How a STETSON Cowboy Hat is made - BRANDMADE.TV

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this hat has become the stuff of legend Stetson everyone from Buffalo Bill to presidents and pop stars has worn one Stetson invented the cowboy hat and today their most popular style is the skyline the country music stars on television today that is the profile that they wear the first cowboy hat was constructed as protection from the Sun in the rain fur felt makes this hat extremely durable it can withstand the harshest weather water rain snow will not hurt your hat using century-old techniques and machinery the Stetson reputation was built on craftsmanship there's something about the heirloom quality of an old Stetson hat that other things just don't have the making of these legendary hats starts out exactly where you would expect it to Texas at their Longview factory fir from European rabbit an Argentinean hare arrived you heard that right fur is more weather resistant dirt resistant and durable than wool if you took a Stetson fur hat today and took a glass of water and pour it on top of that hat that water will beat up like mercury 100 year old felting techniques turn the fur to felt the process starts by mixing the furs together after mixing we run it through our blowers the blower separates longer hair from down the longer hair is disposed of it's the down that's used to make fur felt for the skyline we're going to weigh out eight ounces of fur from the blower the fur enters the former where it is sucked onto a spinning cone has a vacuum inside it's very loose very very fragile and very much like cotton candy the cone is about eight times the size of a finished hat it will be shrunk through several stages in the felting process we wrap it in burlap put a protective cone over the top of the perforated column and then we drop it into hot water the 160 degree fahrenheit water is what starts the felting process by shrinking and tightening the fur fibers if you look under an electron microscope you see these little barbs on the fibers above the raw fur the barbs in the fur lock together to continue the felting process the partially shrunken hat is put into a machine that applies pressure using rollers I went to sprinklin with small amount of water throw them in the machine the hats are run through the machine six times making them shrink about four inches the tips have to be kept from sticking together otherwise you get a point a hat like this using different techniques of hot water and pressure the felting process continues through more stages of shrinking until hat size is reached and then we're going to put the Hat bodies into pressure dyers special dyes range in color from silver belly to chocolate the hats also get a coating of natural shellac it some beetle saliva Mia shellac comes from the lac bug shellac helps to stiffen the Hat kind of like starching a pair of blue jeans it's gonna be like a bitch rain the shellac has to dry before the hats go through tipping and brimming this is where the Hat starts to look like a hat through stretching and pulling you're going to pull the crown out then it's on to the brim the brass fingers on the Brimmer are pushing the bottom of the cone out it may look a little like a waffle iron but it's the blocking machine the hats put on a form and submerged in water that's 160 degrees Fahrenheit put in the head on the blocker lots of fingers there morons out the whole head uh no Earl doesn't get paid by the Hat those greenbacks were given to him for his birthday by his coworkers over here we put it on the rack bring put it in the drive ride overnight bring it over there Shiva mountain man come open after drying these hats are going 130 miles on the open road to the Stetson finishing factory in Garland Texas the Stetson skylines arrive at the garland factory shrunk dyed and ready for polish every hat is made one at a time person by person had by half the wooden block in the basic profile of the skyline is put into the Hat when it gives the taper in the shape of the crown it also gives the head size the brim is pulled out from the body it will be trimmed down later the hats are shellacked again they're also dried and shaped again and it's on two brim plating the brim plating in essence kind of irons that brim smooth and flat in the finishing process the Hat is sanded with sandpaper and claws this really is a key where we're taking the rough hat body and turning it into a beautiful smooth textured finished at many of the machines Stetson uses our antiques using original equipment means replacing parts ain't easy we have warehouses that have nothing in them but old equipment that we use for blueprints are we used for parts after the brim and crown are made smooth the felt has to be compacted powder has worked into the pores for a final polish after we finish powdering the Hat we need to start shaping the hat to form the crease a rubber plug is fitting inside the Hat body under 80 pounds of pressure we're going to bevel the edge and that just finishes off the edge nice and smooth next the cowboy hat brim needs that certain role when we come to flange the brim those are electrically heated and they're running in the neighborhood of about 275 degrees Fahrenheit then it's on to brim cutting the Hat is inspected and cleaned up and then it's ready for trim we will sell a genuine leather sweat after the sweat the satin lining goes in it features a well-loved scene the last drop is the Stetson iconic image are the cowboy kneeling to water his horse with water from his Stetson hat then there's one last inspection to make sure these beauties are without blemish Kalama strings out and I wipe my head up and as I'm wiping I'm looking for defects if perfection is achieved this cowboy hat is ready for the range or the stage or the urban jungle and Festa Bay and it's ready for Peck carefully made with quality material using age-old processes Stetsons are built to last a lifetime and then some there's something about the heirloom quality of an old Stetson hat that other things just don't have you

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Channel: BRANDMADE.TV

Views: 1,623,185

Rating: 4.8690162 out of 5

Keywords: Stetson, Cowboy (Profession), Cowboy Hat, Fashion (Industry), Hat (Garment), Manufacturing (Industry), Design (Industry), Designer (Profession), Sports (TV Genre), Rodeo (Sport), Garland (City/Town/Village), Texas (US State), Clothing (Industry), United States Of America (Country), Made in USA

Id: sjRLNUZSV6M

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2015

Reddit Comments

Ad for Stetson hats, more than a how’s its made.

👍︎︎ 4 👤︎︎ u/ExceptionEX 📅︎︎ Dec 08 2017 🗫︎ replies