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I've often pondered this myself when someone praises the quality of the felt on their vintage hat(s). Unfortunately, I don't think anyone here was alive in the 1930s or 40s who could tell us definitively whether or not those hats were actually better when they were brand new, or if they were pretty much the same then as modern production hats are now and that time has given them those desirable qualities.
I'm not sure I completely buy into this. I think that the decline in hat wearing, the stiff nature of western hats not requiring fine felt, the willingness to the make short-term trade of decreased quality for increased profits, the mass production nature of most all things, the disposable nature of our possessions, and a dozen other factors played into it. I also suspect that beaver fur that would not have made the cut 80 years ago is finding its way into felt hats today.
On top of that, when you adjust for inflation we are buying very cheap hats. If there was a strong market for $500 to $1000 fedoras today do you think we could get back to where we were?
Maybe the beaver pelts of today are not as high quality as decades ago, but if there was a strong enough market we could overcome that. I'd love to see nutria be utilized more. I don't care what animal it comes from as long as the felt quality is there.