Who Makes the Best Open Road?

[Gary Crumrine]

Who makes the best Open Road?

 

[Lefty]

As is being discussed on another thread, Stetson is the only company that makes a model called the Open Road. For a modern hat in an Open Road style, I think your choices come down to the Stetson and the Akubra Campdraft. The Campdraft has rave reviews all over the Lounge. If you're also considering vintage, there is no answer to be had here.

 

[Gary Crumrine]

Thanks, Lefty.

 

[RBH]

Well the bottom line is ... STETSON makes the best Open Road.


BUT... Akubra makes a great modern OR styled fedora. As to the vintage, Mallory, Dobbs, Marathon ect ect makes a fantastic thin ribboned fedora in the Open Road style.
What we need to state is "" we have a great Open Road style hat made by [ whatever hat Co.] It has all [or most] of the classic measurements of the classic Stetson we all love. But I have put a c-crown, center dent or the basic cattlemans crease in it.

 

[tonyb]

Best modern one I've seen ...

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=32998&highlight=Mark

All-beaver body, first-rate sweatband, fine handcrafting.

Mark is a guitar maker, so this sort of handiwork is no great challenge to him. And he has made his own block and crafted some other hats before this one. So I'm not suggesting you follow his example, Gary. Not necessarily anyway. But any honest and capable custom hatter could make you something similar. You'd get the dimensions you want, and it would fit like (ahem) it was made for you. It would set you back about the price of two factory lids, maybe just a bit more. Easily worth it, I'd say.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I agree MarkG's handcrafted Open Road styled hat is awesome.
I wish I had one!

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Aw Jeez, and I thought EVEN-STEVEN was an instigator! Now this ought to be a fun can o' worms.

Of my four Stetson ORs, my far and away favorite is this one:

It has a slightly smaller brim and crown (very like Stratoliner proportions just with cattleman's crease). It is a wonderful deeper, greenish shade of silverbelly and it has ribbon and edge binding that is a color I've seen referred to as "old gold". The felt on this hat is so soft. Great hand.

-----------------------

Of my clones, I really like the Penny's Marathon and a weird one called a LaSalle both of which push the brim measurement to its outside limits to still be a fedora and not a cowboy hat.

Penny's Marathon (light, yet dense felt and nice light silvery white color):

LaSalle (soft, velvety and slightly lighter than Stetson silverbelly plus with tricky ribbon stitching):

I also notice that the other-than-Stetson manufacturers seem to fit me more comfortably than the Stetsons. Perhaps more supple leather or more relaxed sizing. Or just a flook.

 

[RBH]

Nice Marathon Gene, mine has a different bow treatment than yours.
The LaSalle is also a fine looking fedora, I like the ribbon ob it.
:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[warbird]

Stetson was not the only company to make the Open Road either. Akubra made the Open Road as well.

 

[feltfan]

Stetson was not the only company to make the Open Road either. Akubra made the Open Road as well.

Presumably during the period in which they licensed the Stetson name?

 

[Lefty]

Stevens probably made them during those days too.

 

[johnnycanuck]

If you are looking for the words "open road" on the label you can only get it from Stetson. If you are looking for the style I can personally recommend Akubra and Hats Direct.

http://www.hatsdirect.com/cgi-bin/products.cgi?view=46&returncat=Fedora+Hats&returnpage=0

I am waiting to see what the Silverbelly will look like.

Johnny

 

[warbird]

I say Akubra because they made the Open Road for Stetson and put a Stetson sweat on it. But that OR style Akubra hat is the same as the Open Road was for years. The very same hat as was the OR for years.

 

[Colby Jack]

Because you didn't specify "when"...then Akubra's Campdraft is the best OR. The Stetson is a mere shadow of what it use to be, while Akubra is still making it the way they always have, even when under license to Stetson.:eusa_clap

 

[tonyb]

Just clicked on that link and saw that the Akubra offering is quite inexpensive. Quite a bit less than what I see new hats selling for in the "real" retail stores. And y'all say they're every bit as good as the American-made lids, eh? Better, even?

 

[Colby Jack]

Just run a search on "Campdraft"....

 

[Justdog]

Open Crown

Anyone know the open crown height of the Campdraft?

 

[Stan]

Hi,

I have two vintage Resistol OR-style hats, and two Stetson Open Roads. I have one 'No-X' and one 'XdoubleX' Resistol. I have one regular Stetson OR and one 'Twenty-Five'.

The order of 'niceness' (felt, sweatband, ribbon, build etc) goes as such:

Resistol 'XdoubleX' (so, is that two X's or four of 'em??)
Stetson 'XXX' 'Twenty-Five'
Stetson 'XXX'
Resistol 'No-X'

Of course, we all know how useless it is to compare those X's. In this case, though, there is an improvement within the brand associated with the various markings. Gee, it almost makes sense! lol

Also, I have yet to acquire a Stetson 'One-Hundred' OR, which I am willing to bet is nicer than any of the others!

In time, in time, grasshopper! This is a disease that does not require an immediate cure (which is to buy hats until you're sick of them, I think)......

However, I *do* need a much larger sample size before I can figure all this out for myself, of course!

So, there are several brands of OR-Style hats out there if you can't readily acquire a Stetson one. I see all sorts on eBay week after week.

Heck, you can even get a brand-new one made just for you! I *really, really* like the custom OR-Style Fedora that Art made for me back in the Spring. I like it so much that I'm having him make me another just like it but with the Western styling. That way, I'll have one of each style to suit my mood!

Now, what I *really* want to do is get a Stetson 100 Open Road and compare it to the custom made! That ought to be fun!

Later!

Stan

 

[cookie]

Just clicked on that link and saw that the Akubra offering is quite inexpensive. Quite a bit less than what I see new hats selling for in the "real" retail stores. And y'all say they're every bit as good as the American-made lids, eh? Better, even?

Yeah and the Aussie dollar recently dropped 10 cents against the USD - there's a saving as well!

 

[BobC]

Silverbelly Akubra Campdraft

I just ordered a silverbelly Campdraft yesterday from Hatsdirect. (They have them in stock now.) I'll show it to you all when I get it. In the meantime, I know that PhilS already has one and has posted it here somewhere. I'll see if I can find the link.

I asked Ron at Hatsdirect to style the hat to a teardrop for me. I can crease a pretty good diamond, but I have trouble getting a teardrop to look the way I want it to.

Here's the link: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=31168

Akubra's silverbelly isn't what I think of as silverbelly, but it's still a nice looking hat, and it's an Akubra.