Brad Bowers
I'll Lock Up
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Abraham Blum received the patent for his sweatband sizer on February 26, 1935. He must've sold or licensed the patent to Hat Corporation of America , because I don't remember seeing it on a non-HCA hat. There's a Knox on the Lounge where it's called a SIZOR, while the Dobbs, Cavanagh, and Crofut & Knapp hats all label it TRUSIZE. The examples I remember seeing are all from the late 1930s into the early 1940s, so I don't think it was used much beyond that. It was used on stiff and soft straw hats, as well as stiff and soft felt hats, and was touted as giving the wearer about a three-size adjustment range.
There were a lot of gimmicky things tried during this period, and most of them turned out to be less than useful. I'd hesitate to use the TRUSIZE because the metal clip is fragile by this point in its history.
Crofut & Knapp more typically used their own version of the Bon-Ton (and later Bon-Ton Ivy) sweatband on their C&K and Dobbs brands starting in the early-1920s after the original patent expired. After 1929, Cavanagh Derbies and Boaters also used this more-practical band, and then Knox after the 1932 acquisition. This Bon-Ton style band could be found on HCA Boaters into the 1960s.
Brad
~The Hatted Professor
There were a lot of gimmicky things tried during this period, and most of them turned out to be less than useful. I'd hesitate to use the TRUSIZE because the metal clip is fragile by this point in its history.
Crofut & Knapp more typically used their own version of the Bon-Ton (and later Bon-Ton Ivy) sweatband on their C&K and Dobbs brands starting in the early-1920s after the original patent expired. After 1929, Cavanagh Derbies and Boaters also used this more-practical band, and then Knox after the 1932 acquisition. This Bon-Ton style band could be found on HCA Boaters into the 1960s.
Brad
~The Hatted Professor
