Fino Fino Shop

[Pen Collector]

Have any of you ladies or gentlemen ever visited this shop in San Francisco? http://www.finofino.com/index.html

 

[Andykev]

Yes

Been there, bought some pugarees from her, Carolyn Busch. Nice lady. Her shop is very very nice. Small and quaint.

Her straws are from Brent Black and Graham Thompson (Optimo). A few other suppliers.

She sells the standard Biltmore, etc. felt hats, and has started to sell a few Optimo's. She puts out a newsletter "The Panama Press" and she runs the Peninsula Panama Hat Society.

She let me take photos of her shop.

 

[Pen Collector]

I didn't know....?

Your right Andy, from the pictures on her web site the shop looks very nice.

I didn't know that Graham Thompson supplied other retailers with his hats. I thought you could only get OPTIMO hats from OPTIMO. Does he supply other retail shops?

I know there is one they should supply hats to. It's Nordstroms in the Dallas Galleria. I was there a couple of months ago and asked if they had any hats and they showed me some of the cheapest looking hats I have ever seen. They felt like they were made of card board. I don't understand how they can sell very high end quality merchandise and yet not sell good quality hats. I feel that if they are going to sell hats they should be of the same quality as the rest of the merchandise they sell or they should just not sell any hats.

Just my opinion.

 

[Matt Deckard]

They probably have no clue how a hat should feel.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

As far as I know, it's only straws that Optimo sends to other retailers, and the only retailers they do this for is FINOFINO, and another one in Hawaii (not Brent Black).

 

[Andykev]

WRONG!

Optimo supplies felt hats to WILKES BASHFORD in San Francisco, as well as Fino FIno....they send straws to Fino FIno and Newt at the Royal.

"c'mon guys...whats wrong with sending the best to a neighborhood near you"?

They are still labled OPTIMO, BTW.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

WRONG

Hence the "As far as I know"

That's neat to hear. Are the hats in those shops custom at all, or are they just stock jobs?

 

[Andykev]

STOCK JOBSq

Walk in see your fancy and pay cash. They know squat about hats compared to our DIVA.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

D'oh, I just re-read your first post in this thread and saw where you said that she is starting to sell Optimo's. I realize now that it sounded like I was refuting you. My sincerest apologies. I admonish myself to read more carefully from now on!

 

[Rundquist]

My understanding is that Optimo hats are also sold through a few upscale boutique shops. There is a considerable mark up on these hats as opposed to buying directly from Optimo. The only draw to those boutiques is that they offer colors not available to the average Joe. Cheers

 

[Andykev]

I hadn't heard that

But I GURANTEE from my experience (gee does that shound like a qualifier?) that you will get the best service, selection, fit, color, and price when you deal directly from OPTIMO. There is a mark up for hats sold by other vendors....

If you made something to sell, and a 2nd party wanted to also sell it, they need to make their "cut" of the price as well. I'm sure that the folks at OPTIMO price their product to balance cost of supplies, labor, and overhead (heat, insurance, rent, you name it!). And they have to pay their employees , and I'm sure there are "benefits" you have to provide workers....

So I believe that they price their hats with a balance to what the consumer is willing to spend for a quality hat, generating a fair profit for the maker, to compensate his workers.

I have bought crud hats from Biltmore (sorry my Canadian friends) and they were $100. Cheap price, junk hat.

Optimo is WORTH the price for the style, fit, finish and qualit!