Searching for long-term wear info for vintage Filson wool Packer Hats

[RAH]

Hello members,

My wife and I diverted from a long route home the other day to stop at the last day of an estate sale. As luck would have it, I purchased this like-new vintage blue Filson wool Packer hat for a 10-dollar bill. It was half off due to the last day of the sale. With a tiny bit of stretching/steaming, it now fits great and should make a warm addition to my ever-growing-yet-not-necessary winter hat collection.

My question to you all is this: Do any of you have this hat, and if so, what are your impressions of it in the long term? I ask because I see quite a few vintage ones on eBay that all seem to have crowns that look like limp biscuits. Is there cardboard below that wool in the crown? As it is now, my hat is as stiff as a Pilgrims hat. I wonder how long this will last.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Short Balding Guy]

Sir I do not have this hat. Good for you in working the hat for a fit. Cheers. Excellent price to wear and enjoy this hat.

I have been curious but never picked on up due to the material being wool. Wool brims and crowns with hard wear, in my experience, distorts size and gets generally is hard to maintain. You will have to report back how the hat works with real life outside wearing.

Wool caps, head gear without surounding brims and generally with smaller crowns work for me. I do wear a Filson cap (w/earflaps) during our Minnesota winters. The pic below shows earflaps tucked up (worn with my Minnesota tuxedo (Filson Mackinaw)).

Earflaps at work.

While I have not answered your wear question, I hope I have contributed to the thread's info.

I hope sage wisdom is posted by others regarding your query.

Best, Eric -

 

[RAH]

Thanks for your reply and observations Eric. Come spring, I’ll post an updated photo of the hat. We’ll see how it holds up here in Ohio.

 

[Short Balding Guy]

Thanks for your reply and observations Eric. Come spring, I’ll post an updated photo of the hat. We’ll see how it holds up here in Ohio.

Cheers sir. Do share you hat wearing.

There is a thread over at Style Forum that has a lot of Filson passionate fans and perhaps they have hat experience.

https://www.styleforum.net/threads/filson-bag-thread-with-pictures.133759/

 

[glider]

At one time all you really needed to see was the name Filson, I'm not sure that's still the case. They have become pretty damn pricey and a bit snotty. I certainly would pay 10 bucks for that hat though!