The Open Road Guild

[RBH]

[
Great OR, to tighten the wind cord...
slide the button towards the back of the hat. That should tighten it up.
Good luck!

 

[Justdog]

Wind Button

Thats got it thanks RBH :eusa_clap

 

[ScottF]

Thought I would share this one. Some may have seen this recently
Absolutely fantastic soft pliable felt. 2/7/8 brim Depending on the light it looks blue, blue gray, or gray. Never saw a liner quite like this one.
Not sure about holy grails but this is pretty close if not the one. One question though. Is there a way to tighten the wind cord a bit?

Justdog - Very nice hat.

BTW - our O.R.'s are almost exactly alike, right down to the sweatband fontsizes and the color of the size tag. Mine is tan and has no liner, but it still has the OPS info and $12.50 price attached to the size tag, so you can probably date your hat accordingly: 1950-53

 

[Justdog]

Dating

Justdog - Very nice hat.

BTW - our O.R.'s are almost exactly alike, right down to the sweatband fontsizes and the color of the size tag. Mine is tan and has no liner, but it still has the OPS info and $12.50 price attached to the size tag, so you can probably date your hat accordingly: 1950-53

Thanks that's very helpful. Got a link to the pic of your hat?

 

[gtdean48]

In that color & in Royal Deluxe category, that is one SWEET Open Road! I have a RD OR no where near that shape & know it was a fine lid in it's day. LOVE that color!!!! In 7 5/8 Long Oval, it could be my Holy Grail or at least right there with a 7X Clear Beaver version. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[jimmy the lid]

Justdog -- that is a fabulous OR! Congrats!

In terms of dating this lid -- is there a liner protector? If so, what kind of material is used? It's hard to tell from the photos...

Cheers,
JtL

 

[ScottF]

Thanks that's very helpful. Got a link to the pic of your hat?

Here's the sweat and size-tag. The color in the other pics is so far off that it's not worth posting...and I added a temporary liner since it didn't have one.

 

[jamespowers]

This is the earliest ad I can find for the thin-ribbon OR. Additionally, the February 1949 ad posted by james powers above appears to be the first national-scale advertising for the "modern" OR.

My own theory is that Stetson's introduction of the Open Road in 1948 was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the Stratoliner (introduced by Stetson in 1940). The Strat was essentially re-invented as the Open Road and had its own distinct marketing strategy. So, a slightly wider brim, a slightly fuller crown, and a marketing approach that positioned the OR as a western hat that was also suitable for wearing about town, or with a business suit.
Cheers,
JtL

The Stratoliner was still being avertised with the Open Road in the 1952 ad above so it might be likely that eventually one supplanted the other as there was not that much difference between the two.
The other side of that is that the Stratoliner was too much like the Open Road and thought to be---like Frank Lee often called the thin ribbon thin ribbon bound edge---"farmer hats." You could have gotten a farmer hat from Lee for considerably less back then. So Stetson left the Open Road to compete with the western style hats and concentrated their dress hat lines with wider ribbon models---both crown and edge.
Here is an ad for the Lee Adventure which sold for $7.50:

Lee made the same hat for Marathon and Brent for even less than that with a thinner ribbon. in short, it just seems to have been a business decision. [huh]

 

[Justdog]

Liner

Justdog -- that is a fabulous OR! Congrats!

In terms of dating this lid -- is there a liner protector? If so, what kind of material is used? It's hard to tell from the photos...

Cheers,
JtL

Hi: Thanks. The liner is the plastic brylcreme over a material I am not sure of. The rest of the liner is silk but unless I poke through the brylcreme liner I cannot tell what the blue under it is. The blue does look like silk sewn into the oval in the center of the conventional white liner. Although I have not seen tons of Stetsons this was quite different.

 

[Justdog]

Deluxe OR

Here's the sweat and size-tag. The color in the other pics is so far off that it's not worth posting...and I added a temporary liner since it didn't have one.

Pretty nice to have the original price. Mmm I,ll take several of those please
Real nice to wear. Mine just stretched to my head in 24 hours.

 

[Justdog]

RD OR 7 5/8

In that color & in Royal Deluxe category, that is one SWEET Open Road! I have a RD OR no where near that shape & know it was a fine lid in it's day. LOVE that color!!!! In 7 5/8 Long Oval, it could be my Holy Grail or at least right there with a 7X Clear Beaver version. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Will cross my fingers for you. If I happen across that size will post.

 

[ScottF]

In that color & in Royal Deluxe category, that is one SWEET Open Road! I have a RD OR no where near that shape & know it was a fine lid in it's day. LOVE that color!!!! In 7 5/8 Long Oval, it could be my Holy Grail or at least right there with a 7X Clear Beaver version. :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Isn't the 3x also a higher quality than the Royal Deluxe? This will be the first time I've had two different 'quality' felt versions of the same hat model, so if the darned thing ever arrives I'll know the difference.

It would also be nice if jtl would send a swatch from one of his 100's for comparison.

 

[gtdean48]

Isn't the 3x also a higher quality than the Royal Deluxe? This will be the first time I've had two different 'quality' felt versions of the same hat model, so if the darned thing ever arrives I'll know the difference.

It would also be nice if jtl would send a swatch from one of his 100's for comparison.

From all I have seen, yes. I have a Royal, Royal Deluxe, & 3X OR plus a 25 in OR style. 7X Clear Beaver is equivalent to a 50, then there is the 100. I'm not sure where the 3X & the Sovereign fit since a Stetson 20 is equivalent to the Sovereign. It is too confusing.

 

[jimmy the lid]

From all I have seen, yes. I have a Royal, Royal Deluxe, & 3X OR plus a 25 in OR style. 7X Clear Beaver is equivalent to a 50, then there is the 100. I'm not sure where the 3X & the Sovereign fit since a Stetson 20 is equivalent to the Sovereign. It is too confusing.

Here's how it works:

Royal ($10)
Royal DeLuxe ($12.50)
3X ($15)
Sovereign/Stetson Twenty ($20)
Stetson 25 ($25)
7X CB/Stetson 50 ($50)
Stetson 100 ($100)

[Prices reflect pricing from late 40's to late 50's]

Cheers,
JtL

 

[jimmy the lid]

It would also be nice if jtl would send a swatch from one of his 100's for comparison.

Sorry, that's Harp Player Gene's department...

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Atticus Finch]

From all I have seen, yes. I have a Royal, Royal Deluxe, & 3X OR plus a 25 in OR style. 7X Clear Beaver is equivalent to a 50, then there is the 100. I'm not sure where the 3X & the Sovereign fit since a Stetson 20 is equivalent to the Sovereign. It is too confusing.

Yep. It's darn confusing. I used to think that I was about as sharp as most other tools in the shed, but the logic behind Stetson's nomenclature over the years has plumb eluded me.

AF

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Sorry, that's Harp Player Gene's department...

Cheers,
JtL

lol lol lol

Yeah, pal, if you get tired of that complicated three-tone edge binding treatment on that Knox of yours, just let me know and I'll help out...

 

[gtdean48]

Sorry, that's Harp Player Gene's department...

Cheers,
JtL

Now THAT is FUNNY!!!lol lol lol

 

[ScottF]

Yep. It's darn confusing. I used to think that I was about as sharp as most other tools in the shed, but the logic behind Stetson's nomenclature over the years has plumb eluded me.

AF

Yes, but at least jtl was able to show us a definitive list with prices, that was good over a very long time period. What I find confusing is how the felt quality associated with the various 'quality' designations (e.g - 3x, Royal Deluxe, etc), varied over the years; for example, I have a plain old Royal 'Playboy' from about 1940 that seems to me to be of excellent quality - certainly much nicer than my 2008 Sovereign Chatham. And we've discussed how a '40s 3x is infinitely nicer than a '70s 4x. So go figure. And then there's the use of the word 'beaver', which in most cases refers to 'rabbit' !?!?!

 

[John in Covina]

Not only do the quality descriptions change to a point of some being switched in hierarchy, over the decades the quality itself has changed so that many furfelt quality levels of the past cannot be matched today.:eusa_doh:

Imagine if gas grades were subject to this, we'd be using 79 octane as premium by now. Regular would have less octane than fruit cocktail.