The Herbert Johnson Poet

[geo]

I just got my new HJ from Todd, and I have to say that it looks great. When I took it out of the box, it looked so much like the film hat that I expected Harrison Ford to crawl out of the box from under the hat.

 

[Fedora]

just got my new HJ from Todd, and I have to say that it looks great. When I took it out of the box, it looked so much like the film hat that I expected Harrison Ford to crawl out of the box from under the hat.

I bought one last year, and really liked the feel of the felt. The current felt is a departure from the offerings in the 90's and early 00's. And, the current felt is a true dress felt compared to some of the other ones I have seen, and owned. Keep it treated with a good water repellant and you will get some miles out of it. I am still attracted to the HJ name because it was used in the films, along with some Stetsons. Fedora

 

[jml90]

I bought one last year, and really liked the feel of the felt. The current felt is a departure from the offerings in the 90's and early 00's. And, the current felt is a true dress felt compared to some of the other ones I have seen, and owned. Keep it treated with a good water repellant and you will get some miles out of it. I am still attracted to the HJ name because it was used in the films, along with some Stetsons. Fedora

I thought I was the only one that really likes the grey Stetson Temple.

 

[geo]

I am still attracted to the HJ name because it was used in the films, along with some Stetsons. Fedora

I too like the HJ name and product, because it's a traditional hatter whose fame goes beyond the Indy hat. They did the Indy hat, Steed's bowler, and, like I wrote in the first post, could have done Bossiney's hat in the late 1800's. HJ is now owned by Swaine, Adeney Brigg, and the current catalogue only shows 4 fedoras: the Indy, a hat that can be rolled, a trilby and a wider brim fedora with wind trolley. There's also a homburg, a bowler, a top hat, a roll-up Montecristi Panama and that's about it. Very little, when compared to Lock or other hatters. And on the swaine adeney web site, there's only the Indy and bowler, along with 2 tweed caps. I hope that HJ will continue to exist for many years to come.

 

[Fedora]

I hope that HJ will continue to exist for many years to come.

I don't disagree with that, but I wish they would return to the higher quality hats. They are but a ghost of what they once were. At one time in their life, they made hats for retail and sold them all over the world. I have a couple from stores that carried them in the USA, complete with the store's name on the sweat. Just like Stetson use to do. Back then, HJ was turning out some fine hats. Fedora

 

[jml90]

Would it be a bad dea to get a Stetson Temple?

 

[jlee562]

Huh, I guess I forgot about this thread.

But there are updates on the HJ poet saga. To be academically precise, these are new narratives, not necessarily new documentation, but here is what HJ is now presenting on their site.

On the Poet block:
https://herbertjohnson.co.uk/blogs/journal/mythbusting-the-indiana-jones-hero-poet

An Indy fan who bought several Poets from Richard Swales:
https://herbertjohnson.co.uk/blogs/journal/a-poet-in-time-an-interview-with-an-indy-fan

Interesting (second-hand) comment from Mr. Swales, considering the discussion from earlier in the thread about "flimsiness":

It was only available late in the year and it was expected it would only last a season before you would replace it with a brand new Poet the following winter. The hats were disposable and you would expect shrinkage of the felt and rotting of the leather with heavy wear. Richard described the retiring of an old hat as 'Putting it out to grass'.

Catalog image on the long hair Poet
IMG_20180925_123555 by Michelle Poyer-Sleeman, on Flickr

And some pics of my beaver Poet:

 

[BJC88]

That HJ looks really good. I hope it serves you as well as my Penman Raiders has served me.