So whats so horrible about the new Stetsons anyway?

[jlee562]

Well, a bunch of us got in on the new Premier Royal Deluxe Stratoliner, so we'll see if Stetson has upped their game in a few weeks. The new longhair Scholar model looks nice as well.

 

[DougC]

Which one?
http://www.stetsonhat.com/collections.php
http://www.stetson.com/hats/all

Take your pick on the websites. One has a 6x open road. Neither one has the new hats currently being offered with vintage dimensions.

Edit-sorry for responding so late, I was in Chicago.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

My hope is that Stetson get's their act together. I bought both hats their have offered in their vintage line to support and see the hats in person.
This is about getting that first hat on a guy's head and I want it to be a good hat and not some crazy 1 inch brim cloth monstrosity that passes for a man's hat now day's. Withthe Stetson name Hatco can get the hat on the shelves of Hat stores and websites and even department stores. So that guy walking thru the men's department with his wife or girlfriend will see it and say " Hey look a nice hat" put it on and wife or girlfriend will say "You look great let's get it".
This will start Men on the road to getting into hat's as we all here started the same way. Vintage hats are great but there is an effort to aquire and learn about them that makes it a hard step for all but the determined to take. I hope this new effort works as this can do nothing but help everyone. It will Help VS hats and other custom hat makers by gettting more men interested in hat's the more customers the more hats that can be made.

 

[facade]

I hope the recent test runs succeed enough to convince Hatco to produce a line of better quality hats. I don't care which brand name they slap on them.

I personally do not care to see substantial growth amongst the felt hat community. We must remember these are fur hats. If they begin to be manufactured in numbers then they will show up on the radar of the "fur is murder" crowd. Our hats will inspire much more negativity then they do today, once PETA starts beating their war drums.

 

[Feraud]

The new longhair Scholar model looks nice as well.

Where can we see this?

 

[TheDane]

Where can we see this?

Ed showed a pic here

 

[KingAndrew]

Tony is absolutely right about the still-stellar name recognition of the Stetson brand. I was at an art gallery opening the other night in Shanghai. It was a 1930s-themed party, so they were actually handing out costume fedoras to the men who came without a hat. I was talking to a French exchange student, who asked about my hat, which was an oxblood-colored Optimo fedora with a maroon ribbon and bound brim. She asked "is it a Stetson?" with a reverent voice. I explained that it was actually custom-made for me and was much nicer than the current Stetson hats, of which I do own a few. "So it's not a Stetson?" she asked, sounding confused and a little disappointed, even as she stroked the soft felt.

This girl is a college student. She wasn't even born when Indiana Jones first appeared, let alone when the old Stetson company was a going concern. Her entire life has been lived in the period when few men wore hats. Yet the Stetson name was still the sign of a quality hat in her mind. That's a powerful brand.

BTW, I also ordered a new Stetsonian, so I am also hoping to see the grand old name revive.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^

I've had several similar experiences, Andrew.

I'm accustomed to well-meaning people making favorable comments about my hats -- at the supermarket, in line at the bank or the Post Office, et cetera. Folks just want to make conversation, you know, to pass the time, so they offer up something they assume will be received favorably. "Nice hat" meets that criterion for many people.

But on numerous occasions that icebreaker has been followed by "Is it a Stetson?" And then I may well hear about how the speaker's grandfather or uncle or whoever never left home without his Stetson atop his head.

I'm reluctant to say that I made the hat myself, because doing so leads to a discussion that varies little from encounter to encounter. I'd be surprised if one in a thousand of these perfectly nice people who say nice things about my hats were to actually buy one. I couldn't tell you how many people who have engaged me in such conversations have then asked for my business card. I never hear back from them.

So my response to the "nice hat" comments is usually just a smile and a nod and a "thank you." The dilemma comes when they then ask something like, "Is it a Stetson?" I don't wish to be curt and reply with nothing more than "no." But I'm a lousy liar, so I get into another of those conversations that ends with me handing over another business card to a person I'll never hear from again.

 

[resortes805]

Well, hopefully I'm not revealing confidential information, but word around Dallas is that Stetson has hired Matt Deckard to do some work for them.

 

[jlee562]

Where can we see this?

An then this new model the Scholar

I don't think it's a secret that Mr. Deckard is under Stetson employ, considering he has been using his personal Tumblr account to share new Stetson hat pictures.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I have to admit it...one of the reasons I like Stetsons is the image that the Stetson brand evokes in other people. Look...I know that a modern Camp Draft is objectively a better hat than a modern Open Road...and when someone asks if my CDs is a Stetson, I should just proudly say, "No, its an Akubra". But I don't do that. Instead, I usually find myself launching into some illogical rationalization about how it really is a Stetson 'cause Akubra used to make hats for Stetson and blah, blah, blah...until the other person's eyes glaze over.

Sometimes I think its easier on other people if I just wear the Stetson.

AF

 

[tonyb]

I would like to be wrong about this prediction, but ...

Our fondest hopes for the success of these "traditional" Stetson styles aside, I'm guessing they'll remain but a small fraction of the Stetson line's overall sales. Perhaps they'll be not so small a fraction that Hatco determines they aren't worth their while, but the hats preferred by the youngsters these days (that segment of the young male population that actually wears "proper" hats) have narrow brims and shortish, tapered crowns.

And this ain't even taking Westerns into account.

Let's hope that tastes turn back toward the hat styles generally preferred by the guys you'll bump into in this joint. Maybe if enough people actually see such hats on enough men, that will come to pass. I mean, we all know they look better on most people than those stingies do, right?

 

[DJH]

Well, hopefully I'm not revealing confidential information, but word around Dallas is that Stetson has hired Matt Deckard to do some work for them.

Matt's Facebook page has listed his job as Product Development at Stetson for some time so certainly no secret.

 

[Lotsahats]

But on numerous occasions that icebreaker has been followed by "Is it a Stetson?" And then I may well hear about how the speaker's grandfather or uncle or whoever never left home without his Stetson atop his head.

I used to hear this a lot--but then I know the family that ran Stephens hats and that brought Stetson to St. Joseph, Missouri, so it was a question of their pride. I'm hoping, when my new Stetsonian arrives, that I'll be able to show them how good Hatco has gotten it.

A

 

[besdor]

Im sure the Rosenthal family is really hoping the new hats are successful..

 

[Kirk H.]

I used to hear this a lot--but then I know the family that ran Stephens hats and that brought Stetson to St. Joseph, Missouri, so it was a question of their pride. I'm hoping, when my new Stetsonian arrives, that I'll be able to show them how good Hatco has gotten it.

A

I can not wait see a picture of the Stetsonian. I just received my Whipett and I am pleased with it.

Kirk H.

 

[carldelo]

Ed showed a pic here

The Scholar is looking very good to me, wonder if it will be produced? The Stetsonian is quite nice looking, but the dimensions are no good for me, and I already have the available colors...

 

[Lotsahats]

Im sure the Rosenthal family is really hoping the new hats are successful..

I was wearing a cheap wool fedora when I met Robert the first time; he was a gentleman about it, and he urged me in an understated way to explore felts. I have never looked back. Great guy!

 

[KingAndrew]

The pics of the Scholar look a lot like my Ash (heather colored) Optimo. It's great to see such ideas coming from Hatco.

And yes, as Tony notes, the styles currently popular with hipsters are pretty stingy and tapered. But that also describes most of what's been available for many years. The regular production Stetsons (and other major brands) have had 4.5 inch tapered crowns brims that rarely exceed 2-2.5 inches for as long as I can remember. Basically, they've all kind of kept making the same hats they were producing in the Don Draper/JFK era when hat sales plummeted. Once other styles are made readily available, I'm sure there will be men ready to try them out.

And we don't need the Strats, Stetsonians, Scholars, et al to be Stetson's top sellers. It's very unlikely they will be challenging some of the cowboy and Open Road styles in units. But if they sell enough to be profitable and seem to grow rather than cannibalize company sales, Hatco will have every reason to keep making them.

 

[tonyb]

Hope you're right, Andrew.

And you're right that they don't have to be top sellers to be successes, just "enough" sellers. They're good-lookin' lids, to our eyes, anyway. It's hard for people like us to fathom how that wouldn't be apparent, if not to people in general, at least to enough people to make them worth the company's while.

Perhaps they'll give "city" hat sales an additional kick in the pants. I say "additional" because I gotta believe it's more than just my anecdotal observation that a greater proportion of the young dudes are wearing hats than they have in perhaps my entire life, and certainly in all but the earliest years of it.

People are creatures of habit. It's not news to any of us that once a person grows accustomed to wearing a hat, he feels not quite dressed without one. Cheap wool felt (and even woven fabric) stingy brims are at least hats. Will the people wearing those things "graduate" to better hats? That's the multi-million dollar (multi-billion, maybe) question for the industry.