Were hats more disposable in earlier times?

[deanzat]

I've been reading about Theodore Roosevelt a lot lately, and all of the biographies and documentaries feature images that suggest the man must have owned a lot of hats over his lifetime. Active as he was, I suspect he wore many of them out.

But it made me wonder whether fur felt hats were as disposable to earlier generations as ballcaps and supermarket straw hats are today.

Did gentlemen of earlier times tend to own one hat at a time, or a number of hats for different uses, as many of us do?

thanks, Z

 

[tonyb]

Well, yeah, hats were ubiquitous back then. Virtually every store that sold men's wear carried hats, as did numerous other sorts of retailers. So they weren't such a rare and precious thing. They were easily enough replaced.

Still, I doubt hats were considered as disposable as ballcaps are today, because they carried relatively higher price tags.

 

[BanjoMerlin]

I've been reading about Theodore Roosevelt a lot lately, and all of the biographies and documentaries feature images that suggest the man must have owned a lot of hats over his lifetime. Active as he was, I suspect he wore many of them out.

But it made me wonder whether fur felt hats were as disposable to earlier generations as ballcaps and supermarket straw hats are today.

Did gentlemen of earlier times tend to own one hat at a time, or a number of hats for different uses, as many of us do?

thanks, Z

Gentlemen would own several hats. Most regular guys had one hat (or cap) that they wore 'til it was worn out.

 

[SteveAS]

Still, I doubt hats were considered as disposable as ballcaps are today, because they carried relatively higher price tags.

Exactly my thinking.

 

[Dave E]

Probably more like shoes: you can buy them pretty much anywhere, but you'd want to get your wear out of them.

 

[Jeff M]

Hats were more disposable back then.
People are more disposable today.

 

[Adcurium]

Interesting question! Thanks for
Posting!

 

[barrowjh]

Benchmark

All you need is a good benchmark to get an idea of how dear a $15 hat would have been. Probably the best is real money, or gold - an ounce was worth about $35 in 1950, so around 40% of an ounce of gold for a $15 hat. Today, that would be around $500. This comparison is a little skewed by the fact that the price of gold in 1950 was being held artificially low (it was still illegal to own gold in the US), but it is difficult to find a more reliable benchmark.

Suppose the comparison should be more like $350 instead of $500? Still fairly dear; not many of us are going to consider a $350 garment to be disposable. However, many have paid about $350 - 500 or more for a leather jacket, and after it suffers some wear and tear, you buy another jacket and the previous jacket becomes a 'beater.'

 

[Dinerman]

This is a good site for figuring all that out as well.

 

[deanzat]

I appreciate all the thoughts on this. I also need to remember that TR was usually wealthy, and was very attuned to PR and the importance of looking right for whatever part he was playing - be it rancher, colonel, assemblyman, governor, president, etc. As with most things, hats were surely more disposable to the wealthy than to others.

TR had some great hats, but he had to borrow a friend's top hat for his emergency inauguration in 1901. Actually, his friend's silk hats were too small. According to biographer Edmund Morris, "John S. Scatchard, a macrocephalic neighbor, entered the annals of history by lending his own capacious topper."

Now when members complain of the lack of large-size hats on ebay, I'll be thinking of "macrocephalic" neighbors with "capacious toppers."

;-) Z

 

[Dewhurst]

Probably more like shoes: you can buy them pretty much anywhere, but you'd want to get your wear out of them.

I agree with this. Probably the most useful way to think about it.

 

[barrowjh]

$132

Based on the inflation calculator site (thanks, Dinerman) a $15.00 price in 1950 would equate to about $132 today, and that is reasonably more accurate than the gold comparison. A $15 hat in 1950 would have been a low-end fur felt, all rabbit or maybe some european hare, but unlikely to have included any beaver. When equivalent tier factory-produced hats are on sale (not equivalent quality regarding finishing) today you can find fur felts selling in the $130 - $170 range.

 

[BanjoMerlin]

If you look at the advertisements from back then you realize they are targeted towards those people who were concerned with being fashionable, the people who had a closet full of clothes and could choose the "proper" attire for every occasion. Those people who always bought the "latest" styles probably purged their closets of the "old" out-of-fashion items on a regular basis. Those "old" items would not have been disposed of but would have been donated so others could use them.

The second owners would not have had a closet full of clothes and would not have been concerned about fashion. They would have worn the clothes they had until they were no longer usable. Their hats and other clothing are lost to us.

When a gentleman passed away often his wife could not bring herself to dispose of his belongings and they would end up stored away in the attic where they would be forgotten by future generations. That's what makes third or fourth generation estate sales so much fun!

 

[BanjoMerlin]

Based on the inflation calculator site (thanks, Dinerman) a $15.00 price in 1950 would equate to about $132 today, and that is reasonably more accurate than the gold comparison. A $15 hat in 1950 would have been a low-end fur felt, all rabbit or maybe some european hare, but unlikely to have included any beaver. When equivalent tier factory-produced hats are on sale (not equivalent quality regarding finishing) today you can find fur felts selling in the $130 - $170 range.

In 1950 the Stetson Open Road was priced from $10 to $50. So $88 to $440 in today's dollars? (The current 4X Open Road in Silver Belly is priced at about $200)

 

[jdbenson]

Bread

It seems to me that we feel the cost of inflation in the necessities like bread. We buy bread every week. In 1950 a loaf of bread was around $0.15. In 2009 that same loaf would cost you more like $2.80; that’s an increase of 18.667%.

Using the same logic, a1950 $15 hat would equate to today’s $280 hat.

Just another perspective.

 

[gtdean48]

It seems to me that we feel the cost of inflation in the necessities like bread. We buy bread every week. In 1950 a loaf of bread was around $0.15. In 2009 that same loaf would cost you more like $2.80; that’s an increase of 18.667%.

Using the same logic, a1950 $15 hat would equate to today’s $280 hat.

Just another perspective.

I think you're decimal is in the wrong place. an increase of 18.7% to $.15 is only to about $.18 because 20% of .15 is .03

 

[Dinerman]

The government inflation calculator gives a $15 hat as being $135.

Here are some Stetson prices along with years.

In todays money, it looks like the less expensive models would be going in the $70 dollar range. Those $7.50 Royal Stetsons were great fur felt and blow most of what's out there in mass production out of the water.

So in fur felt there's everything from what would be today $70 hats to something like a '60s Stetson 100, which would be the equivalent of around a $700 hat now, with qualities and pricing everywhere in between.

I thought it might be interesting to put together a little data base detailing the price of various models of vintage Stetsons through the years. When a hat shows up with a price tag intact, this may be one way to place it in time, and other attributes of the hat (sweatband, ribbon, dimensions, liner, etc., etc.) can then be given an approximate timeframe, as well. This thread will be a work in progress. I'll kick it off by listing a few that I've identified via Stetson ads...

[This post is a work in progress and has been updated]

Note: Additional info provided below is taken from the ad copy itself...

Note: An asterisk denotes a newspaper ad (versus an official Stetson magazine ad)

Whippet

1937 -- $7.50 ("Air-Light" model w/"new Tailored Edge", "at a new price")
1940 -- $7.50 ("Stetson Introduces the Whippet")
1945 -- $10
1948 -- $10
1949 -- $10
1950 -- $10
1951 -- $10
1952 -- $10
1953 -- $10

Playboy

1937 -- $5* ("Light Weight", "Unlined")
1939 -- $5*
1941 -- $5
1942 -- $6 [Newspaper ad price $5]
1944 -- $10 (Vita-Felt)
1945 -- $10*
1947 -- $10*
1949 -- $10
1950 -- $10*
1952 -- $10
1953 -- $10*
1954 -- $10*

Stratoliner

1940 -- $6*
1942 -- $7.50
1946 -- $7.50*
???? -- $7.50 / Deluxe -- $12.50 [Don't know the year of this ad]
1948 -- $8.50
1950 -- $10*

Open Road

1937 -- $6 ("Air-Light" model)
1950 -- $10* (3X Beaver)
1951 -- $12.50 to $100

Flagship

1948 -- $12.50
1949 -- $12.50
1950 -- $12.50
1951 -- $12.50

Royal Stetson

1942 -- $10 (Vita-Felt)
1948 -- $10*

Royal Stetson Deluxe

1948 -- $12.50*

Stetson Imperial

1948 -- $15*

Ambassador

1951 -- $20

Bantam

1934 -- ???

Casino

1934 -- $10 ("Air-Light", w/Selv-Edge)
1937 -- $10 ("Air-Light", w/Selv-Edge)

Custom V

1953 -- $10

Eagle

1942 -- $7.50 (Vita-Felt)
1943 -- $7.50 (Vita-Felt)

Shore Club

1948 -- $10

Stetsonian

1949 -- $12.50

Vogue

1947 -- $12.50

Weekender

1948 -- $10

Weston

1952 -- $10

A couple of notes. It looks like the Whippet and the Playboy were essentially comparably priced hats. The Stratoliner went for a little less than these two models. Interestingly, it looks like a Royal Deluxe Strat went for $5 more than the regular version -- a pretty substantial upgrade.

This should be interesting -- all contributions welcomed!!!

Cheers,
Jimmy

 

[Dinerman]

And then you had wool felt hats and more budget friendly fur felt makers.

$0.89 in 1935 works out to be around $15 now, and that would buy you either a eight panel cap or an inexpensive fedora.

The analogy to shoes seems to be a good one. Hats were made to fit all budgets. They weren't as precious as they are today and weren't babied in the same way. Like shoes, some people wore them to death, others had many and would buy more as styles changed.

 

[jdbenson]

Fat fingers!

I think you're decimal is in the wrong place. an increase of 18.7% to $.15 is only to about $.18 because 20% of .15 is .03

D'OH!

I humbly stand corrected...

 

[John in Covina]

Teddy was not an ordinary guy he was technically from a well to do family.

Wealthy and financially secure people were more likely to own more clothes and hats than those less fortunate.

What we have to remember is that a dollar bought more but people also made a heck of a lot less. For a long time people made $1 a day so a $6 hat <furfelt> was a week's wages. (People usually worked 6 days a week.) Later people that were making good money made per week the equivilant of one ounce of gold which eventually moved from $20 to $35. Even then a nice $15-20 <furfelt> hat was a fair percentage of one's weekly wages.

Today at Walmart you can probably find a ball cap for $10 which is a much smaller percentage of one's weekly wages and approaches disposable.

Hats like Woolfelt, Flatcaps and Newsboys may have been considered more disposable as they tended to be much less expensive. In "The Grapes of Wrath" I seem to recall that it begins with how Tom Joad received a Newsboy cap as part of the civilian clothes issued when he was released from prison and returning home. It is discussed as to how he personalized the fold of the brim. The reference to the government issue stuff usually revolves around how cheap it was.