ADAM ALLEY

[mayserwegener]

Adam Mr. Boulevard Executive Quality

Yet another of the latest Johnny Phi hats. Adam Mr. Boulevard (Executive Quality), size 7 1/4 LO. Similar felt type and of course the great styling.

 

[billyspew]

Now you're killing me!

 

[mayserwegener]

Adam Executive Quality

Adam Executive Quality, size 7 3/8 LO. I bought this one for a friend who also loves hats. Again similar felt and style lines.

 

[mayserwegener]

Adam Crosley PTV (Fifth Avenue Quality)

Yes that looks about right. After Miller Bros. acquired them in 55 they for a while had it on the name on the sweat, the sweat seemed to shrink tin the late fifties then they stopped putting on the Miller Bros name, seems by 63/64 ish they made the sweat bands black. There do seem to be slight variations, but yours seems to fit into the late fifties/early sixties timeframe.

This is another JohnnyPhi Adam Crosley, size 7 3/8 from his FL auctions. This one doesn't have a sewn in liner. The felt is thicker and on the stiff side. The sweet looks similar to the sand Pacesetter that I posted earlier but that one has a sewn in liner. I am thinking early to mid 60s maybe latter?

 

[billyspew]

This is another JohnnyPhi Adam Crosley, size 7 3/8 from his FL auctions. This one doesn't have a sewn in liner. The felt is thicker and on the stiff side. The sweet looks similar to the sand Pacesetter that I posted earlier but that one has a sewn in liner. I am thinking early to mid 60s maybe latter?

That helps the dating, similar sweat as the late fifties/early sixties ones, but the same liner as some of the mid sixties ones (62-66 from what I've been able to date).

 

[mayserwegener]

That helps the dating, similar sweat as the late fifties/early sixties ones, but the same liner as some of the mid sixties ones (62-66 from what I've been able to date).

The Crosley is priced at $7.95 where as the Pacesetter is $20.00. For that time period was the Pacesetter top of the line for Adam?

 

[funneman]

Adam Executive

 

[billyspew]

The Crosley is priced at $7.95 where as the Pacesetter is $20.00. For that time period was the Pacesetter top of the line for Adam?

I have learnt to ignore the prices from the hats in the johnnyphi collection.

Those price tags i have only seen in his hats, ones I have won on ebay have different style tags and one of the johnnyphi's has a remnant of what looks like a similar one to that I've seen in others. My suspicion in this matter is that Herschs at some point tried to sell them off at a much later date and printed new tags for them. The printing on the tags even look much newer - similar to dot matrix technology used from the '70s onwards. Rather than factory printed tags.

I have seen that price tag on hats that are seemingly (from liner/sweat etc) certainly not sixties

In 1962 for instance the pacesetter was still 9.95, I cannot find anything in the '60s that over 11.95.

Of course I'm not saying this is accurate, but from all the pieces I currently have in place that seems the case.

 

[mayserwegener]

I have learnt to ignore the prices from the hats in the johnnyphi collection.

Those price tags i have only seen in his hats, ones I have won on ebay have different style tags and one of the johnnyphi's has a remnant of what looks like a similar one to that I've seen in others. My suspicion in this matter is that Herschs at some point tried to sell them off at a much later date and printed new tags for them. The printing on the tags even look much newer - similar to dot matrix technology used from the '70s onwards. Rather than factory printed tags.

I have seen that price tag on hats that are seemingly (from liner/sweat etc) certainly not sixties

In 1962 for instance the pacesetter was still 9.95, I cannot find anything in the '60s that over 11.95.

Of course I'm not saying this is accurate, but from all the pieces I currently have in place that seems the case.

That makes sense. I have similar quality hats from the same time and they are in the $10.00 range.

 

[mayserwegener]

Adam Pacesetter Graphite

Here is the last one from JohnnyPhi, Adam Pacesetter, Premier Quality, size 7 3/8 LO, color graphite. It had the plastic liner behind the sweet that shrunk. I was able to remove it and the hat is fine now. Looks slighter older than the Pacesetter I posted earlier in the thread. This one is going to a friend.

 

[mayserwegener]

Very nice! That looks like a older one 40s?

 

[johnnyphi]

Guaranteed WWII-era...

Awesome hat! With the Ceiling Price tag, you have 99% confirmation that this hat dates back to WWII, or very shortly there after.

Ceiling Prices were mandated by law during the war. Retailers couldn't sell items for more than the ceiling price listed on the tag. (I learned about it from Mr. Cohen, and details were confirmed on other threads by Baron Kurtz.)

Where did you find the hat?

 

[johnnyphi]

Don't disregard the power of the dot matrix price tag...

I have learnt to ignore the prices from the hats in the johnnyphi collection.

Those price tags i have only seen in his hats, ones I have won on ebay have different style tags and one of the johnnyphi's has a remnant of what looks like a similar one to that I've seen in others. My suspicion in this matter is that Herschs at some point tried to sell them off at a much later date and printed new tags for them. The printing on the tags even look much newer - similar to dot matrix technology used from the '70s onwards. Rather than factory printed tags.

I feel your pain. Adam hats prices and styles seem to be all over the place, but so are all of the other brands. I have to (carefully) disagree with your suspicion about the re-printed price tags on the Adam hats. (Don't want to offend a great customer.)

Here's the thing... Hirsch's Mens Store wasn't big on running sales or promotions. If items didn't sell on the retail floor, they stashed the inventory upstairs to storage. Mr. Cohen wasn't the kind of guy who would print new price tags to try to move unsold merchandise. To be blunt, he wouldn't have spent the extra money to print the new price tags.

However, y'all are definitely on to something. Many of these hats are called "Premier" or "Premier Executive", and I think they are newer than the "Executive" quality hats. Based on the styling and production quality, the Executives are oldest, Premier Executive was a transitional name, and Premier was the final name. Based on my conversations with Mr. Cohen, he stopped selling hats when they went out of style, which was sometime in the mid-late 60s. (Small town men's store = trend follower, not trend setter) He had a few trendy corduroy hats and other fad hats from the late 70s and early 80s, but none of the felt hats from his inventory date past the late 60's and early 70's. You won't find the dot matrix-style price tags in the older hats. Those labels are direct from the factory, and I'm confident because many of the newer hats were in the original boxes with the original packing materials.

Final thought... I'm grateful for the fact that Hirsch's wasn't big on liquidating unsold inventory. That's how we ended up with a "treasure trove"!

 

[billyspew]

I feel your pain. Adam hats prices and styles seem to be all over the place, but so are all of the other brands. I have to (carefully) disagree with your suspicion about the re-printed price tags on the Adam hats. (Don't want to offend a great customer.)

Here's the thing... Hirsch's Mens Store wasn't big on running sales or promotions. If items didn't sell on the retail floor, they stashed the inventory upstairs to storage. Mr. Cohen wasn't the kind of guy who would print new price tags to try to move unsold merchandise. To be blunt, he wouldn't have spent the extra money to print the new price tags.

However, y'all are definitely on to something. Many of these hats are called "Premier" or "Premier Executive", and I think they are newer than the "Executive" quality hats. Based on the styling and production quality, the Executives are oldest, Premier Executive was a transitional name, and Premier was the final name. Based on my conversations with Mr. Cohen, he stopped selling hats when they went out of style, which was sometime in the mid-late 60s. (Small town men's store = trend follower, not trend setter) He had a few trendy corduroy hats and other fad hats from the late 70s and early 80s, but none of the felt hats from his inventory date past the late 60's and early 70's. You won't find the dot matrix-style price tags in the older hats. Those labels are direct from the factory, and I'm confident because many of the newer hats were in the original boxes with the original packing materials.

Final thought... I'm grateful for the fact that Hirsch's wasn't big on liquidating unsold inventory. That's how we ended up with a "treasure trove"!

Acknowledged, did however check one of the hats (one of yours ) and it indeed has a factory price tag under the sweatband of $7.50, while the big printed label says $20. If he was marking them up that much, I'm sure that's why they remained unsold!

I will however incorporate the details of Hirsch's into my research, so thank you very much!

 

[johnnyphi]

Interesting!

Acknowledged, did however check one of the hats (one of yours ) and it indeed has a factory price tag under the sweatband of $7.50, while the big printed label says $20. If he was marking them up that much, I'm sure that's why they remained unsold!

I will however incorporate the details of Hirsch's into my research, so thank you very much!

Hmmm... I can honestly say that I didn't find anything like that during the inventory process. Are you talking about the $20 price tag with gold trim along the edges? Some of those came loose pretty easily, so maybe they migrated from another hat during the inventory. In my experience, those gold $20 tags were usually on "Premier" hats.

 

[billyspew]

Hmmm... I can honestly say that I didn't find anything like that during the inventory process. Are you talking about the $20 price tag with gold trim along the edges? Some of those came loose pretty easily, so maybe they migrated from another hat during the inventory. In my experience, those gold $20 tags were usually on "Premier" hats.

Thats the one:

Don't have the picture of the tag under the sweat at the moment though. It is attached to the sweat as well - so I don't think it migrated.

 

[billyspew]

Dark Brown Premier Executive "Exton". This is almost exactly the same as my Whippet

 

[billyspew]

Sterling Executive Mainliner, different ribbon treatment to my other one.

 

[mayserwegener]

Very nice! What are you thinking on the dates? Looking forward to seeing the others in detail.

 

[billyspew]

Late '40's ish Executive