Rmccamey
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 5,817
- Location
- Central Texas
Do they stock dress weight felts? The problem I have found with most "cowboy" hat shops is they specialize in the thick, heavy western weight felts but will get you a dress weight felt only if you buy at their exaggerated 100X western weight prices!
I live in the N TX area and have been to the Peters Bros hat shop in FW several times. The store has been in operation since the early 1900's and, from what they've shared with me during my times there, they make the bulk of their earnings nowadays from large scale rodeo orders.
When the annual stock show comes around they have the contract to build all the hats for the season, and it's a lot of hats. So everything else gets put to the side so they can get all those hats made, which takes several months.
As for their custom hats, they use stock hat bodies that are sourced from a supplier, I suspect Winchester. And, like any other hat shop, they'll turn that body into whatever you want and sell you whatever grade of fur felt you prefer. Their prices are comparable to any other custom hat maker, but they do not make the felt on sight. They do, however, have 100+ year old hat molding equipment and the shop is a step back in time.
The shop only has two employees, which is the main reason, as far as I can see, that they are perpetually behind. And they pretty much run on Fort Worth Time...which is kinda like 2 hours for every 1 hour of normal time.
So if they tell you it's gonna take a week, it'll take 2. If they say it'll be ready in a month, that means 2.