There are probably not many fans of this hat in the lounge, but since there are so many new members, and since spending $200 plus on your first (and for some people, ANY) hat may seem a little 
, I'm posting this little paen to the lowly (?) Stetson Chatham.
To wit: In the plus category, I have had my Chatham for close to three years and it has held up extraordinarily well. It has been rained on, snowed on, sat on (!!) and pooped on by a mulberry eating pigeon - I even spilled india ink on it. I removed the poop with a brush and used a dry cleaning pad to get the ink and the mulberry colour out of the felt. It has held its shape and kept its colour (caribou) throughout all of this. For a modern hat the felt is thin and soft and durable.
It has to be noted that the crown is low and the band narrow, so it is not very like the thirties-style hats so many of us covet, though they tend to stand out more in a crowd and invite more staring and comments, at least in my city-living experience. Also, the liner is a little loose, really just a sateen hanky stuck in the crown, and pushing it back in can become annoying.
The Chatham clocks in at a very affordable 80 to just over 100 bucks, depending on the dealer. So, I think it's a pretty good deal for a decent hat that you can wear and wear and wear.
The other starter hat many folks here mention is the Akubra Federation, a hat that I think is complete crap, though I own two of them.
The felt - if it is felt - is about a quarter of an inch thick! I've worked with thinner, softer wood in renovating my house. It looks and feels as rough as wool, it soaks up water so that it weighs about two pounds on your head in the rain or snow, and the colour on my brown Federation went splotchy after a rain. The Federation is served up open crown so you can bash it to your liking, which is fun. I had one experience that went well, but the other went less so. Creases in the felt formed in places I didn't want creases, steaming and rebashing resulted in the same creases in the same places. I guess there were faults in the felt that caused it to bend in the same place the same way no matter what. I don't really care that much at this point, but it got my goat at the time. Finally, the Federation has a very high crown and a very wide brim. The crown can be bashed down, though not too much or it may taper, and the brim may be cut, if you're a patient careful person, but in general it is a lot of hat, a big, high, wide lot of hat. From a distance it almost reads as a cowboy hat. It will be noticed, it will be commented on - if not to your face, and you will feel conspicuous. That wouldn't normally bother me, but I don't really want people noticing such a cheap-looking, lousy hat, so I don't wear it much at all. Anyway, as a matter of preference, the wide brim especially, and to a lesser degree the high crown, just don't suit me.
So, outside of vintage or custom, the Stetson Chatham might be worth a look, and the Federation seems to me to be all hype.
:cheers1:
, I'm posting this little paen to the lowly (?) Stetson Chatham.To wit: In the plus category, I have had my Chatham for close to three years and it has held up extraordinarily well. It has been rained on, snowed on, sat on (!!) and pooped on by a mulberry eating pigeon - I even spilled india ink on it. I removed the poop with a brush and used a dry cleaning pad to get the ink and the mulberry colour out of the felt. It has held its shape and kept its colour (caribou) throughout all of this. For a modern hat the felt is thin and soft and durable.
It has to be noted that the crown is low and the band narrow, so it is not very like the thirties-style hats so many of us covet, though they tend to stand out more in a crowd and invite more staring and comments, at least in my city-living experience. Also, the liner is a little loose, really just a sateen hanky stuck in the crown, and pushing it back in can become annoying.
The Chatham clocks in at a very affordable 80 to just over 100 bucks, depending on the dealer. So, I think it's a pretty good deal for a decent hat that you can wear and wear and wear.
The other starter hat many folks here mention is the Akubra Federation, a hat that I think is complete crap, though I own two of them.
The felt - if it is felt - is about a quarter of an inch thick! I've worked with thinner, softer wood in renovating my house. It looks and feels as rough as wool, it soaks up water so that it weighs about two pounds on your head in the rain or snow, and the colour on my brown Federation went splotchy after a rain. The Federation is served up open crown so you can bash it to your liking, which is fun. I had one experience that went well, but the other went less so. Creases in the felt formed in places I didn't want creases, steaming and rebashing resulted in the same creases in the same places. I guess there were faults in the felt that caused it to bend in the same place the same way no matter what. I don't really care that much at this point, but it got my goat at the time. Finally, the Federation has a very high crown and a very wide brim. The crown can be bashed down, though not too much or it may taper, and the brim may be cut, if you're a patient careful person, but in general it is a lot of hat, a big, high, wide lot of hat. From a distance it almost reads as a cowboy hat. It will be noticed, it will be commented on - if not to your face, and you will feel conspicuous. That wouldn't normally bother me, but I don't really want people noticing such a cheap-looking, lousy hat, so I don't wear it much at all. Anyway, as a matter of preference, the wide brim especially, and to a lesser degree the high crown, just don't suit me.
So, outside of vintage or custom, the Stetson Chatham might be worth a look, and the Federation seems to me to be all hype.
:cheers1:
