Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

The Official Stetson Nutria Quality Thread

MikeinRome

One Too Many
Messages
1,036
Late 40"s to early 50's Stetson Nutria Quality, rescued from eBay. 3 inch brim, 6 inch open crown. About to send off for cleaning and replacement ribbon.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20231201_155338_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_155338_HDR.jpg
    4.7 MB · Views: 105
  • IMG_20231201_205445_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205445_HDR.jpg
    3.5 MB · Views: 103
  • IMG_20231201_205525_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205525_HDR.jpg
    3.9 MB · Views: 93
  • IMG_20231201_205545_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205545_HDR.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 89
  • IMG_20231201_205600_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205600_HDR.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 84
  • IMG_20231201_205721_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205721_HDR.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 84
  • IMG_20231201_205729_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231201_205729_HDR.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 83

Mickey Q

Familiar Face
Messages
76
My Stetson Nutria. Funny how in 98% of the old catalogs it has the Nutria hats listed as more expensive than the regular beaver ones. It’s such a good feeling hat on the head and the color seems so rare.
Here are some nice older pages too. I love looking at those catalogs. Some of them nutria is more expensive and on others they aren’t. I still prefer regular beaver felts better but the nutrias are amazing too and feel great on the head.
Yeah I don’t know if you ever got a chance to look at these
This is a 1922 dealer price list (prices are per dozen) and among the western felts, nutria is a less expensive option than even 3X beaver. I like nutria, vintage and modern, but I concede that beaver usually makes a “better” hat…in my experience anyway.

good to see yours and I particularly like that liner.

View attachment 467456
yeah nobody is even talking about 1922 hats. More like the years of the hats I posted the catalog pages of after this post where nutria hats are more expensive than beaver ones on every page. You can scroll down and see them and read them. Lol 1922
 

Mickey Q

Familiar Face
Messages
76
Here are some nice older pages too. I love looking at those catalogs. Some of them nutria is more expensive and on others they aren’t. I still prefer regular beaver felts better but the nutrias are amazing too and feel great on the head.
Here are the catalog pages from around the time all these hats are from.
 

MikeinRome

One Too Many
Messages
1,036
Stetson Nutria Quality, late 40's to early 50's, 3 inch brim and 5 3/4 open crown.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20231202_121713_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_121713_HDR.jpg
    3.1 MB · Views: 90
  • IMG_20231202_121822_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_121822_HDR.jpg
    2.9 MB · Views: 80
  • IMG_20231202_121903_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_121903_HDR.jpg
    3.3 MB · Views: 80
  • IMG_20231202_121932_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_121932_HDR.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 86
  • IMG_20231202_121953_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_121953_HDR.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 80
  • IMG_20231202_122011_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_122011_HDR.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 82
  • IMG_20231202_122224_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_122224_HDR.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 79
  • IMG_20231202_122312_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231202_122312_HDR.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 98
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Yeah I don’t know if you ever got a chance to look at these

yeah nobody is even talking about 1922 hats. More like the years of the hats I posted the catalog pages of after this post where nutria hats are more expensive than beaver ones on every page. You can scroll down and see them and read them. Lol 1922

You said 98% of old catalogs show nutria as more expensive than beaver. I would love to see photos of those old catalogs you are talking about wihere nutria is more expensive. I’ve never seen one. Let’s see a 1950s or earlier catalog where nutria is more expensive than a 5X beaver or higher. I’ve never seen one. In Stetson’s lineup, I’ve always seen the all beaver felt to be considerably more expensive than nutria felt hats. Things change when you compare beaver with rabbit and/or hare blends to nutria, but let’s stick to 1950s or earlier 5X or higher beaver and nutria. Can you share any of these 98% of catalogs with pricing?
 

Mickey Q

Familiar Face
Messages
76
Here too
You said 98% of old catalogs show nutria as more expensive than beaver. I would love to see photos of those old catalogs you are talking about wihere nutria is more expensive. I’ve never seen one. Let’s see a 1950s or earlier catalog where nutria is more expensive than a 5X beaver or higher. I’ve never seen one. In Stetson’s lineup, I’ve always seen the all beaver felt to be considerably more expensive than nutria felt hats. Things change when you compare beaver with rabbit and/or hare blends to nutria, but let’s stick to 1950s or earlier 5X or higher beaver and nutria. Can you share any of these 98% of catalogs with pricing?

You said 98% of old catalogs show nutria as more expensive than beaver. I would love to see photos of those old catalogs you are talking about wihere nutria is more expensive. I’ve never seen one. Let’s see a 1950s or earlier catalog where nutria is more expensive than a 5X beaver or higher. I’ve never seen one. In Stetson’s lineup, I’ve always seen the all beaver felt to be considerably more expensive than nutria felt hats. Things change when you compare beaver with rabbit and/or hare blends to nutria, but let’s stick to 1950s or earlier 5X or higher beaver and nutria. Can you share any of these 98% of catalogs with pricing?

Here you go, buddy. They were more expensive than many of the beaver hats at this time. Nobody said anything about 5x or 7x from that time because those were the highest price ones but the nutria’s are still more expensive than the standard beaver quality of hats at that time. YES if you wanted a 5x or 7x then they were more expensive but if you were choosing between the standard beaver vs nutria you were going to have to pay more for the nutria hats.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1029.jpeg
    IMG_1029.jpeg
    819.3 KB · Views: 105
  • IMG_1028.jpeg
    IMG_1028.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 97
  • IMG_1027.jpeg
    IMG_1027.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 95
  • IMG_1026.jpeg
    IMG_1026.jpeg
    1.3 MB · Views: 100
  • IMG_1025.png
    IMG_1025.png
    634.7 KB · Views: 104
  • IMG_1024.png
    IMG_1024.png
    1.4 MB · Views: 100
Messages
19,001
Location
Central California
Here too




Here you go, buddy. They were more expensive than many of the beaver hats at this time. Nobody said anything about 5x or 7x from that time because those were the highest price ones but the nutria’s are still more expensive than the standard beaver quality of hats at that time. YES if you wanted a 5x or 7x then they were more expensive but if you were choosing between the standard beaver vs nutria you were going to have to pay more for the nutria hats.


You’re misstating the facts. The “beaver” hats you are referencing were not made primarily from beaver. Those lower “beaver quality” hats were mostly rabbit and/or hare. It’s like saying silver is more expensive than gold when you are comparing solid silver to gold plate. If you compare beaver to nutria the beaver is more expensive. There isn’t a “standard beaver.”

You’re not alone in thinking that the “3X Beaver Quality” and similar hats are made from all beaver. It’s an all too common mistake on eBay etc. Stetson and the others have mostly refused to reveal their blends and percentages of fur types.
 

jlee562

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,108
Location
San Francisco, CA

I can't think of any of the regulars here who would call a No. 1 Quality Stetson a "beaver hat." Ditto for Royal Deluxe. The distinction you're trying to force here is imprecise, inaccurate, and useless. You've created this artificial category of "beaver hat," where the percentages of the blends don't matter. You are comparing Nutria to the lowest grade Stetson put their name on. And you know you posted a 3x that is more expensive than Nutria, yes? It is a real stretch to call No. 1 Quality or Royal Deluxe as a "beaver hat" compared to something labeled "3x Beaver."
 
Messages
10,880
Location
vancouver, canada
As a ustom hat maker and vintage restorer, I would never refer to hat made of a blend of rabbit & beaver as a 'beaver' hat. I would call it what it is in reality a blend. I sell 100% beaver, beaver/rabbit blends and 100% nutria and it is important for full disclosure to my customers regarding what they are commissioning. To call anything a beaver hat that is not 100% beaver felt is just misleading and wrong.

Nutria makes a nice hat but it ain't beaver. If you research any analytics about the different fur fibres you will understand why beaver is the superior fur fibre for felted fur hats.....it just is.

Price wise; at the top is 100% pure beaver felt. Then the price of nutria is about on par with various % blends of beaver & rabbit with the 50/50 beaver rabbit blends running $15-$20 more per felt than nutria.
 

One Drop

One of the Regulars
Messages
243
Location
Swiss Alps
Don't speak for me, it's rude and unnecessary. If you have an opinion it's yours to defend. Absolutely no reason to speak for 'everybody', especially since no one is forced to read anyone else's posts. It's the easiest thing to just skip over posts, their author is listed at the top of each post. One of the reason I like this place is because there is next to none of this type of bickering, it reminds me of forums ten years ago when it's all you ever saw.

Regarding the subject and ignoring the hostility and uncalled for personal attacks, I think a more useful comparison is a like for like one, such as comparing Clear Beaver and Clear Nutria, as an example, over the eras they were available.

If Stetson had the identical offerings in Beaver and Nutria historically then perhaps a sweeping generalisation would be useful or provable, instead it seems to me unhelpful to make such sweeping statements.
 

MikeinRome

One Too Many
Messages
1,036
Stetson Nutria Quality, late 40's to early 50's. 3 inch brim, 5 1/2 inch open crown. Both this hat and the previous pink hat came from a Lounge member.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20231203_151913_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_151913_HDR.jpg
    3.9 MB · Views: 78
  • IMG_20231203_152000_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_152000_HDR.jpg
    4 MB · Views: 78
  • IMG_20231203_152014_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_152014_HDR.jpg
    2.1 MB · Views: 75
  • IMG_20231203_152026_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_152026_HDR.jpg
    1.4 MB · Views: 70
  • IMG_20231203_152126_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_152126_HDR.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 74
  • IMG_20231203_152232_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20231203_152232_HDR.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 80

MikeinRome

One Too Many
Messages
1,036
Late 1940's Stetson Nutria Quality. 3 inch brim and about 5 3/4 inch open crown. There are no mfg tags.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20240116_170748_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_170748_HDR.jpg
    2.8 MB · Views: 71
  • IMG_20240116_170727_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_170727_HDR.jpg
    2.8 MB · Views: 76
  • IMG_20240116_170707_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_170707_HDR.jpg
    2.6 MB · Views: 68
  • IMG_20240116_173107_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_173107_HDR.jpg
    2 MB · Views: 71
  • IMG_20240116_171325_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_171325_HDR.jpg
    3.3 MB · Views: 72
  • IMG_20240116_170642_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240116_170642_HDR.jpg
    3.2 MB · Views: 84

MikeinRome

One Too Many
Messages
1,036
Stetson Real Nutria. 3 inch brim and 5 1/2 inch open crown. Lot Number 7724. Dates about 1940.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20240118_225101_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225101_HDR.jpg
    4.3 MB · Views: 76
  • IMG_20240118_225113_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225113_HDR.jpg
    3.8 MB · Views: 78
  • IMG_20240118_225142_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225142_HDR.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 76
  • IMG_20240118_225222_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225222_HDR.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 70
  • IMG_20240118_225234_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225234_HDR.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 71
  • IMG_20240118_225442_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225442_HDR.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 63
  • IMG_20240118_225633_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225633_HDR.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 64
  • IMG_20240118_225715_HDR.jpg
    IMG_20240118_225715_HDR.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 69

Forum statistics

Threads
109,648
Messages
3,085,676
Members
54,471
Latest member
rakib
Top