Hat store experience

[maxhogan]

Has anyone had a bad experience in a hat store? I went to one today and when I asked the owner about getting a hat, he had one style, made for his store in Canada, in 4 colors. No brand names, no real selection of different brims, crown height, etc. I walked out disappointed, but maybe I was expecting too much? I'm in Baltimore, btw, so any recommendations are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[randooch]

Sounds like a hot dog stand that offers no condiments and no buns.

 

[monbla256]

Has anyone had a bad experience in a hat store? I went to one today and when I asked the owner about getting a hat, he had one style, made for his store in Canada, in 4 colors. No brand names, no real selection of different brims, crown height, etc. I walked out disappointed, but maybe I was expecting too much? I'm in Baltimore, btw, so any recommendations are appreciated. Thank you.

That was a Hat Store? One style of hat in 4 colors and NOTHING else? Sounds like a stretch of the definition of one to me! Sounds like you'd have better luck at the "hat dept" in a Wal-Mart or Target store !! Hat stores as they used to be had 100's of hats but sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case these days. I know of none left here in this part of Texas except over in Ft.Worth at Peter Bros.

 

[Tomasso]

I'm in Baltimore, btw, so any recommendations are appreciated.

http://hiphats.com/index.html

 

[Duper]

I have visited three self proclaimed "hat stores". Henry the Hatter in Detroit. Large selection, good prices, nice store front window and helpful staff. I have been to Henri Henri in Montreal. Again a varied selection and happy to serve sale people, but very pricey. Both those stores have decades of history as proper hats stores. The third hat store was in San Diego and I think because it was in the tourist district it was mostly cheap knock off wool and poorly woven colourful summer weight hats.

There is a terrific thread here with a listing of proper hat stores across many of states. Have search or perhaps someone else here help out an point it out specifically.

Happy hunting!

 

[maxhogan]

That was rhe store. No selection like the webpage shows, one style of fedora, center crease, no offer to change the crease, block to my shape, zip. He did offer either small or large brim.

 

[scottyrocks]

Just because a store has hats in it doesn't make it a hat store. It sounds like you walked into a store pretending to be a hat store, or a store wanting to be hat store, but didn't quite measure up.

 

[Historyteach24]

I feel your pain the only store in like a 6 hour drive around my house to sell hats just sell them as an add on. They sell Stetsons which are great but they are first and foremost a men's store specializing in clothes. They do not offer any changes or hell many different styles. Last time I went they had two styles in like 20 different colors but if you didn't want that one style tough crap. I would give anything for a proper hatter around my home.

 

[El Sid]

I ordered a travel Borsalino online and via telephone from this nice lady named Gilda a couple of years ago: http://www.hatalog.com/ Silver Springs is maybe a half hour outside of Baltimore. I haven't been there, but it seems like a real hat store to me.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I feel your pain the only store in like a 6 hour drive around my house to sell hats just sell them as an add on.

Historyteach, if you're in Huntington WV you've got a hat store with a master hatter a lot closer then that. You should check out Batsakes hat store in Cincinnati. It's about a 2-hour drive from my house; I live a bit north of Portsmouth, OH, which puts me about an hours drive from Huntington so about 3 hours for you I imagine.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Joe Rotax]

I’ve only been in a hat store once and it worked out pretty good.

Walked in there on a hot as hell day and said I need a hat. The woman who worked there said “this should do the job” and handed me an ivory Stetson 10x straw cattle hat with a 4 inch brim - real good fit and she got the size right first time.

I wasn’t sure about getting a western hat so I asked to try on some different styles, brim sizes etc.

That wasn’t working out so a I tried the Stetson again and she says “well, you know, a guy your height needs to wear a good sized hat o/wise it doesn’t look right.”

So I bought the Stetson and a few days after the shock had worn off I realized that I can wear western hats just fine and the reason people have been wearing these things for hundreds of years is because they do a great job when you’re outside all day in harsh weather.

Don’t see myself becoming a collector or anything like that but I recently picked up another Stetson - similar rig except it’s 4x beaver in silver belly.

 

[Woodfluter]

This is totally non-helpful, but just for sake of nostalgia and a reference point...

I remember going to mens' clothing stores when very young. John Wanamaker Dept. store in Wilmington Delaware, and another (yet more specialized) whose name I can't recall. Thick plush carpeting. Dark wood paneling. A jumbo-sized globe in a gimbal setting prominently displayed, fine prints on every wall. Quality hats neatly arrayed on shelves. Staff (seemingly out of a BBC drama by today's standards) that addressed even a youngster as "sir", and never a charge for custom tailoring (only what was expected).

And the shame of it was, this occurred at the tail end of hats as everyday wear and me only a few years shy of truly appreciating them as something *I* might wear. It took a few books (factual and fictional) to change that. And thus the appreciation began. But the details of those bygone times are crystalline in my memory.

I've been in a few hat stores here and there, but it just ain't the same.

- Bill