Shanghailander said:This is of interest to me. While in Sydney, Australia last November I splurged and went to Strand Hatters, near The Rocks. I ended up buying not a Panama, but a Balibuntal. It has a very thin, flat, type of wire or malleable metal inside the brim edge.
I was surprised to find out later the darn thing was apparently made in the USA.
After travelling around Australia and New Zealand, the hat ended up in the closet awaiting the Northern Hemisphere Summer. I just took it out the other day and was disappointed to find the brim is slightly warped (not just the edge, but one sector of the brim - previously the whole thing was quite crisply flattened, all the way around.)
Greg