Batsakes Hat Shop

[Terry "The Hat"]

If any of you get a chance to visit Cincinnati don't leave until you can drive downtown (#1 West 6th Street) to visit Gus Miller at Batsakes Hat Shop (pronounced Bat-Sack-eeze). The shop is over 100 years old and Gus (age 76) has worked there since moving from Greece at the age of 17 to work for his Uncle. This is a real step back in time with the shoeshine chairs and the whole works. Gus has made custom hats for several presidents, numerous movie stars and lots and lots of sports stars. Just looking at the pictures in the shop will keep you busy for a long time.

Gus takes great pride in his work and actually forms and finishes the hats in a shop located in the main window facing 6th street so people can stop and watch. I'm gonna have him make a custom hat for me soon.

My Mom lives in Cincinnati so I travel back and forth several times a year. I always have to stop and see Gus whenever I make the trip. Besides his custom hats he carries Stetson, Tilley and many other brands of good quality hats in many many styles.

 

[fedoralover]

Sounds like a shop we would all enjoy seeing some pictures of, including some of Gus at work. Maybe you could do that the next time you visit, I'm sure all here would love to see it.

fedoralover

 

[Terry "The Hat"]

Actually I have some pictures from last summer. Il post them later when I get time.

 

[Tomasso]

Sounds like a shop we would all enjoy seeing some pictures of, including some of Gus at work.

From one of the many threads on Batsakes:

Well, I said in Sharpetoys' thread I would try to visit this shop yesterday and I was indeed able to get there.

As with any downtown parking was hard to come by. As I went by the shop I took a quick photo of Gus working in front of the window. I drove around a bit before finding an open space that turned out to have a broken meter. I took a chance and parked there anyway. It was around the block from the shop. As I walked I noticed a lot of men of various ages wearing overcoats with nice shoes and trousers showing, perhaps the top of a tie... but nary a hat despite the cold. I was wearing a grey Stetson Weekender I picked up on eBay.

A woman greeted me when I entered. I'm sorry to say I did not find out who she was. I told her I'd read about the shop and came by to look around. He had lots of hats and caps by various makers, including some top hats on display. Along one wall was a old fashioned shoe-shine stand!

I tried on a Borsolino but it paled in comparison to my vintage one. After finding out my approximate size the woman had me try on a medium-brown hat with a dark brown ribbon, one that had been made by Gus. It was a hair too large, but very sweet. She said it was $200. I tried it on and looked in the mirror a couple of times, and she asked me if I liked it. I did. She went and talked to Gus, and came back and offered it to me for $170. That did it. My wife, Rhonda, had told me that if I found a hat I liked to get it as her anniversary present to me.

Gus took the hat, stamped my initials in it, and signed and dated it on the inside of the sweat band. I went over and got a shoe shine from Charlie ($3.00, plus tip) and then talked to Gus some more along with another customer.

Gus showed us letters he's received recently from President Bush and a former mayor of Portsmouth, OH, congratulating him on his shop's 100th year in business. He was a bit unhappy with the mayor of Cincinatti who had yet to acknowledge his existence. I don't blame him. How many businesses in Cincinatti can make the claim of having been there for 100 years, with a proprietor who has been working at his craft for 56 years?

As we talked a doorman from a nearby hotel came in to have his hat brushed off. It appeared to me to be a cross between a homburg and a top hat.

When I got home I modeled my new hat for Rhonda, whose big smile told me all I needed to know as to how she liked it one me.

Here are a few photos. I'll post photos of the hat in a different thread.

Enjoy!
Tom

The view from the street

The front of the store

The letter from President Bush

Charlie at his shoe shine stand

 

[Terry "The Hat"]

That is so funny. After seeing your reply above I just realized that this is where I first learned of Batsakes. It was a great story and I was going to Cincy anyway so I stopped in and had a great time. I'll still post my pictures later.

 

[Lefty]

please post them in this thread

 

[Panamabob]

 

[bradbraden]

Found this info on the shop in online article

Gus Miller, proprietor of Batsakes Hat Shop, works on a custom hat. Miller started working for uncle Pete Batsakes at the shop 56 years ago, when he was 17. Batsakes, a Cincinnati institution frequented by many celebrities, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

THE ENQUIRER / CARA OWSLEY


THE PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER PAYS HOMAGE TO GREAT HATTER, GUS MILLER

If you don’t know Miller then you don’t know about his retail store Batsakes. Miller was 17-years-old when he started steaming hats at his uncles hat store in Cincinnati. Legend has it that Miller was given a broom and told to sweep. But it wasn’t long (20 years to be exact) before the shop was his.

Well, the shop that Pete Batsakes built in 1907 in Cincinnati is now celebrating its 100th year in business. And 73-year-old Miller is the sole proprietor. His hats are legendary (he makes his own fedoras) and his personality and business acumen have withstood the test of time.

Celebrities shop there (Luciano Pavarotti, Bill Cosby, President George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, the late comic Red Skelton, Tony Bennett and Snoop Dogg) as well as athletes and local hat lovers.

If you want to read the entire article - that ran in the Cincinnati Enquirer - here it is. It is nice to know that the media has not forsaken the headwear industry. Now it’s our job to make sure that every head has a hat on it!

Hat shop alone on top
Batsakes has weathered changes in menswear
BY JOHN ECKBERG | JECKBERG@ENQUIRER.COM

When Gus Miller landed in Cincinnati from a small village in Greece 56 years ago, he was 17 years old and didn't know a Stetson 10-gallon hat from a Brooklyn porkpie.

Soon, he was steaming and shaping hats of all types at Batsakes Hat Shop - a downtown Cincinnati institution owned by uncle Pete Batsakes.

But his career didn't start out that way. The first thing Uncle Pete did was give Gus a broom.

"He told me that I'd probably get the shop someday, but that you don't start out on the third floor of a company. You start in the basement," Gus said. "He told me to go sweep up. And that was the first thing I did every day. I still do it, too."

Within six months, Miller was given a promotion: Fill out a hat ticket and write the corresponding number in the headband. Two decades later, the shop was his.

A Cincinnati destination merchant with a store downtown since 1907, Batsakes Hat Shop was thriving then and now as the store celebrates its 100th year and embarks on a second century of sales. Batsakes (bat-SAHK-ees) has weathered difficult times in recent years - fewer men wearing hats, fewer men worried about shoe shines, fewer shoppers in downtown Cincinnati - but thanks to old-world craftsmanship, word-of-mouth and a loyal, hat-wearing clientele, the store has survived.

In Miller's time behind the counter with a front window view of downtown, he has seen plenty of competitors disappear.

"Every department store used to have a hat shop," Miller said, his words still carrying traces of a Greek accent. "Men's stores, too. You had Hart Schaffner Marx, Bolts, Paragon hats - plenty of stores, and they're all gone now."

Despite the challenges of a shrinking market, one thing hasn't changed since 1907 - when Cincinnati streets were still horse-trodden, writers like Mark Twain passed through town and President Theodore Roosevelt hyped his grassroots popularity from the White House - cold weather is hat-buying weather for men.

Miller, a 73-year-old Price Hill resident, is behind his glass at Sixth and Vine streets before 8 a.m. on most mornings, about the same time the stream of office workers downtown turns into a river. The place is a sanctuary for some.

"I come in for a shoe shine and to escape," Cincinnati City Councilman Jim Tarbell said one recent weekday morning.

Though fewer men wear hats these days than decades ago, this store isn't a buggy-whip merchant yet, though most of Miller's tools date to that era: a steam cleaner and reshaper, wooden blocks to stretch and shape hats, razors in wooden brim cutters.

Celebrities and athletes love the place, as Miller has created and sold hats to singer Luciano Pavarotti, comedian Bill Cosby, President George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, the late comic Red Skelton and entertainer Tony Bennett.

When former Cincinnati Reds centerfielder Deion Sanders, currently an analyst with NFL Network, announced to a Super Bowl audience during a pre-game show one year that he got his hat from Batsakes Hat Shop in Cincinnati, Gus got about a million dollars' worth of free publicity.

Why do celebrities come to this shop when they could go anywhere else in the country?

"Celebrities come because of the character of the place. You don't see places like this anymore," Miller said. "I think it's curiosity."

Sanders said it's not just that.

"The thing about Batsakes is this - the service you get is undeniably the best in the business," he said in a phone conversation. "Matter of fact, my relationship with them helped me in my business.

"People took notice of the hats I was wearing, and I struck up a deal to create my own line. Every time I come to Cincinnati, I stop by Batsakes. Gus is just a great guy to deal with."

The power of personal service
To the casual observer, Batsakes Hat Shop is as much museum as century-old Queen City merchant: no fax, no Web site, no e-mail.

It's amazing that he even has a telephone.

"I like people to come in and talk. It makes it personal," Miller said.

A signed baseball collection fills two areas and hat display cases have photos tucked into the glass - baseballs signed by former Reds pitcher Tom Browning, baseball great Pete Rose, former Oakland A's pitcher Vida Blue, MLB pitcher Roger Clemens and former Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr. are here but somewhat hidden. Dozens of other balls are stacked six high.

Letters from both presidents Bush are framed and hang on walls.

A letter from President Reagan thanks Miller, a native of Gouves, Greece, for his entrepreneurial spirit and for the cowboy hat that Miller made for him two-and-a-half decades ago. Reagan helped cowboy hat sales a lot, Miller said.

Blame President John F. Kennedy in part for a hat downswing in the 1960s.

When Kennedy did not wear a hat to his inauguration, the industry went into a tailspin.

The Indiana Jones series of movies helped hat sales for a while, but interest in that movie faded and so did hat sales.

Today, rappers, rockers and movie stars wear fedoras, as well as caps by Kangol and Borsalino, and Batsakes is one of the few specialty shops that meets their needs.

For every crooner who has passed away, such as Frank Sinatra, another hat-wearing star - say, Justin Timberlake - will emerge, and hat sales rise accordingly.

"Snoop Dogg was in here about two years ago. We had to lock the doors, and the windows were full of girls looking in at him," Miller said. "He sat right over there (pointing to the shoe shine stand) and bought $1,200 worth of hats."

Bob Dylan - he likes hats too.

"A little skinny guy. He wore a hood. He'd try on a hat, take off the hat and put his hood back up. Try on a hat. Take it off. Hood back up. He bought $4,000 worth of hats," Miller said. "I didn't know who he was. When he got back into his limousine, his manager told me."

Surviving a changing market
Hat sales have always hitched a ride on fashion trends. Hats are not necessarily a cheap accessory, either, which may explain why celebrities and others find their way to this store. A custom fedora handmade by Miller costs $175.

"I've been buying hats from Gus for 20 years," said Parker Cowgill, 60, of Milford, who came in last week to have his black Stetson reshaped.

"Lots of cities don't even have a hat shop anymore. We're lucky he's still around."

In the past, American men went nowhere without a hat.

"In Cincinnati even in the 1950s, all the men would meet at Fountain Square on Sept. 15 and throw their summer straw hats in the air all at once because it was time for a winter hat," Miller said. "On May 15, they'd go to the square and throw their fedoras up in the air at the same time, then go buy a summer hat."

Retirement? Don't look for it anytime soon from Miller. He has seen too many people retire only to have their health erode, then fail.

"There's another thing, too," said Miller. "Really, I've never worked a day in my life. I love what I do."

Batsakes Hat Shop, 605 Walnut St.
Business: Custom hats, cleaning, fitting.
Founded: 1907

How to sell hats, in the words of Uncle Pete
Press Gus Miller for insights into how a company can keep the revenues rolling in for a century, and he wastes about a half-second before he quotes the business wisdom of his uncle, Pete Batsakes:

"If you're not going to do something right, then don't mess with it at all."


THE ENQUIRER / CARA OWSLEY
Gus Miller (center), started working at Batsakes Hat Shop for his uncle, Pete Batsakes (right), when he was 17. Miller's shop has survived a decline in popularity of men's hats, and is still going strong 100 years after its founding. Miller says he has no plans to retire, 56 years after he started working at the store.

 

[Tomasso]

"Blame President John F. Kennedy in part for a hat downswing in the 1960s.When Kennedy did not wear a hat to his inauguration, the industry went into a tailspin."


Man, this little bit of nonsense will not die. :eusa_doh:

 

[Lefty]

Hat Life
Nice lipstick, Gus.

from the article:
"If you're not going to do something right, then don't mess with it at all."

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

The closest hat shop to me I stop by when visiting my brother who live's in Cincy.

 

[PistolPete1969]

I am fortunate to live just north of Cincinnati. I have visited Gus many times. He is a delightful guy. If you go, plan on spending a while there, just listening to his stories.

Pete

 

[belfastboy]

I have long wanted a hat made by Gus @Batsakes Hat Shop in Cincy. However as the days pass by my chances of being in that city diminish. So I was thrilled when a friend alerted me to one on Ebay in my size. He was asking too much...put in a much lower offer and it was accepted. In my excitement I neglected my one cardinal rule of Ebay hat purchases....asking if there were any flaws or odours to the hat. I should have!! It arrived stinking of some sort of vintage hair product , a very perfumey Pommade. Plus the felt, a nice dark blue, plus the ribbon was very badly sun bleached. Being a dark blue it did not show in the pics. But I did at least ow own one of Gus's creations. It was listed as being made from a vintage felt.
In my refurb I totally tore down the hat, naptha bath then an Orvis paste bath which revealed the full extent of the bleaching. So I turned the felt inside out to reveal a very almost new vibrant blue. Used the original sweat to keep the Batsakes imprint and the liner came out clean from the wash.
The felt could very well be a vintage felt as it has a soft hand but substantive weight. Does not need steam or spritz for the bash. A little lower crown and narrower brim than I prefer....4 1/2" at the front, 2 1/2" width on the bound brim. I used a Slate ribbon with lots of green undertones for something a little different. Thrilled to have my own BatSakes hat even if I didn't get to meet Gus and hear his tales.