Adventurer vs Federation

[Custom79]

Akubra - Federation Deluxe or Adventurer

Evenin' folks.

I've been reading some very positive comments about the Federation Deluxe and was looking at pricing online at Hats Direct when I came across an Akubra called the Adventurer on David Morgans site.

I can't seem to find the Adventurer anywhere else and I'm curious about a couple of things.

First, is there any advantage of one of these hats over the other?

Second, is the Adventurer exclusive to David Morgan's website?

Lastly, any information on the best price out there on these hats would be greatly appreciated.

Feel free to chime in.

Muchas gracias.

C79

 

[Mike in Seattle]

The Adventurer is a David Morgan exclusive, just like the Federations are exclusive to Hatdirect.com. So the best price you're going to find on either is on those two sites. You can't get them anywhere else, unless you happen to find them on Ebay.

 

[kiltie]

reference

There's a thread here under HATS - "My New DM Akubra Adventurer" currently somewhere around page four ( I don't know how to link directly ). Lots of good pics and stuff. I've got one and like it quite a bit. I ended up having the brim trimmed, but there are pics of it in both modes. Some of the guys like it just so, some of 'em used it as sort of a starter kit towards something else.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I'm a big fan of the Adventurer, its one of my most worn and favorite hats!

 

[Kaosharper1]

I'm a big fan of the Adventurer, its one of my most worn and favorite hats!

I agree. You can see mine in the above mentioned thread alongside my carbon grey federation. It has a slightly lower crown and wider brim than the Fed. Having said that, I believe that the DLX has slightly better felt but I've never seen one. The Adventurer has the same felt as the regular Fed.

 

[Edward]

I have both a dark brown Fed Deluxe (Raiders bash) and a carbon grey regular Fed (tight pinch, diamond) from Hats Direct. I've been meaning to post my thoughts at some length on copmaring the two, though I've been holding off as the mods are I gather looking into my suggestion that we pull all the various Fed threads into one place a la outerwear's Irvin thread, as there are so many of them. Rightly so, they're great hats....

Anyhow, the short of it:

The Deluxe is made of "heritage" felt, the regular Fed "imperial quality." I found that out of the box the regular was softer. You can really feel the difference on the top of the open crown, and there's a noticeable difference in the stiffness of the snap in the brim. Not that either feels flimsy of course. In use, there feels little difference, though the felt on the brim of the Deluxe is noticeably thicker, has that bit more "heft" to it. no perceptible difference in weight, though, in the hand or on the head. As many, I steamed the front brim down a bit lower - much easier with the regular than the deluxe (I presume due to heavier felt on the deluxe). The regular took a shape dry much more easily, and responded more quickly to steam for shaping.

Both are excellent hats. They compare very favourably to the felt of the vintage pieces I own (which are softer while still holding their shape, which I believe is an effect of felt 'aging' and 'maturing' over time) of the Dobbs, Herbert Johnson for Brooks Brothers, Champ, Cavanagh. To me they feel noticebly better than the Biltmore for Miller I also own (a fine hat in itself, just the Akubras are a noticeable step up in quality). The Deluxe just has that tiny hint of being a slightly classier felt, though I suspect I'll have to see how they wear in over the next ten years or so to really get a feel for the difference. If this makes any sense, I'd be prepared to pay the difference for a Deluxe again, but I don't regard the regular as particularly 'lesser,' and I will definitely order more of them as money and their colour range suit.

If you look at the other thread on the new design specs for the Federation, the Fed Mk II seems to be a step closer to the Adventurer: they're dropping the crown height to a uniform 5 1/2" (in place of the 5 1/2"-6" original), though i think the Adventurer will still have a minimally wider brim. I hope it doesn't make any obviosu difference to the look of a bashed Fed - I adore the high crown on them.

 

[ed_bollix]

David Morgan

I am very pleased with my Adventurer from David Morgan. The service was great the the hat is excellent! They do tend to run a bit large and I have yet to experience that "shrink into your proper size" thing people talk about. With the sizing felt that was included with the hat I have a nice fit that recently survived a week in Chicago without once leaving my head unintentionally.

 

[gus3836]

Akubra Adventurer vs Federation IV

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the Adventurer and the Federation IV. Needing a new hat my old "Indy" fedora from Stetson is looking floppy. New here but have enjoyed reading before joining. Also is there a hat color that would look good with a black or a brown leather coat. And can I take out the floppiness of my "indy" hat? Gus3836

 

[Wil Tam]

welcome to the club!

I just ordered a Fed 4 deluxe in moonstone while researching I also looked the Adventurer that David Morgan was offering but it only came in mid brown in my size & was more expensive so I didn't go for it.

The Adventurer The open crown is 5-1/2 inches, the raw edge brim is 3-1/8 inches on the front and back, 2-3/4 inches on the sides. It is made in Akubra’s Imperial Quality fur felt in a mid brown color. It is finished with a matching 1-1/2 inch grosgrain ribbon band. Fully lined, with a reeded roan leather sweatband. $125.00

in the states .. more costly .. less color choices .. still a nice lid though

Federation IV
Sizes 54-64 Brim 63 x 70mm Imperial Quality fur felt
$71.66

including s/h would still be less expensive plus more color choices the cons would be about 2 weeks for delivery


----------------
Now playing: Cat Power - Don't Explain
via FoxyTunes

 

[RobFedoraField]

Re Fed IV

Will's right, the Fed is definitly a better bang for yor buck, but it really depends on how wide you like your brim. going from 2 3/4" to just over 3" makes a significant difference on how the hat looks on you. I really like my Fed IV in Carbon.

in order to stiffen up your old hat, you have a couple of options, you can go to here

http://www.hatsupply.com/sizingstiffeners.htm

and get some industrial stuff, or here

http://www.sheplers.com/hats/hat_accessories_care/101507.html

and get something that isn't so potent. or for one other alternative, you can take it to a western shop, most of them have limited hat services that include brim / crown shaping and re-stiffening.

hope my ramblings helped...

 

[jpbales]

i remember posting in a thread that talked about the "official" indy hat, but went off on a tangent that ended up talking about how close the Fed IV's specs are to Indy's actual hat.
From what I remember, the Fed IV is closest to Indy's hat in the new movie (as the Fed IV makers collaborated with the makers of that hat), but the crown dimensions are slightly larger. However, compared to the original Raiders hat, the Fed IV is very slightly smaller (the producers of Indy 4 didn't want such a huge hat apparently, and a look closer to the Last Crusade hat).
I'm not sure exactly how close the measurements on Morgan's Adventurer hat come, but I'm pretty sure they are much larger proportions though. I only have one hat that has a 3" brim, and it seems pretty huge, I personally can't imagine wearing a hat with an even wider brim and I would go with the Fed IV for sure.

These are the specs for the Raiders hat (according to IndyGear.com)
"Crown: 5 ½ (5.5) inches
Brim (front & back): 2 ¾ (2.75) inches"

The specs for the Raiders hat according to Steve Delk, who made the Indy 4 hats (found on a post here on the Lounge):
"The standard dimensions for the Raiders fedora is 5 1/2 open crown, 2 7/8 by 2 3/4 brim. "

Specs for the Indy 4 hats, which had some variation in brim widths(according to IndyGear):
"Most were a standard 2 3/4" x 2 1/2" brim width with several others requested to have a 2 7/8" x 2 5/8" brim width."

here's the Fed IV specs (according to hats direct):
"Crown height is 5 5/8ths inches...The brim is dimensional cut to 2 1/2" on the sides and 2 3/4" front and back"

the Adventurer specs (according to David Morgan's site)
"The open crown is 5-1/2 inches, the raw edge brim is 3-1/8 inches on the front and back, 2-3/4 inches on the sides. "

So you can hopefully decide better now which hat will better suit what you want! Welcome to the Lounge!
Jimmy

 

[JohnnyB53]

I was in the David Morgan showroom this past Friday and tried on the Adventurer. (I also have a mfr's sample Adventurer I got there from their reject pile, but it's not representative of the final product.)

The Adventurer is a really nice hat. The crown is tall and very straight-sided, the felt is soft and yet retains its shape, and the brim is nice. The fit and finish are excellent. I can also speak from my use of my one-off Adventurer that the felt is really resilient and water repellent. The slightly wider brim works well with the tall, straight crown and would take less getting used to stylistically.

I guess the way I would put it is that--delivered to your door--the price of the DM Adventurer sits midway between a Fed IV std. and Deluxe, and delivers a commensurate level of quality and convenience. Convenience in that shipping is fast and very inexpensive, if you have problems you have fast return and turnaround, and DM's return period (provided the hat is in original unbashed condition) is a very generous 90 days. It's also a very beautiful brown that goes with either brown or black. It should just kill with a brown leather jacket. It looks pretty good with my black one, and looks great with my dark tan trench coat.

If you get the DM and decide that the brim is a little wide for you, that's easily remedied; not so the other way around. Personally, I think that extra bit of brim width viewed from the front is a good thing.

I like the wider brim, especially up here in the low-angle Seattle winter sun.

 

[RobFedoraField]

I had such high hopes for this thread! I am struggling between these two hats for my screen accurate ROTLA hat. does anyone have good side by side pics? I really think the Adventurer would have better screen accuracy even though the specs are off.

Thanks,

-Rob

 

[scottyrocks]

There are some guys over at COW who have gotten some fantastic results with a Fed IV, even with the extreme Streets of Cairo hat.

 

[Eric P]

For an excellent Raiders, you can call Lee Keppler at 619-647-6744. Or you can get with any of the other fine hat makers here, Mr. John Penman makes an excellent one for instance.
I have the DM Adventurer, while it is an excellent hat it is not screen accurate, just screen reminicent.

I had such high hopes for this thread! I am struggling between these two hats for my screen accurate ROTLA hat. does anyone have good side by side pics? I really think the Adventurer would have better screen accuracy even though the specs are off.

Thanks,

-Rob

 

[m0nk]

I have some input here... the Fed IV is more screen accurate if you're looking for a Raiders hat. The dimensions are almost spot on and the color is the best I've seen. Here's a couple pics:

 

[RobFedoraField]

nice, I like the last shot, what is the side brim width? it look wider than my carbon grey fed IV, I wonder if it's just perspective.

 

[m0nk]

nice, I like the last shot, what is the side brim width? it look wider than my carbon grey fed IV, I wonder if it's just perspective.

Front and back is about 2.75" with sides around 2.5". It might look wider than it is because I have a small head at a size 56. I've considered trimming the brim by 1/8", but decided to leave it as is.

 

[The Fedorable]

The ribbon on yours looks black. Did you change it when you got your Fed? Because the ones offered on the hatsdirect site shows the brown FedIV with matching ribbon. I saw some others on here who got the brown and their bands were the same color as theirs.

I'm curious if you got it changed. If so, how?

 

[m0nk]

Its replaced using the ones on the Todds costumes site...its just a really dark brown. I did it myself.

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