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Your favorite hat marketing terms

fmw

One Too Many
Messages
1,017
Location
USA
I marvel at how some marketing terms get into a business and stay there. A good example is "genuine" shantung as though there were such a thing as "fake" shantung. Another favorite of mine is 100% wool. That might be good in the clothing business where a blend might include synthetics. But blends in the hat business would include fur so something less than 100% wool would actually be superior. What are your favorite marketing conundrums in the hat business?
 

danofarlington

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,122
Location
Arlington, Virginia
I marvel at how some marketing terms get into a business and stay there. A good example is "genuine" shantung as though there were such a thing as "fake" shantung. Another favorite of mine is 100% wool. That might be good in the clothing business where a blend might include synthetics. But blends in the hat business would include fur so something less than 100% wool would actually be superior. What are your favorite marketing conundrums in the hat business?

The best ones are from E Bay, where fur felt hats are half the time described as "100% wool." I love that. I'm sort of surprised they got the "hat" part right. At any moment I expect to see a pair of shoes in a photo described as a "100% wool hat."
 

HatsEnough

Banned
Messages
1,142
Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
fashion noun 1. clothes, fashion business, clothes industry She longed for a career in fashion.
2. style, look, trend, rage, custom, convention, mode, vogue, usage, craze, fad, latest style, prevailing taste, latest I wore short skirts, as was the fashion.

Still doesn't explain what "mode" means in a hat edge. What process is a "mode" and what makes it less mode-y when it is another edge treatment? The point of this thread is asking what odd or interesting sales terms are used in hat selling. I think "mode edge" is opaque. Just like all the XX's are (as lefty noted), just like other odd terms used as a selling point. Often they don't mean anything but sound cool to use as a selling point.

Heck, where Stetson is concerned, even the model names are often entirely fungible. How many "Royal De Luxe" hats configured like a Whippet but not having "Whippet" anywhere in the hat have we seen? How many Open Road-styled Stetsons do we see without the words "Open Road" in them? What makes a Whippet a Whippet? Is it the actual style and production of the hat, or is it just the word "Whippet" being imprinted into it somewhere?

The fact is that all the names, titles, models, processes.... all of it is a sales tool. It is practically all somewhat baseless in meaning.
 

Feraud

Bartender
Messages
17,190
Location
Hardlucksville, NY
Perhaps Mode is referring to it's dictionary meaning "way of doing", as in Our way of doing a Cavanagh Edge...w/out getting sued for copyright infringement.. ;)
 

Lefty

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,639
Location
O-HI-O
Agreed. "The Stetson self-felted edge that's not quite the same as a Cavanagh edge, but you get the idea" is a little clunky.
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
Love all the European monikers used by American hatmakers... so pixilating. Imperials and sovereigns, the prince and the baron... the only thing I can remember without looking up one of the FL sticky threads is that Royal DeLuxe is better than Royal.
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
smart

• (of a person) clean, neat, and well-dressed : you look very smart.
• (of clothes) attractively neat and stylish : a smart blue skirt.
• (of a thing) bright and fresh in appearance : a smart green van.
 

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