WHY!?

[1OldGI]

The hat gods and genetics have conspired against me. I don't know how many really cool old hats I've seen on ebay, that I would buy in a minute, only to find out they were made for someone with a head the size of a peanut. Not a lot of size 7 1/2 vintage hats out there. Even in the local antique and consignment shops it seems hat's that fit me are rare.
Why is this?

On a lighter note, I did manage to score a Panama Jack center dent fedora for the princely sum of $1 yesterday. I did some work on the brim and it looks nice. Not a fancy or expensive hat but certainly standard issue for Sunshine State codgers (like me). I figure it can be my knock about weekend beater. I have another one inbound from panama hats direct anyway.

 

[kaosharper1]

Large vintage hats are rare, and when they show up they go for high prices unless they're buy-it-now. Either people had smaller heads, or the smaller guys took better care of their hats.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Or the average hat size now, as then, is 7 1/4.

bk

 

[kaosharper1]

Or the average hat size now, as then, is 7 1/4.

bk

Then why does it seem that the average vintage hat coming on the market is more like a 7? 7 1/4 seems to be pretty rare. Or is that just an illusion? As a mathematician I know that anecdotal evidence can be misleading.

 

[avedwards]

Or the average hat size now, as then, is 7 1/4.

bk

If that's the case I would be rubbing my hands with glee.

 

[Lefty]

Please look over the ebay thread. If you can't find at least 5 great hats in 7 1/4 each week, you're not looking.
Here are a few.
this 7 1/4 Dalton is pretty swell and went for around $25, though more photos would have been nice.

Stratoliner

$16 Stetson No. 1 Quality. There are certainly deals to be had.

7 1/4 Cavanagh homburg with "dimples"

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Then why does it seem that the average vintage hat coming on the market is more like a 7? 7 1/4 seems to be pretty rare. Or is that just an illusion? As a mathematician I know that anecdotal evidence can be misleading.

Taking, for the moment, an average of 7 1/4. 7 will be as uncommon as 7 1/2 in the population of adults, but younger men and old boys will also wear 7 so more size 7 hats were made. Then they would grow out of the hat as they get closer to adulthood, and the hat would be less used than a hat bought by someone when they had stopped growing.

All of this and more leads to the preponderance of "small" hats on eBay. I believe (no proof obviously) the reason for so many deadstock truly "tiny" hats - 6 3/4 and so on - is that they were never sold.

bk

 

[kaosharper1]

That is a plausible explanation. I hadn't thought of boys and teenagers. Makes sense. Thanks.

 

[Topdog]

My explanation is that there must be more peanut sized heads than pumpkin sized heads.

 

[Queue]

My explanation is that there must be more peanut sized heads than pumpkin sized heads.

What about football sized heads? Charlie needs a hat too...

 

[Daoud]

That is a plausible explanation. I hadn't thought of boys and teenagers. Makes sense. Thanks.

Exactly why you see- or used to-so much Army and other military surplus stuff in smaller sizes. Usually someone would enter the service as a teenager or very shortly thereafter, and was still growing. Uniforms would constantly be getting turned in and exchanged for larger sizes, resulting on a surplus market full of teeny little hats, caps, fatigues et al........leading one to assume, perhaps, that all the service members of yesteryear were very skinny and small-headed.

 

[H.Johnson]

There is also the way that men wore hats in 'the old days'. Look at lots of photographs and you'll see that many men wore their hats further up their heads than we do now. That is usually a smaller diameter than the brow, where we tend to wear them now. Look at Baron Kurtz's eponymous avatar.

Or Michael Shane's, of Howard Hughes.

 

[MattJH]

There have been many threads over the years from bigheads lamenting available hat stock. Here are the first three I found (two of which were made by yours truly):

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=14190
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=32491
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=37885