Stetson Factory Video

[SteveFord]

I don't think I'll retire and go work there.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/most-stetsons-felt-cowboy-hats-150606599.html

 

[BobHufford]

I don't think I'll retire and go work there.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/most-stetsons-felt-cowboy-hats-150606599.html

The closed-captioning was fun. Who knew the best hats were made with dismembered beavers.

 

[suitedcboy]

Funny, of all the dismembered beaver hats I've had, I have been lucky to never have found a tooth or bone in the felt.

 

[CKC]

Thank you for posting that video SteveFord.

To anyone interested...

I will be visiting the Stetson factory tomorrow morning. I expect to spend an hour or more on the factory floor where i will be talking with Justin (seen briefly in the video above) and a couple of the other production managers.

If anyone has a question they'd like to ask Stetson let me know before 9:00AM (Texas time) tomorrow, Tuesday 6/13, and I'll see how many questions I can get answered. I won't have time to get answers to a million questions, but I'll have time for at least a few. Of course, we all know there may well be questions they won't answer. Also, if they answer a question for me and tell me to keep it to myself, I will respect their wishes.

I have questions I already plan to ask. For example, I plan to ask what the difference is between their 100X felt and their "pure beaver" felt used in the O/R Pure.

Give me your best question if you'd like, and I'll get back to you and tell you what they said if I can.

Best-
CK

 

[belfastboy]

Thank you for posting that video SteveFord.

To anyone interested...

I will be visiting the Stetson factory tomorrow morning. I expect to spend an hour or more on the factory floor where i will be talking with Justin (seen briefly in the video above) and a couple of the other production managers.

If anyone has a question they'd like to ask Stetson let me know before 9:00AM (Texas time) tomorrow, Tuesday 6/13, and I'll see how many questions I can get answered. I won't have time to get answers to a million questions, but I'll have time for at least a few. Of course, we all know there may well be questions they won't answer. Also, if they answer a question for me and tell me to keep it to myself, I will respect their wishes.

I have questions I already plan to ask. For example, I plan to ask what the difference is between their 100X felt and their "pure beaver" felt used in the O/R Pure.

Give me your best question if you'd like, and I'll get back to you and tell you what they said if I can.

Best-
CK

Ask him his perspective on the beaver felt supply. Ask if they are experiencing large price increases for the the beaver fibre. Ask his perspective on supply issues going forward. Thank you.

 

[CKC]

Ask him his perspective on the beaver felt supply. Ask if they are experiencing large price increases for the the beaver fibre. Ask his perspective on supply issues going forward. Thank you.

Unfortunately things didn't go quite as planned this time. The person to ask about the supply costs and the outlook for the future is the head of purchasing. She is also my primary contact with whom I schedule my visits, regardless of who I am there to work with on a given day. When I arrived this time, I found out she had just left for a couple of hours to attend to a personal matter, and instead of having her walk me back to the production buildings (which is when I would have been asking about beaver prices), one of the production managers would come get me.

I spent a couple hours working with the production manager in the straw building (they make straw hats in one building and felt hats in another). I asked him your questions, but not surprisingly he didn't really know about the costs on the fur side of the company.

I visit them every couple months, and most likely I'll be visiting with purchasing next time and get the answers to your questions.

For anyone reading the thread...Here's a couple of pics of the factory just so I'm not only adding boring words to the Stetson factory video thread.

Some historical original Stetson ledgers..

There's lots of Stetson history and cool old hat stuff there, as one might imagine...

Some of the machines still being used today date back over 100 years.

Here they're applying my gold foil to a leather sweat band.

Here's some of the dies they were using this day for stamping sweatbands.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Unfortunately things didn't go quite as planned this time. The person to ask about the supply costs and the outlook for the future is the head of purchasing. She is also my primary contact with whom I schedule my visits, regardless of who I am there to work with on a given day. When I arrived this time, I found out she had just left for a couple of hours to attend to a personal matter, and instead of having her walk me back to the production buildings (which is when I would have been asking about beaver prices), one of the production managers would come get me.

I spent a couple hours working with the production manager in the straw building (they make straw hats in one building and felt hats in another). I asked him your questions, but not surprisingly he didn't really know about the costs on the fur side of the company.

I visit them every couple months, and most likely I'll be visiting with purchasing next time and get the answers to your questions.

For anyone reading the thread...Here's a couple of pics of the factory just so I'm not only adding boring words to the Stetson factory video thread.

Some historical original Stetson ledgers..

There's lots of Stetson history and cool old hat stuff there, as one might imagine...

Some of the machines still being used today date back over 100 years.

Here they're applying my gold foil to a leather sweat band.

Here's some of the dies they were using this day for stamping sweatbands.

So cool!!
But those ledgers.
B

 

[Frunobulax]

So cool!!
But those ledgers.
B

I'd love a couple hours with those.