PrettyBigGuy
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 367
- Location
- Elgin, IL
Happy New Year everyone!
As a mentioned in another post, I was fortunate enough to pay Graham and Kevin @ Optimo Fine Hats a visit last week. On Dec 23rd, as part of my annual pilgrimage to Nothern Illinois to spend Christmas with my folks, I made a detour. Before driving approx 1 hour Northwest of Chicago, I rented a car @ O'Hare airport and drove down to the southern edge of the Windy City. I pre-arranged my visit with Kevin so they were expecting me. For those of you who have been unable to visit this shop, I HIGHLY recommend it. I hadn't yet spent a dime in the shop but the ladies and gentlemen @ Optimo treated me like their best customer. I was allowed to try on and handle as many hats as I could get my hands on looking for a style that I thought looked good on me. You see, I had no preset ideas about what I was going to buy except that I wanted gray. Kevin's brand new Skyline Blue fedora with a sivler-grey ribbon looked incredible though! ( maybe next year!) The shop was busier than I expected it to be, but there were a lot of people inquiring about hats as Christmas gifts. Being the salesman that he is Kevin wasted no time in mentioning that I had come "all the way from California" just to get a hat from them!
After trying on several styles ( I really liked the "Mitchum") I settled on the "Davenport" (as seen on page 9 of your Optimo catalog). It is very similar to an Indiana Jones style 1930s crown, but there is no taper from front to back. The felt I selected was the heavyweight Dove Gray. Since it is a warm gray. I wanted it neutralized a bit so I selected an Esky Blue 2" ribbon(It looks like a shiny, navy blue). This hat is going to be tall! The top of my noggin is pretty high and it often causes hats that have deep bashes or short crowns to ride up high over my ears. Graham suggested a 6" crown to prevent this. The brim will be 2 3/4". Graham was leaving for Australia for a few weeks on the 26th of Dec so my hat won't ship until Feb 13th. Hopefully I'll get a nice Valetine's Day gift!
Another great part of my experience @ Optimo was that, while I was picking out a ribbon for my new lid, I commented that I was unhappy with how narrow the black ribbon on my PB2 (which I wore into the shop) was. Marlene, one of the ladies who was helping me with the ribbons, said that she could change out the ribbon for a new one while I waited! Lo and behold 10 minutes later I had a 1 3/4" brown Optimo ribbon on my PB2! Here's a pic:
I'm not sure why, maybe it was because I traveled so far, they didn't charge me for the new ribbon!
All in all, despite the travel fatigue, the trip to Optimo was DEFINATELY worth it! I think that it will become part of my regular schedule when I return to visit Illinois for the holidays. I also found out that if you drop some names of some of the people who post here that are Optimo customers, Kevin will dish the dirt about who is a pain in the @*% to deal with on the phone! I also feel very fortunate to rub it into the faces of my fellow SoCal Fedora Loungers who have bought many hats from Optimo but have yet to visit!! LOL LOL
:cool2:
BTW Chamorro, I saw your Phantom Blue fedora while I was there and Graham said that it would be done soon.
PBG
As a mentioned in another post, I was fortunate enough to pay Graham and Kevin @ Optimo Fine Hats a visit last week. On Dec 23rd, as part of my annual pilgrimage to Nothern Illinois to spend Christmas with my folks, I made a detour. Before driving approx 1 hour Northwest of Chicago, I rented a car @ O'Hare airport and drove down to the southern edge of the Windy City. I pre-arranged my visit with Kevin so they were expecting me. For those of you who have been unable to visit this shop, I HIGHLY recommend it. I hadn't yet spent a dime in the shop but the ladies and gentlemen @ Optimo treated me like their best customer. I was allowed to try on and handle as many hats as I could get my hands on looking for a style that I thought looked good on me. You see, I had no preset ideas about what I was going to buy except that I wanted gray. Kevin's brand new Skyline Blue fedora with a sivler-grey ribbon looked incredible though! ( maybe next year!) The shop was busier than I expected it to be, but there were a lot of people inquiring about hats as Christmas gifts. Being the salesman that he is Kevin wasted no time in mentioning that I had come "all the way from California" just to get a hat from them!
After trying on several styles ( I really liked the "Mitchum") I settled on the "Davenport" (as seen on page 9 of your Optimo catalog). It is very similar to an Indiana Jones style 1930s crown, but there is no taper from front to back. The felt I selected was the heavyweight Dove Gray. Since it is a warm gray. I wanted it neutralized a bit so I selected an Esky Blue 2" ribbon(It looks like a shiny, navy blue). This hat is going to be tall! The top of my noggin is pretty high and it often causes hats that have deep bashes or short crowns to ride up high over my ears. Graham suggested a 6" crown to prevent this. The brim will be 2 3/4". Graham was leaving for Australia for a few weeks on the 26th of Dec so my hat won't ship until Feb 13th. Hopefully I'll get a nice Valetine's Day gift!
Another great part of my experience @ Optimo was that, while I was picking out a ribbon for my new lid, I commented that I was unhappy with how narrow the black ribbon on my PB2 (which I wore into the shop) was. Marlene, one of the ladies who was helping me with the ribbons, said that she could change out the ribbon for a new one while I waited! Lo and behold 10 minutes later I had a 1 3/4" brown Optimo ribbon on my PB2! Here's a pic:
I'm not sure why, maybe it was because I traveled so far, they didn't charge me for the new ribbon!
All in all, despite the travel fatigue, the trip to Optimo was DEFINATELY worth it! I think that it will become part of my regular schedule when I return to visit Illinois for the holidays. I also found out that if you drop some names of some of the people who post here that are Optimo customers, Kevin will dish the dirt about who is a pain in the @*% to deal with on the phone! I also feel very fortunate to rub it into the faces of my fellow SoCal Fedora Loungers who have bought many hats from Optimo but have yet to visit!! LOL LOL
:cool2: BTW Chamorro, I saw your Phantom Blue fedora while I was there and Graham said that it would be done soon.
PBG
