why doesnt stetson or any hat company just go back to their roots?

[rlk]

Stetson's current idea of roots

Back to the original...

 

[tonyb]

I fully expect them to license the name to a maker of an erectile dysfunction medication.

Really puts the Batterson back in your John B. Stetson.

 

[KingAndrew]

The key thing is that there isn't a retailing infrastructure for men's dress hats any more. The specialized hat retailers are few and a couple of cities (Chicago, San Francisco, NYC) have multiple stores while most have none. Without the shop to educate the customer, allow him to try and feel a variety of options, and help him with any shaping or customizing--well it's going to be hard to sell lots of high-end hats, open-crown or preshaped. Hatco and Dorfman have found a balance of quality and design that works with the current retail environment to move a profitable volume of hats. Does this mean that most folks don't know that they can do better than buying a hat at Target? Yes, sadly, it does.

I would point out that much the same thing has been happening to all sorts of clothing items. It's pretty hard to find a "haberdasher" any more, let alone a "tailor." And now they sell suits at Target. The same things apply to shoes, dress shirts, and so on. And "quality" or durability is less important than novelty when you're chasing fashions that change every few months.

However, there are several stand-alone hat shops in America that make their own hats and provide customers with personal service. In these shops the roots are still alive and ready for you to access. I'm thinking of places like Optimo (Chicago), Paul's Hat Works (SF), or Batsakes in Cincinnati. These are survivors of the old approach and are able to keep going because they foster a local hat-wearing community and attract business from out of towners who lack such a local shop.

There are certainly success stories of some new hat retailers opening. However, to build the kind of retail network that would support FACTORY-made open-crown hats would require an awful lot of new stores all over the USA. Unless the hipster hat fashion lasts for a long time and becomes much more popular than it is now, it is unlikely we will see hat stores in every town the way they were 60 years ago.

Even with the rampant popularity of ball caps over the past 20 years, only a couple of specialty cap retailers opened. And the business consolidated, with the larger chain buying out the smaller. Of course, ball caps require very little in the way of shaping, sizing, or style advice from the seller.
And even today's "specialty" sellers on eBay seem to have trouble recognizing open crown hats as anything but giant bowlers (as so many uncreased Homburgs are described). The Fed IV seems to do OK, but we have to remember that only one store in the world carries the thing, which is why we all have to order it from Hats Direct.

My two cents.

Andrew

 

[alanfgag]

Good post... thanks.

It's a mixture of fashion and history. Both have moved on, not to return in the same way, perhaps in any way.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The key thing is that there isn't a retailing infrastructure for men's dress hats any more. The specialized hat retailers are few and a couple of cities (Chicago, San Francisco, NYC) have multiple stores while most have none. Without the shop to educate the customer, allow him to try and feel a variety of options, and help him with any shaping or customizing--well it's going to be hard to sell lots of high-end hats, open-crown or preshaped. . . .

. . . However, there are several stand-alone hat shops in America that make their own hats and provide customers with personal service. In these shops the roots are still alive and ready for you to access. I'm thinking of places like Optimo (Chicago), Paul's Hat Works (SF), or Batsakes in Cincinnati. These are survivors of the old approach and are able to keep going because they foster a local hat-wearing community and attract business from out of towners who lack such a local shop. . . .

Andrew

Meyer the Hatter in Noo Awlins used to be more of a hat service place: They would do more than a simple shaping of a hat, would swap ribbons for you, etc. Their guy retired some years ago, they tell me, and so now the steam machine (to swoop a brim) is about all they offer. However, they certainly "foster a local hat-wearing community." Unlike the shops in cooler climes, where people *need* a hat for warmth some of the year, Meyer sells to people who need straws, to French Quarter-gawking tourists -- and markets hats for style and costuming. Many of the Mardi Gras clubs, the "krewes," special order hats at Meyer's every year -- so the Meyer family has a built-in clientele that doesn't exist in other cities. The store is always crowded, it seems.

Mr. Sam, the family patriarch, wishes Stetson and other companies would issue things in the old styles. He's complimented me on my vintage Open Road and on a Biltmore straw I bought from him in the '90s, and says, "I wish we could get ones like that now!"

 

[Dronak]

there are several stand-alone hat shops in America that make their own hats and provide customers with personal service. In these shops the roots are still alive and ready for you to access. I'm thinking of places like Optimo (Chicago), Paul's Hat Works (SF), or Batsakes in Cincinnati.

I think your general points are correct. I wanted to make a post related to this one though, and I hope it isn't too much of an aside. Do you or anyone else here know of some good hat places in the Washington DC area? I've searched here for info on this before, but suggestions I found were in posts from like 2008, and things may have changed in the last few years. I'm aware of Hats in the Belfry, though I'm not certain how good they're considered to be. I could travel out to places like Baltimore, Annapolis, or Virgina near DC, but places in the Maryland side near DC are more convenient for me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[DJH]

Dronak, chances are that any decent stores in your area will be in The Hat Stores A List

 

[Dronak]

Dronak, chances are that any decent stores in your area will be in The Hat Stores A List

I'm aware of that thread. Unfortunately, searching for Maryland = 0 results, Virginia = 0 results, DC = too short or too common (no results). Searching on just Washington is liable to get DC as well as the state, but it wouldn't be too hard to look through those. There are 191 posts in that thread, which is a lot to look through one at a time if searching isn't effective. That's why I thought I'd ask -- I've searched the forum before and had trouble getting good results (e.g., the Hattery in Georgetown seems to come up a few times, but I've heard it's closed now). I'll try that thread again though.

 

[splintercellsz]

If it allows, you can go to google.com and type "Hat stores [your area or what you wish] site:thefedoralounge.com

Or if you have a lot of time, you can do CTRL F (hold those at the same time), and a 'find' menu should appear, so type your search in that, and go page to page, clicking on your search, and it will scan the text for the words you put in the find box.

 

[Dronak]

If it allows, you can go to google.com and type "Hat stores [your area or what you wish] site:thefedoralounge.com

The results I get that way are generally not very recent (the newest thread is ~1.5 years old and most are older than that) and/or they end up pointing to the same thread DJH pointed out here, which as noted, searching hasn't done much to help. I'm aware that some relevant information may be around and I've already tried to find it. But what I get is generally older information and unless newer threads provide updates or say that the old information still applies, I don't know if it's still good. Again, this is part of why I'm asking -- I can find old stuff, but I don't know how applicable that is today. I'm hoping some people familiar with hats stores in the DC area can provide newer information than I can search out.

Edit: I asked over in the Hat Stores A-list thread, which does seem to be a more appropriate thread for this. Sorry if this side-tracked things too much.

 

[KingAndrew]

Dronak-
I put up 2 replies for you on that thread.

Andrew