The Stetson

Durable. Practical. Universally Recognized. The Stetson hat is all of these things and more, including being a necessary part of any cattleman's wardrobe. While Stetson is a brand name, just like all tissues are called Kleenex (whether they are or not), Stetson refers to any hat made in the western style. Also called Cowboy Hats, Stetsons were the brain child of one John B. Stetson, who set up the John B. Stetson Hat Company in Garland, Texas in 1865.

The cowboy hat is a piece of headwear designed to take some falls. Most are constructed of beaver felt, wool, or straw, and brim width, crown height, and shaping can vary from region to region and occupation to occupation. As the cowboy, range riding lifestyle has slowly died out; Stetsons have become more of a fashion accessory than a necessity. It used to be the wide brim kept the sun off your neck and the rain out of your face, and the crown was high enough to keep you cool in the summer and could be pulled down low in the winter. The shaping of the brim differed so greatly between cattlemen, outfits, ranches and regions that there is no one "right" style of brim, but personal preference must prevail in selecting the one right for you.

I have two stetsons that are for fashionable dress only, not to be worn daily, but with good reason. As my head is a rather large and irregular shape (7 and 7/8 hat size, to be exact, and rather egg shaped from frotn to back), all the hats I wear need to be custom made and shaped for my extraordinary cranium. This comes at a cost, just like anything else that is still hand made today. I prefer my hats to be very sharp in their shape, bent almost at a right angle over the temples. I think it gives them a cleaner, more modern look than the older styled, rounded bend hat brims.

This gent has a nice sharp shape to his hatbrim. from: http://www.stetsonhat.com/

Hat quality is a tricky matter. In decades past, hats were given a score based on the quantity of high quality beaver fur they contained, relative to other furs like rabbit, hare, and wool. For example, a hat that had a score of one X had substantially less beaver than a hat with a score of three (XXX). The hat with more beaver is also a lot more money than the one X hat. Nowadays, however, each manufacturer has their own way of scoring their hats, and there is no universal industry standard. Even some straw hats have X scores. My dad bought a hat from a custom hatter a few years ago which was 100X, or pure beaver felt. This hat cost well over $600. My good black Stetson is 20X, from the same custom hatter, and was about $450. I recently bought a 3X cream coloured hat for $210. While these prices may seem daunting to the layman, they are superior quality hats to the mass produced ones that are widely available in western wear stores across the country. The average Master Hatters of Texas or Resistol hat costs anywhere from $90 to $200. Straw hats range in price anywhere from $40 to $200.

Forever an icon of the West, the Stetson style hat is durable, stylish and universal.