Open Road versus Royal Stetson Deluxe

[fedoralover]

The "Open Road" is the style name of the hat and has been around for literally decades. The terms "Royal", "Royal Deluxe" and "Imperial" were the quality grades that the Open Road was offered in. Hence the Royal Deluxe was a grade higher than the Royal and the Imperial was higher than the Royal Deluxe. However the Open Road was and is, also offered in the different X rating qualities as well. So you will see the Open Road offered in 3X, 4X, 7X, etc. The lower X rating being the lower quality of hat.


fedoralover

 

[fedoralover]

Well, that is another marketing ploy Stetson used. They sometimes offered the same looking hat with a different name. I have a Stetson Vita-felt fedora. It's a nice hat, but, who really knows what "Vita-felt" means, I don't. Probably nothing but a name change to get people to buy another hat. Either way they beat anything that's new and off the shelf that are sold in stores today.

fedoralover

 

[fedoralover]

Also just to note, please scroll down to the post "freaking x beaver for a complete review on the meaning and significance of the X rating on hats.

regards Rich