Who invented the Cowboy Hat? Most agree it was John B. Stetson who, in his mid 20’s, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and – not expected to have long to live – left New Jersey in the mid 1850s to see the wild west (and hopefully recover). Out in the west he settled in St. Joseph, Missouri. There he invented a hat specifically for the men of the American frontier, who at that time were wearing bowlers, coonskin caps, straw hats, Civil War uniform hats, and other headwear designed for other vocations.
The story of creating the first cowboy hat goes that while on a hunting/trapping expedition John Stetson made a hat for himself out of beaver felt that he produced on the trail from a hat-making technique he knew from his younger days working at his father’s hat business. He based the hat’s shape on a prospector’s hat, but with a wider brim. His different-looking hat was laughed at, but it proved to be effective at keeping the sun off his face and neck, keeping a pocket of air above his head to stay cooler, and it was waterproof for keeping his head dry in the rain as well as allowing the hat to be used upside down to carry water. (Some versions of this legend have John designing and wearing the hat as a joke at first to amuse the others in the group).
In 1865, having recuperated from tuberculosis, John returned east to Philadelphia, where he started The Stetson Hat Company, and put his name in gold on each hat band. The term ‘Stetson’ became a generic term for the cowboy hat style. The first model was called the “Boss of the Plains,” and had a flat brim and un-creased top, but users were able to customize the brim’s fold and top crease with hot steam.
Not every single Stetson hat is made in USA, but many are. This one is, and carries an $85 retail price in 2018.
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Stetson Men’s Bozeman Wool Felt Crushable Cowboy Hat Black Medium
