How much did a good cowboy hat cost?

The inside of my 30 year old working cowboy hat.

I know that Stetson's were "expensive", but hat does that actually mean?

I'm speaking, of course, of the early days. The late days after Stetson made the Boss of the Plains up until, let's say, 1940.

Apache couple, man is wearing a Boss of the Plains Stetson.  The Boss of the Plains was introduced by John B. Stetson in 1865 and was inspired by a hunting trip out West.  Contrary to widespread claims to the contrary, which photographs make extremely evident, it was not the first "cowboy hat" as broad brimmed hats been worn for centuries and various hats of the type we now consider cowboy hats had been around for a long time.  It was an innovation, however, as it was a really high quality broad brimmed hat of a simple style.  The design was hugely popular although it had competition right from the onset and it wasn't long before competing styles of cowboy hats were being made by every hatter, including Stetson.  This photograph was taken in January 1898, showing how long the style endured.  Indeed, it can still be purchased today.

And I mean working hats.

It's a harder to determine thing than a person might suspect for quite a variety of reasons.  Indeed, it's really easy to be mislead.

In about 1915, we can tell that un-described Stetson hats, i.e,. they were likely dress hats, not cowboy hats, started at about $3.50 and ranged up to about $6.00 in advertisements in Wyoming newspapers.  In today's prices, that's actually a price between $88.00 and $152.00.  Starting in about 1920, however, Stetson's, also un-described, ranged from around $10.00 to $20.00.  In today's money, that comes out to about $128.00 to $256.00.  That's roughly equivalent to a lower to mid range Stetson today.

Having said that, a Stetson catalog that depicts cowboy hats, republished on the Fedora Lounge website, and with some input from knowledgeable folks, lists prices in 1922 as starting as ranging between $35.00 and $45.00, per dozen, for the grade of hats that cowboy hats were, which was interestingly of a higher quality fur felt than many dress hats. That ranged, accordingly, from $534.00 to $686.00, per dozen.

That's wholesale on those later prices.  It works out to about $44.50 to $57.00 a piece, wholesale.  I don't know what retail markup was.

And for a working hat.

Of course, today's Stetson's, according to hat aficionado's, isn't the hat of 1920, or even the hat of 1990.  It isn't as of high of quality.  And at least based on my casual observations of the hats I had made in the 1980s, that's true.

That does make me feel better about spending money on a high quality hat. And they do last for years and year.

But it's also the case that prices have really, really climbed, as quality overall has apparently declined, as hat wearing itself declined.

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Related threads:

Caps, Hats, Fashion and Perceptions of Decency and being Dressed.