to keep everybody's head in the game so to speak. It takes effective and inspirational leadership that is capable of developing a "winning team work environment". It's hard to find the right people and when you do it's hard to keep them.

Thanks, for taking the plunge and providing the info, g.durand.

 

[frussell]

I'm not sure if it's a shellac issue, as Josh maintains, or not. I know I've had it happen on softer, non-western Stetsons and Resistols that felt like they had very little stiffener in them, once they got rained on or hit with steam or water for shaping. On a side note, I've had some very stiff westerns that had no such issues, and once shaped with steam, retained their absolute stiffness. This makes me wonder if it's not a felting issue after all. Some modern Stetson felts, as mentioned, feel thicker, but not as densely or tightly felted. Those in particular seem to be the ones that "spider" more for me. Specifically the Temple and Nostalgia models. They both were thicker at the edges than vintage or Akubra hats, and both felt "spongier," less tightly felted. Not sure if this makes sense, but I remember someone here used to always bring this up when talking about modern Stetson felt quality, and I've found it to be true. I don't think it's just the shellac or the thickness, but the actual felt itself being too loosely felted. Don't pass myself off as an expert, just owned a lot of hats over the past 40+ years. Frank

 

[fedoracentric]

I understand what you are getting at, frussell. I have to say, I bought a Nostalgia, too, and was disappointed with how thick and clumsy the felt was. Very inelegant.

 

[Joshbru3]

I'm not sure if it's a shellac issue, as Josh maintains, or not. I know I've had it happen on softer, non-western Stetsons and Resistols that felt like they had very little stiffener in them, once they got rained on or hit with steam or water for shaping. On a side note, I've had some very stiff westerns that had no such issues, and once shaped with steam, retained their absolute stiffness. This makes me wonder if it's not a felting issue after all. Some modern Stetson felts, as mentioned, feel thicker, but not as densely or tightly felted. Those in particular seem to be the ones that "spider" more for me. Specifically the Temple and Nostalgia models. They both were thicker at the edges than vintage or Akubra hats, and both felt "spongier," less tightly felted. Not sure if this makes sense, but I remember someone here used to always bring this up when talking about modern Stetson felt quality, and I've found it to be true. I don't think it's just the shellac or the thickness, but the actual felt itself being too loosely felted. Don't pass myself off as an expert, just owned a lot of hats over the past 40+ years. Frank

I would partially agree....and here's why I say that.

Shellac and felting density go hand in hand. Most modern hat bodies today are much more loosely felted than vintage hat bodies. They also do not have the time to age before being blocked and shipped out the stores. Even Winchester felts are not felted as dense as vintage ones are. The spidering is caused by two things......to much "space" between the fibers due to a hat body that is less densely felted...and the shellac that is filling that space. If the felt body was felted to be denser, there would be much less space between the fibers and the shellac would essentially act as a coating on top of those fibers and just act as a stiffening agent. Instead, many times the shellac is acting as a filling agent and when the spidering occurs, what we are seeing is the unevenness of the felt body. Some areas are stiffer than others and some areas are more dense than the others.

The reason vintage felt hats with stiff felt bodies often do not spider is because they are felted more densely and the shellac has been impregnated into the felt at a much more consistent and even rate. So, the felt density level has a lot to do with spidering....BUT if far less shellac was used in a modern hat body, the spidering would drastically decrease. You will still see some unevenness in the felt body because a loosely felted hat body will always show imperfections and "cratering" as I call it. No matter how much pouncing someone does to a loosely felted hat body, it will still always look like the surface of the moon when looked at closely.........not a sheet of finished marble like some of the better grades of vintage felt.

 

[tommyK]

Looks good

 

[tommyK]

open crown Premier Whippet

Kind of looks like the Stetsonian, would love to see a grey offered here.

 

[Geldoc]

Nice. Where did you find this?

 

[Jedwbpm]

Matt posted the pictures on his Facebook page. They should be in the Fall 2015 catalog.

Jeff

Nice. Where did you find this?

 

[Geldoc]

Thanks. Do you mean Fall 2015 or 2014?

 

[Jedwbpm]

We have already put our fall 2014 order in and should start getting it in July. We may be able to start ordering in the late fall but that depends on them.

Jeff

 

[Rogera]

That Whippet may be the hat that makes me "push the button" so to speak.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Jeff how has the new Stetson models been selling? Especially to non Fedora Lounge people. We really don't count as we are a predisposed market.

 

[Jedwbpm]

Jeff how has the new Stetson models been selling? Especially to non Fedora Lounge people. We really don't count as we are a predisposed market.

They are not selling a lot to non Lounge people but we are selling more then I thought we would. It's nice to have some hats for when the person comes in saying I was watching old 40's movies on TCM do you have any hats like that? Now I can say why yes I do. So we are pleased with the sales. We like open crown hats. When Borsalino informed us before last season that they we not going to make the Alessandria anymore but would make it if the retailer would take 6 dozen. We were the only shop in the Untied States that buys through Borsalino USA to order any.

Jeff

 

[besdor]

Anyone looking for open crown Borsalino hats is welcome to check out our website. We have the Alessandria in many colors . The Borsalino Film is a great open crown hat that looks vintage 1940's. We sold a ton of them this past season and will have more very soon.

 

[tommyK]

Anyone looking for open crown Borsalino hats is welcome to check out our website. We have the Alessandria in many colors . The Borsalino Film is a great open crown hat that looks vintage 1940's. We sold a ton of them this past season and will have more very soon.

You sold some of them to me! The Borsalino Film is my favorite hat. I'll eventually get every color you can get. I like the shape of the new Stetson Premier Stratoliner a little better than the Alessandria.
The Alessandria is the thinnest, lightest felt I've found however making it good for warmer weather before switching over to straws.

 

[CRH]

That Whippet may be the hat that makes me "push the button" so to speak.

Yah, it looks to have my favorite proportions.

 

[MCrider]

I went on Matt's site and couldn't find any info on colors. Has anyone heard what willl be available? I still like the silver or light gray model we first saw.