photobyalan
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 451
Here is my new Montecristi, received today from Panamabob:
And here I am wearing it:
Here is a closeup of the weave (by my count about 360 WPSI):
And the vueltas (7 of them?):
It seems to me like a nice hat. Was it worth the $150 I paid for it? How the heck would I know? I'm certainly no expert. There is so much B.S. out there on the web about Panama hats that it's hard to tell what the truth is and what falls short of the truth. I think that anything like this with a Llano weave would be significantly more expensive from most other places.
I will give a couple observations, though:
The weave seems to my uneducated eye to be very even and regular. The color of the hat is wonderful. I also like the feel of the hat. It doesn't look or feel like fabric as the super expensive Panamas are reputed to, but it most certainly doesn't feel like a cheap straw hat, either.
Robert was perfectly honest about the Ecuador block being somewhat less desirable than a USA block. I will take his advice and have it re-blocked in the near future. I would like a better quality leather sweat band and ribbon.
If you buy from Robert, you may have to wait many weeks for your hat. Three weeks was the estimate, but ten weeks was the reality. This isn't a complaint, it's a fact. As the weeks stretched into months, Robert offered to give me my money back, but I decided I'd rather have a hat than a refund. About three weeks later I had my hat. Again, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.
Bottom line? Well, I've been wearing the hat all day and this evening since I opened the box. I'm pleased with it. If it lasts only 10 years, that's 15 bucks a year. Not too shabby. And it does look good on me...
And here I am wearing it:
Here is a closeup of the weave (by my count about 360 WPSI):
And the vueltas (7 of them?):
It seems to me like a nice hat. Was it worth the $150 I paid for it? How the heck would I know? I'm certainly no expert. There is so much B.S. out there on the web about Panama hats that it's hard to tell what the truth is and what falls short of the truth. I think that anything like this with a Llano weave would be significantly more expensive from most other places.
I will give a couple observations, though:
The weave seems to my uneducated eye to be very even and regular. The color of the hat is wonderful. I also like the feel of the hat. It doesn't look or feel like fabric as the super expensive Panamas are reputed to, but it most certainly doesn't feel like a cheap straw hat, either.
Robert was perfectly honest about the Ecuador block being somewhat less desirable than a USA block. I will take his advice and have it re-blocked in the near future. I would like a better quality leather sweat band and ribbon.
If you buy from Robert, you may have to wait many weeks for your hat. Three weeks was the estimate, but ten weeks was the reality. This isn't a complaint, it's a fact. As the weeks stretched into months, Robert offered to give me my money back, but I decided I'd rather have a hat than a refund. About three weeks later I had my hat. Again, I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.
Bottom line? Well, I've been wearing the hat all day and this evening since I opened the box. I'm pleased with it. If it lasts only 10 years, that's 15 bucks a year. Not too shabby. And it does look good on me...
