American hatting keeps ballparks and ranches on the same shelf, San Francisco fedoras beside them for the undecided. Goorin Bros has made San Francisco fedoras and animal-patch trucker caps since 1895. New Era stamps the 59FIFTY as official MLB headwear from Buffalo since 1920. Stetson has shaped the American cowboy hat, fedoras and the Boss of the Plains since 1865. A hat wears the face rather than the reverse: let the brim settle over the eyebrows before you turn to the mirror.
Crossbow's Bozeman shop combines Western clothing and leather goods with a custom hat bar on East Main Street. Hat makers steam and shape hats by hand, while shoppers can also choose leather bags or design a belt. The company's own leather designs are made in Norwood, Colorado, separate from the wider selection of brands carried in its stores.
Best for Custom-shaped hats and handmade leather accessories
Crossbow is a women-powered leather-goods and custom-hat company born in Telluride, Colorado. Its original leather designs are made by hand in a workshop in Norwood, where makers cut and stitch the material before shaping and finishing it. The official story presents that transfer of practical knowledge from one set of hands to another as part of the company's identity. Leather bags form one core category, while custom hats provide a second workshop-led practice. Sterling silver and apparel extend the offer. Boots, belts and home goods broaden the Western vocabulary around those two anchors. The company operates stores in Telluride, Bozeman and Norwood, linking its retail presence to places associated with the American West. Crossbow's stated belief is to make good things and make them last. That principle is supported by the process it documents: selected leather with manual construction and customization rather than an anonymous imported assortment. The custom-hat work also makes individual fit and shaping part of the product itself. Crossbow therefore combines regional style with visible production. Its strongest distinction comes from the continued presence of skilled making inside the business. That craft gives each finished object a traceable relationship to the workshop that produced it, extending the identity beyond Western motif alone.
Founded in Buffalo, New York in 1920 by Ehrhardt Koch as the E. Koch Cap Company and renamed New Era in 1922, the headwear maker became MLB's official cap supplier; Koch's son Harold developed the 59FIFTY fitted cap in 1954, and it reached the public market in 1980.
Best for The 59FIFTY cap, official MLB headwear since 1920
New Era was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1920 by Ehrhardt Koch, who borrowed $1,000 from his sister Rose and $1,000 from a co-worker to start the E. Koch Cap Company, producing caps on the third floor of a building on Genesee Street with a staff of 14, including Koch's sister and son. In 1922 Koch renamed the company New Era Cap. The company's signature product, the 59FIFTY fitted cap, was developed by Ehrhardt's son Harold Koch in 1954 to standardize on-field caps across Major League Baseball; by the 1970s it was worn by the majority of MLB teams, and it went on sale to the public in 1980. New Era remains headquartered in Buffalo and continues to serve as official on-field headwear supplier to MLB, alongside licensed caps for the NFL and NBA.
Dallas-based Flea Style combines Western-boho clothing, vintage finds, gifts and its Original Hat Bar. The current Dallas boutique is at 902 S Pearl Expy inside Dallas Farmers Market.
Best for Western-boho fashion, vintage finds, gifts, and custom hats
Flea Style grew from an event business into a retail company with hat-making experiences at its centre. Brittany Cobb launched The Dallas Flea in 2009 as a quarterly market for selected vendors and small businesses. The project adopted the Flea Style name in 2015, then opened its first flagship and headquarters in a renovated 5,000-square-foot Deep Ellum building in 2018. A second shop followed at The Star in Frisco. In 2020 the Frisco location introduced the company's first official hat bar, turning customization into a defined part of the format. Expansion continued through Fort Worth, Louisville and a mobile boutique built into a 20-foot truck. The current offer joins vintage pieces with Western clothing and gifts, together with hat appointments. That history explains why the business does not read like a standard apparel chain. Its retail model developed from markets and vendor discovery, with live customization. The Dallas Farmers Market location carries that sequence forward, combining a permanent shop with the participatory Original Hat Bar concept.
JW Bennett makes handcrafted hats sold at locations in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Park City, Utah, in dress, western and straw styles, with hat bands available in beaded, feathered, leather and embroidered options featuring stones like labradorite and opal. The company offers custom fitting and styling consultations.
Sing Hat Company is a woman-owned and operated custom hatmaker based in Jackson Hole making bespoke felt hats and ready-to-wear felt hats from $875-$975, plus palm leaf hats. Hats feature beaver fur felt bodies, satin linings and gold-stamped leather sweatbands, with materials sourced in North America.
Heritage headwear line from the Bailey Hat Company, founded in Los Angeles in 1922 by Kansas-born George S. Bailey. Known for dressing 1920s-40s Hollywood leading men including Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper; now made in the USA under Bollman Hat Company ownership since 1986.
Best for Fedoras, flat caps
George S. Bailey, born in Salina, Kansas in 1897, founded the Bailey Hat Company in Los Angeles in 1922. The company built its name dressing Hollywood's leading men - Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper among them - popularizing fedoras, derbies and other classic styles through the 1920s. The Bailey brand was acquired by the Bollman Hat Company in 1986 and has since broadened into Western and outdoor collections. The 'Bailey 1922' line is positioned as the brand's heritage collection, emphasizing American craftsmanship.
Maria Etkind Millinery in New Orleans makes custom handmade hats, fascinators and headpieces from felt and straw brimmed hats, using hand-dyeing and wooden hat blocks to shape crowns. The studio has sold hats to costume designers working in the New Orleans film industry and makes pieces for Mardi Gras, the Kentucky Derby and weddings.
A New York hat store, open since 1911, JJ Hat Center sells fedoras, flat caps, Panamas and beanies from its Fifth Avenue shop. Heritage brands like Borsalino and Stetson sit alongside its own JJ Hats line, with worldwide shipping through the online store.
Heritage Hats, run by owner Rich Glisson, is Arizona's largest hat store, stocking western, fedora, Panama, and Australian outback hats along with restoration and cleaning services. The Cave Creek Road shop in Phoenix serves local and tourist customers with custom-made and brand-name hats.
Best for Accessories, Hats, Custom Millinery, Restoration Services
American hat maker since 1895—family-run producer of trucker caps, fedoras, flatcaps, and papa caps in seasonal and specialty materials.
Best for San Francisco animal-patch trucker caps and proper fedoras since 1895.
Goorin Bros. hat tradition began in 1895 when Cassel Goorin sold his first hat from a horse cart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He moved from the street cart to a shop corner and taught his two sons Alfred and Ted the craft and business. The brothers formally established the Goorin Brothers Company in 1921. The business relocated to San Francisco in 1949, where it remains a fixture. A pivotal moment came in 1960 when Goorin Bros. became the official headwear supplier for the Winter Olympics held at Squaw Valley, a partnership that solidified the brand's standing. After 50 years without new retail locations, the company opened its first hat shop in over five decades in San Francisco's North Beach in 2006, launching the campaign 'Bold Hatmakers since 1895.' Today, Cassel's great-grandson Ben Goorin leads the company while maintaining deep connections to its heritage. The current product line spans seasonal truckers, papa caps, fedoras, flatcaps, and specialty collections featuring materials like terry cloth and pleather. Goorin Bros. operates a store locator and maintains multiple retail locations across North America.
American hat maker founded in 1922, known for fedoras, pork pies and Panama hats once worn by Golden Age Hollywood stars including Fred Astaire and Humphrey Bogart. The modern Bailey 1922 line uses the brand's water-repellent LiteFelt finish.
Best for Hats, contemporary
Bailey of Hollywood has made hats since 1922, building a reputation on West Coast style paired with old-world felting and finishing techniques. Its fedoras, flat caps and pork pies were worn by Hollywood stars of the studio era, including Fred Astaire and Humphrey Bogart. Bailey 1922 is the company's classic dress and everyday collection today, made in premium wool felt, fur felt and straw. A signature feature is the LiteFelt finish, a treatment that takes natural, unstiffened wool felt and makes it water-repellent and better able to hold its shape.
North American hat brand founded in 1917 in Guelph, Canada, known for fur-felt fedoras. Acquired by Dorfman Pacific in 2011; production shifted to the US-based Milano Hat Company from 2012, which continues the brand's felt-hat styles today.
Best for Fedora, caps
Biltmore was established in 1917 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, taking its name from New York's Biltmore Hotel. It became a leading name in Canadian hatmaking, known for fur-felt hats. After 95 years as a Canadian company, Biltmore was acquired by Dorfman Pacific in 2011, and from 2012 its hats have been produced by the Milano Hat Company, a US-based Dorfman Pacific subsidiary.
A hat maker producing western headwear including 6X wool-felt cowboy hats, fine straw, palm-leaf and leather styles for men, women and children. Models range from felt cowboy hats to Panama and fedora shapes, some finished with silver buckles and set stones.
JW Custom Hats in Salt Lake City claims custom hats since 1853, crafting felt hats including a 50/50 beaver-rabbit felt option, with complimentary custom design appointments and Make Your Own Hat workshops. The company also runs a professional tooling division supplying hat-making equipment nationwide.
Founded in Aspen in 1990, Kemo Sabe shapes and brands custom cowboy hats and stocks boots, buckles and leather. Fittings turn a plain hat into a personalized piece.
Best for Custom cowboy hats and Western wear
Kemo Sabe is a Western outfitter that Tom and Nancy Yoder opened on Thanksgiving Day 1990 in a 400 square foot shop in Snowmass Village, Colorado. They had two employees and a mixed stock of Western goods, and sales in the first month came to 1,281 dollars. The Basalt-based couple moved the shop to downtown Aspen in 1993. They built it around hats shaped and finished for each customer, along with boots and buckles. In 2015, for the store's silver anniversary, the company launched Grit, a house line of handcrafted hats and accessories. Wendy Kunkle, then general manager and chief designer, hosted a Victoria's Secret production team that borrowed hats and chaps from the flagship for its 2017 holiday campaign. In 2020 the Yoders sold the company to Wendy Kunkle and her brother Bobby Kunkle. Under the Kunkles Kemo Sabe added fine jewelry and grew to 150 employees. Stores opened in Vail, Jackson, Park City and Round Top. Hats are made at the company's own factory in Gainesville, Texas, which also produces buckles. A boot factory acquired in El Paso, Texas makes the house cowboy boots. Aspen Sojourner visited the flagship in 2017 and WWD reported on the expansion in 2023, noting hats worn by Jeff Bezos and Beyonce.
Master hatter Graham Thompson makes bespoke fedoras, homburgs, and Panama hats by hand at Optimo's South Side workshop, blocking and finishing each felt or straw hat to a client's measurements. The studio, set in a former Beverly firehouse, continues a Chicago custom-hat lineage Thompson inherited from mentor Johnny Tyus.
A working hat atelier at 47 Main Street where felt and straw hats are blocked and finished by hand using old-world techniques and original equipment dating to the 1880s. The shop makes contemporary and period styles and also cleans, re-blocks, and restores antique hats.
Paradise Western Co sells western clothing alongside hats and boots at its shop at 118 South Second Street in Livingston. Its assortment includes workshirts and jeans, with wild rags and accessories also listed in the catalogue. A 2025 interview with founder Meg Krusemark describes custom hat shaping, which should be distinguished from manufacturing every hat sold there.
Best for Western clothing, boots and individually shaped hats
Paradise Western Co. is a western-wear shop at 118 South Second Street in Livingston, Montana, selling clothing alongside hats and boots. The catalogue includes workshirts and jeans, with wild rags and smaller accessories providing other ways to shop. These categories serve different uses, from everyday clothing to equipment chosen around riding or ranch work.
A 2025 Mountain Mule interview with founder Meg Krusemark describes her background in apparel design and leatherworking. It also explains the shop's custom hat-shaping work, using steam to shape open-crown hats for individual customers. That service is distinct from claiming that every hat sold by the shop is manufactured there from raw materials.
For a hat, discuss the intended shape and fit rather than choosing only from a photograph. Boots and clothing need their own fit decisions, particularly when the purchase is meant for regular use. Ask about the materials and maker of the item itself, since a Livingston retail address does not establish a common manufacturing origin for the whole assortment.
Wool earflap cap invented in 1903 when railroad engineer George 'Stormy' Kromer's wife Ida sewed an earband onto his ball cap; produced by the Kromer Cap Company from 1905, revived in 2001 by Bob Jacquart, and made today in Ironwood, Michigan.
Best for Wool caps
The Stormy Kromer cap traces to 1903, when George 'Stormy' Kromer kept losing his hat to the wind on the train and asked his wife, Ida, to sew an earband onto his ball cap. The couple began making the caps at home, and by 1905 had founded the Kromer Cap Company. George Kromer sold the company in 1965. In 2001, when the Kromer Cap Company planned to stop making the caps, the rights were purchased by Bob Jacquart, who moved production to Ironwood, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The company today is family-owned and operated, still sewing the wool caps in Ironwood.
The Hat Shop occupies its own storefront on Front Street after splitting from the neighboring Wood Shop, stocking hats for the town's year-round festival crowds. It remains an independently run specialty shop rather than a chain outpost.
Best for Hats for every Bavarian festival on the calendar
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