STRAW HATS

A straw hat can refer to any brimmed hat that is woven out of straw. Straw hats are designed to protect the head from the sun and heat. There are several styles of straw hats, but all of them are made of woven straw. Many of these hats are formed in a similar way to felt hats; they are softened by steam or by submersion in hot water, and then formed by hand or over a block. Finer and more expensive straw hats, such as a Panama, have a tighter and more consistent weave. A Panama straw hat is a traditional brimmed hat of Ecuadorian origin that is made from the plaited leaves of the toquilla straw plant. Straw hats woven in Ecuador, like many other 19th and early 20th century South American goods, were shipped first to the Isthmus of Panama before sailing for their destinations in Asia, the rest of the Americas and Europe. For some products, the name of their point of international sale rather than their place of domestic origin stuck, hence 揚anama hats.?When President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Panama Canal construction, he wore such a hat, which increased its popularity.

Stetson Hats

John Batterson Stetson, known as the inventor of hats, was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1830. John B. Stetson’s father, Stephen Stetson, taught him how to make hats and of the hat trade. After his father’s death, John B. Stetson decided to open his own business, but befell ill with tuberculosis. So before he could open his business, he had moved out to St. Joseph, MO landing a job in moulding bricks. Stetson soon became a partner in the brickyard. Soon, nature struck with heavy rain and flooding before Stetson could secure a future at the brickyard. It destroyed nearly all the non-baked bricks. This caused Stetson to lose his job. Afterwards, Stetson in need of financial stability, set out on foot, with some companions, to the Rocky Mountains ( Pike’s Peak), in search of gold. In the summer of 1862, during a gold trek, Stetson demonstrated the process of felting to his companions. He shaved off the fur from the hides they had taken to use during the trek and began pounding the fur together. Occasionally adding water and dipping in into boiling water, he turned the fur into a felt hat. He then explained how wearing a hat can shelter the person from rain, snow, sun, and cold temperatures. After reaching Pike’s Peak, a horseman saw Stetson’s hat and purchased it from him for a five-dollar gold piece. Thus, began the all encompassing image of the western cattleman and the cowboy hat.


By the mid-1880's, Stetson had employed nearly 4,000 employees and was operating the world's largest hat manufacturing company in Philadelphia. Stetson introduced iron cutting and pressing machines which greatly improved the quality and speed of production. Turning a manual labor intensive hat making industry into a mechanized industry, Stetson enabled his company to produce some 2 million hats a year by 1906. Stetson, an industrialist and philanthropist, saw a need to offer internal and external benefits to his employees. He set up a free health care system and began offering shares of his company to his employees. Stetson also set up a hospital in Philadelphia and was a founding trustee of the Stetson University in Deland, Florida. John B. Stetson not only turned his hat making skill into a multimillion dollar company, but into a legend