Stetson

The Stetson Cavalry Hat

Stetson hats or Stetsons refers to the brand of hat manufactered by the John B. Stetson Company of St. Joseph, Missouri. The word 'Stetson' is sometimes used as a genericized term for a cowboy hat. Although the Stetson company makes other styles of brimmed hat, the Stetson name has become synonymous with a style it pioneered, featuring a high crown and wide brim, popularly known as a Cowboy hat.

Stetson rode the success of its iconic styles, eventually became the world’s largest hat maker, producing over 3.3 million hats a year in a factory spread over nine acres. Today Stetson remains a family-owned concern. In addition to its hats, Stetson is also well known for its colognes and a range of other products evoking the historic American West. Stetson University and Stetson University College of Law in Florida were named after John B. Stetson in 1899 for his contributions to the school.

Beginnings

John B. Stetson was born in 1830 in Orange, New Jersey where his father Stephen Stetson was a hatter. He worked in his fathers shop until he went West for his health.^[1]

Prospectors hat

Stetson created a rugged hat for himself made from thick beaver felt while panning for gold in Colorado. According to legend, Stetson invented the hat while on a hunting trip while showing his companions how he could make cloth out of fur without tanning. ^[2][3] Fur-felt hats are lighter, they maintain their shape, and withstand weather and renovation better. ^[4]

Stetson made an unusually large hat from felt he made from hides collected on the trip, and wore the hat for the remainder of the expedition. Although initially worn as a joke, Stetson soon grew fond of the hat for its ability to protect him from the elements. It had a wide brim, a high crown to keep an insulating pocket of air on the head, and was used to carry water.

As their travels continued, a cowboy is said to have seen J.B. Stetson and his unusual hat, rode up, tried the hat on for himself, and paid Stetson for it with a five dollar gold piece, riding off with the first western Stetson hat on his head. ^[5]

Boss of the Plains

Boss of the plains hat

Stetson’s western adventures came to an end in 1865. Stetson, now 35 years old, and in better health, returned east and established his own hat firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which produced high quality hats for outdoor use. After producing some initial designs based on popular styles of the day Stetson decided to create a hat based on his experiences in the American West, which he called the “Boss of the Plains.” ^[6]

The original "Boss," manufactured by John Batterson Stetson in 1865, was flat-brimmed, had a straight sided crown, with rounded corners. These lightweight, waterproof hats, were natural in color, with four inch crowns and brims. ^[7] A plain hatband was fitted to adjust head size. ^[8] The sweatband bore Stetson’s name.

Worth their weight in gold

Stetson produced a very expensive hat. The Cowboy riding the range wearing that "Boss of the Plains," hat, showed the world that he was doing well. ^[9] "Within a decade the name John B. Stetson became synonymous with the word "hat," in every corner and culture of the West." ^[10]

The shape of the hat's crown and brim were often modified by the wearer for fashion and to protect against weather by being softened in hot steam, shaped, and allowed to dry and cool. Felt tends to stay in the shape that it dries. ^[11] The high crowned, wide brimmed, soft felt western hats that followed are intimately associated with the American cowboy image. ^[12]

Mass production

Stetson sent a sample hat to merchants throughout the Southwest with a letter asking for a minimum order of a dozen “Boss of the Plains” hats. The hat was an immediate success: in less than a year Stetson set up a new factory in the outskirts of Philadelphia to handle his growing business. By 1886 Stetson's hat company was the largest in the world, and had mechanized the hat-making industry (" producing close to 2 million hats a year by 1906"). The Stetson Hat Co. was sold to another hat company, but these hats still bear the Stetson name with the hats being produced in St. Louis. ^[2] "Today's cowboy hat has remained basically unchanged in construction and design since the first one was created in 1865 by J.B. Stetson." ^[13]

Stetson also produced “dress” hats, distinguished from ‘western’ hats by narrower brims and shorter crowns but it was his "Boss of the Plains," style hat and its many variants that fueled the company’s growth and fame.

Singing cowboys and ten-gallon hats

Tom Mix

In the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, a hat was an indispensable item in every man’s wardrobe. Stetson focused on expensive, high-quality hats that represented both a real investment for the working cowboy and statement of success for the city dweller.

Early on, Stetson hats became associated with legends of the West, including “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Calamity Jane, Will Rogers, and Annie Oakley. It is said that George Custer rode into the Battle of Little Big Horn wearing a Stetson. ^[14] Later on, Western movie cowboys were quick to adopt the Stetson; many were drawn to the largest most flamboyant styles available.

Texans were known for their preference for the "Ten Gallon," model, possibly so named for its enormous crown which at least appeared to be able to hold ten gallons were it to be dipped into a stream and used as a pail. An early Stetson advertising image, a painting of a cowboy dipping his hat into a stream to provide water for his horse symbolized the Cowboy hat as an essential part of a stockman’s gear and was later featured inside every western style hat.

Changing fashions

Stetson also produced women’s hats, operating a millinery department from the 1930s to 1950s. Hat sales suffered during the Depression years, but Stetsons remained ubiquitous until Americans' embrace of headwear faded after WWII. At its peak Stetson had operations in Australia, Brazil, Columbia, Finland, Guatemala, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and West Germany. ^[15]

Stetson changed its business strategy in the early 1970s, closing its Philadelphia factory in 1971 and continuing in the hat business through licensing arrangements with a number of manufacturers.

Popular demand for western style hats spiked during the 1980s after the success of Indiana Jones and Urban Cowboy movies. Both Western and Dress hats continue to be important men’s accessories

Diversification

In the 1980s Stetson began to diversify, releasing the first Stetson cologne in 1981 and Lady Stetson in 1986. Luggage, handbags, umbrellas and scarves also carried the Stetson mark.

Today, Stetson is available in the US, Canada, Mexico and throughout Europe and Asia.

Military and police uniforms

U.S. military

The hat was however more popular in the United States. The hat was first sold in Central City, Colorado in 1865 in a style called the "Boss of the Plains." In some versions of the famous American folk ballad "Stagger Lee," Billy Lyons is killed by Stack A Lee over a Stetson hat.

British military

The Legion of Frontiersmen created in 1905 in England also wore the Stetson.

South African military

The South African Constabulary organised by Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell in 1901 wore the Stetson.

Canadian Military

In the Second Boer War, the flat brimmed Stetson became the standard issue of the second Canadian Contingent, becoming recognized throughout the British Empire as a symbol of Canada. The Stetson hat became a part of the uniform of the Royal North West Mounted Police, which later became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Canadian police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Red Serge dress uniform includes a Stetson with a flat brim. The Stetson was first used unofficially by the North West Mounted Police, in place of the traditional white pith helmet, not practical for the Canadian West. The colour for the RCMP Stetson is sometimes referred to as "Belgian Belly"; it is a reddish buff, pastel like color of the underfur of the Belgian Hare. It is also a very little used "second name" for the Stetson. Although called a Stetson, the hat type should be considered as a campaign hat.

North-West Mounted Police (now RCMP) officers, Yukon, 1900, wearing the famous scarlet uniform that includes a flat brimmed Stetson hat.

The Ontario Provincial Police also wore the Stetson as part of their uniform from 1997 to 2009.

References

• Bender, Texan Bix. (1994) Hats & the cowboys who wear them. ISBN 1-58685-191-8
• Carlson, Laurie. (1998) Boss of the Plains, the hat that won the West. ISBN 0-7894-2479-7
• Reynolds, William and Rich Rand (1995) The Cowboy Hat book. ISBN 0-87905-656-8
• Snyder, Jeffrey B. (1997) Stetson Hats and the John B. Stetson Company 1865-1970. ISBN 0-7643-0211-6

See also

• Akubra
• Boss of the plains
• Campaign hat
• Cowboy hat

External links

• CavHooah.com - Stetson Page
• Stetson Hats official website
• Stetson University College of Law history