Recent content by MJL

I was not able to add any nice fedora this summer which has us rethinking our summer 2024 routes out west. We have for many years arranged our summer travels west to allow us to hit at least one of the HATCO outlet facilities. Now, we are reexaming that plan. Perhaps more on that later. The...

Well, we are headed back to Florida after digging petrified wood in Arizona and fossils along the Nevada/ Utah border. We stepped in to the Stetson factory outlet store in St Joseph, Missouri on 15 July 2023. A few years back I was able to buy Stetson Temple and Stratoliners for $75 or less...

I'll provide my own answer to this question. We arrived at the outlet, in Garland, TX, soon after opening. No sale on fur felt fedoras. Stock on the floor, in my sizes, 7 5/8-7 3/4, was limited and in poor shape. Most looked like practice pieces with visible and obvious flaws. The only thing...

We're heading west again and might angle through Dallas just to stop in at the Resistol factory outlet. Does anyone have a report of what sort of stock they might be offering of fur felt fedoras like Temples, Stratoliners, etc? I called the store a few times and could not get straight answers...

Thanks a bunch. I just checked the labels and there is no mention of wool at all. This hat was either a second quality or old stock that I bought at the HATCO/Resistol Outlet in Garland, Texas. The hat looks good and I think that I was lucky to have been able to grab this one. Thanks for help.

Interesting. Is there any way to tell the difference between the wool and fur felt Whippet? The one that I picked up in July in Garland is quite light and thin but for the life of me I cannot determine if this is wool or fur felt. The wool fedora that I've owned, in the past, seem to have been...

I'm unpacking my hat purchases from this summer and a question emerged. Are all of the currently manufactured Stetson Whippet made from wool? I'm asking because some of the online discussions seem to suggest that there are fur felt Whippet. I would love to post photos but every time I try doing...

Well, I am back with a new report in 2021. In 2019 we were not able to buy from the two HATCO stores for a few odd reasons. First, we rolled in to Dallas in time for the Garland store to be closed for the July 4th holiday, then, when we visited the St. Jo location we found no fur felt fedora for...

Ever since photobucket went nuts and shut out forums I have not been able to post photos to forums. Can I load photos directly up here from my computer or do I need a 3rd party host. Who do y'all use for 3rd party hosting if not photobucket?

No question, eating great BBQ wins every time. As the late Paul Harvey used to say, "...and now for the rest of the story..." We only went to St. Louis because it lined us up for a run to Memphis where we hit Central BBQ for their pork ribs, my personal favorite ribs in the US. After Memphis we...

I am reposting to this thread because, a year later, I did this again. This summer my daughter was taking classes so was unable to accompany us on our trip west. Since we live in Southern Florida the big loop is sort of a natural summer trip for a person who likes the American west, actually...

I have a mink colored Stetson Temple that I wore almost literally daily from 2003 to around 2014. By that last date the hat was not in good shape; literally misshapen, missing its' liner, the sweatband began to crack and the band was wrinkled and so sweat stained that it had bleached to a...

For starters I would suggest a formal letter of complaint be filed with both the US Department of State and the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in Washington D.C. This should be a legal complaint requesting the US Department of State block products from this supplier from entering the USA...

This has to do with a combination of collapsing rural life styles that occurred in the post-WWII era and the demands of emerging suburbs in America that by design forced people into cars instead of walking on sidewalks to destinations. Rural folks wear wide brimmed hats due to necessity of...